The public outcry after the video of a disabled man being tortured on social media was HUGE! Was it this outcry that made the Chicago police finally charge the four with a hate crime?

Just yesterday the police spokesperson called the brutal hate-crime a “stupid mistake”.

Was this anything close to just a “stupid mistake”:

At one point in the video, the primary assailant shouts at the bound man, “Fuck Donald Trump, nigga! Fuck white people, boy! Fuck white people, boy!” while he kicks him. At another point in the video, the perpetrators laugh about being reported to the police.



Hate-crime charges have been filed against four African-American people suspected of torturing a white mentally disabled man and recording the attack on the West Side.

Jordan Hill, 18, of Carpentersville, and Tesfaye Cooper, 18, Brittany Covington, 18, and Tanishia Covington, 24, all of Chicago, are expected to appear in bond court Friday, according to the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

They face charges of aggravated kidnapping, hate crime, aggravated unlawful restraint and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon. Hill is also charged with robbery, residential burglary and possession of a stolen motor vehicle. In addition, Cooper and Brittany Covington are charged with residential burglary.

Only Tanishia Covington has an adult criminal record, according to court records.

She was convicted of shoplifting in 2005 and received court supervision. In 2009, she was charged with assault, in 2012 she was charged with battery and in 2014 she was charged with domestic battery and endangering a life, but those cases were dismissed.

Tanishia Covington pleaded guilty in April 2016 to failing to appear at a hearing on a charge of criminal trespass to state land — and received probation, records show.

Brittany Covington was charged with shoplifting in October, but that case was dismissed.

Hill and Cooper don’t appear to have adult criminal records.

On Wednesday, Chicago Police Capt. Steven Sesso of the Harrison District said officers on patrol Tuesday near Homan and Lexington encountered the victim walking on the street.

“They saw clearly that this individual was in distress and he was in crisis. And they cared enough to do something about it,” Sesso said.

The victim, an 18-year-old man, is believed to have been held hostage and tortured in an apartment in the 3300 block of West Lexington on the West Side, Chicago Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. Records show that Tanishia Covington lived on that block when she was arrested in 2015.

One reason officers initially stopped to talk to the man was that he was wearing shorts despite the day’s frigid temperature, Guglielmi said.

Several videos of the incident were posted on Facebook. In one of them, on a woman’s Facebook page, a man threatens the victim with a knife. Someone tells the victim, “kiss the floor, b—-!” and “nobody can help you anymore.” At one point, someone tells the man, “say ‘I love black people.’ ”

About 5:30 p.m., officers were called to a battery in progress about half a block away from where the victim was picked up. At the scene, “they discovered signs of a struggle and damage to property and were able to link this evidence to the disoriented male,” according to a statement from police.

After being made aware of the video, police felt certain the disoriented man and the battery were connected.

THE VIDEO IS DISTURBING – FAIR WARNING!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V52wQimz1tw

READ MORE: SUN TIMES

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