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The crime that the media seems intent on ignoring refuses to fade away. It involves at least eight “diverse, equitable, and inclusive” teenagers of color who reportedly beat a white teenager to death as he attempted to save a friend from being robbed by the group. We now know that four minority youths have been charged as adults in the murder of Jonathan Lewis, who was attacked outside a Las Vegas high school.
Damien Hernandez, 17, Dontral Beaver, 16, Gianni Robinson, 17, and Treavion Randolph, 16, are now facing murder charges as adults.
Many in the media are shamelessly omitting any mention of the involved kids’ races, for reasons that seem pretty obvious. When the victim is white and the perpetrators are black and brown, suddenly the issue of “race” is irrelevant. The local news in Vegas touched on the issue and then quickly dismissed it.
Las Vegas Review Journal (emphasis ours):
Four of the juveniles arrested in connection with the fatal group beating of a Rancho High School student made their initial appearance in Las Vegas Justice Court on Friday.
Dontral Beaver, 16; Damien Hernandez, 17; and Gianni Robinson, 17, all had initial appearances in front of Hearing Master Daniel Westmeyer on Friday morning.
Treavion Randolph, a fourth teenager whose case has been sent to the adult court system and who turned 16 on the day of the fatal beating, appeared in court Friday afternoon.
Four other juveniles have been arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with the death of 17-year-old Jonathan Lewis Jr. Because the other four teenagers are under the age of 16, they will need to go through a certification hearing in Family Court for a judge to determine if they will be tried as adults.
The judge ordered Beaver, Hernandez, Robinson and Randolph to continue to be held without bail at the Clark County Detention Center although attorneys will have the opportunity to present bail arguments at later hearings. They are set to appear in court again on Tuesday.
Amid the national discussion about Lewis’ fatal beating, some people have speculated that it amounted to a racial hate crime, since Lewis was white and some of the teens who allegedly took part in the beating are not.
However, Las Vegas police have stated consistently that they have found nothing to indicate that race was a factor.
“There is NO evidence of that in this case,” the department’s public information office said in an email Friday.
Apparently, this diverse group of violent teens harbored no racism or hatred; those feelings are only reserved for white people.
The Las Vegas also cited some local, vaunted “professor of African American Studies” to dismiss any racial narrative as “political”.
Associate Professor Tyler Parry, with UNLV’s African American and African Diaspora Studies, said that in his view, those seeing the beating as an example of a racist attack tend to have a political agenda to perpetuate.
“I find it interesting, just another point that I think about whenever I see these debates online, as to what is or is not paid attention to, I never see these same people posting videos of white kids and black kids getting along,” Perry said.
“The vast majority of interactions between white and nonwhite people are perfectly fine,” he said. “I imagine there are more instances at Rancho High School of white and black kids getting along and having a certain sense of camaraderie than there are of black kids attacking white kids and vice versa.”
Of course, Professor Parry was spinning a different tune after the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others, and you can read about that here.
Collin Rugg of Trending Politics had more details on the murder charges on X:
NEW: Four of the teens who were involved in the mob that beat and killed Jonathan Lewis in Las Vegas have been identified and are facing murder charges as adults.
Good. Make an example of them.
Lewis was reportedly defending his smaller friend who was thrown in a trash can by the teens.
“One of his smaller friends had something stolen by this group of 15, and they threw the small boy in the trash can, and our son confronted them and he was attacked,” the family’s Go Fund Me page says.
Damien Hernandez, 17, Dontral Beaver, 16, Gianni Robinson, 17, and Treavion Randolph, 16 are now facing murder charges as adults.
If a 16-year-old or 17-year-old is charged with murder in the state of Las Vegas, they are automatically sent to the adult system.
According to Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson there are even more brutal camera angles of Lewis’ death that have not yet circulated online.
NEW: Four of the teens who were involved in the mob that beat and killed Jonathan Lewis in Las Vegas have been identified and are facing murder charges as adults.
Good. Make an example of them.
Lewis was reportedly defending his smaller friend who was thrown in a trash can by… pic.twitter.com/hUQVlvvGCz
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) November 18, 2023
Many view this incident as a potential hate crime and are calling for it to be investigated accordingly. As things stand, we’ll have to see how this unfolds. The police have stated that the situation is still evolving and that they are assessing each individual’s level of responsibility. The narrative—and charges—may shift as more details emerge.
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