Witnesses Describe Mob Attacks Outside Wis. State Fair
Several Law Enforcement Agencies Responded To Area Late Thursday Night

POSTED: 3:56 am CDT August 5, 2011
UPDATED: 5:57 pm CDT August 5, 2011

WEST ALLIS, Wis. -- Local law enforcement agencies are investigating several incidents near State Fair Park late Thursday night.

Milwaukee police said that around 11:10 p.m., squads were sent to the area for reports of battery, fighting and property damage being caused by an unruly crowd of "hundreds" of people. One officer described it as a "mob beating."

Police said the group of young people attacked fair goers who were leaving the fair grounds. Police said that some victims were attacked while walking. They said others were pulled out of cars and off of motorcycles before being beaten.

The Milwaukee Police Department, West Allis Police Department and Milwaukee County Sheriff Department all responded to the area.

Police dispatched squads to State Fair Park shortly after 11 p.m. Thursday because of reports a large, unruly crowd was causing property damage and fighting.

Police outside the park said they received four complaints of battery with all the victims having non-life threatening injuries. They said they are in the process of identifying suspects.

Norbert Roffers of Wind Lake told The Associated Press he was waiting with his wife to cross at an intersection near the fair when he was hit in the back of the head.

"I got my bell rung," Roffers said.

Roffers said another man was lying in the street after being attacked until someone came along to help him.

West Allis police said they sent a rescue squad to one of the scenes, but that their crew did not treat anyone.

Police said the incidents happened in various areas near the fair grounds, including near the intersection of 84th and Adler streets.

Were you at the State Fair at closing time last night? Join our conversation on Facebook, or email us at wisntvnews@hearst.com. We'd like to help share your story.

Milwaukee police said nobody was in custody early Friday morning. They said they are working to identify suspects.

State Fair Park CEO Rick Frenette told 12 News that 24 arrests were made on the grounds Thursday and seven State Fair Police officers were injured.

Read more: http://www.wisn.com/news/28774396/detail…

http://tinyurl.com/3sdrfxt

Wisconsin State Fair mob attack: Police seek hate crime charges

Wisconsin police say a mob attack at the Wisconsin State Fair was racially motivated. One teen arrested Wednesday said he deliberately targeted white fairgoers because they were 'easy targets.'

Allen Fredrickson/Reuters

By Patrik Jonsson, Staff writer / August 12, 2011

Police in West Allis, Wis., say some attacks by black teenagers on white people outside the gates of the Wisconsin State Fair on Aug. 4 were racially motivated and should be prosecuted as hate crimes.

One African-American teenager arrested Wednesday confirmed witness statements suggesting that the large group of black teens, who had originally fought among themselves, specifically targeted white people as they spilled out of the large fairgrounds on the outskirts of Milwaukee at closing time. According to the West Allis Police, he said he personally picked out white people because they were "easy targets." Eleven people were hurt.

The incident sparked a crackdown by Gov. Scott Walker (R) and widespread condemnation of the acts by leaders in Milwaukee's black community. After the incident, Milwaukee joined Chicago and Philadelphia in efforts to combat a spate of recent attacks by groups of primarily African-American teens against strangers who are white.

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Opportunistic thrill-seeking and resentment fueled by stark segregation and high unemployment among young black males (39 percent versus 23 percent for white teens) have been cited by sociologists as possible causes for the recent attacks. The attacks have touched off debates in Milwaukee and elsewhere about who bears ultimate responsibility for the incidents: parents or society at large?

While racial motivations have been suspected in several other mob attacks, the recommendations by the West Allis police department appears to be the first time that specific hate charges have been cited in relation to recent attacks. Two similar attacks earlier this year in Milwaukee did not result in hate crime charges against the suspects.

"Attacking anyone based on their ethnicity or color means a racial hate crime should be an additional" charge, said Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines, who is black, two days after the attacks.

Of a total of 36 race-related hate crime prosecutions in Wisconsin in 2009, 27 of the alleged crimes were antiblack, two were antiwhite, and the remainder were against other ethncities or nationalities, according to the most recent statistics from the Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance.

Governor Walker deployed more state police to the fair after the incident and ordered that teens have to be chaperoned after dark. No other incidents have since been reported at the fair, which ends Aug. 14.

http://tinyurl.com/44a2ov2

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/201…

Witnesses describe mobs, some people claim racially-charged attacks

By The WTMJ News Team

CREATED Aug. 5, 2011 - UPDATED: Aug. 5, 2011r

Scare at State Fair: witnesses describe mobs, including some claiming racially-charged attacks

Click on the video link to see raw video of police and sheriff's deputies investigating the scene.

Did you witness the attacks outside State Fair, or were you attacked? Were you hurt? E-mail us your story or cell phone video!

WEST ALLIS - Witnesses tell Newsradio 620 WTMJ and TODAY'S TMJ4 of a mob of young people attacking innocent fair-goers at the end of the opening night of State Fair, with some callers claiming a racially-charged scene.

Milwaukee Police confirmed there were assaults outside the fair.

Witnesses' accounts claim everything from dozens to hundreds of young black people beating white people as they left State Fair Thursday night.

Authorities have not given official estimates of the number of people involved in the attacks.

"It looked like they were just going after white guys, white people," said Norb Roffers of Wind Lake in an interview with Newsradio 620 WTMJ. He left the State Fair Entrance near the corner of South 84th Street and West Schlinger Avenue in West Allis.

"They were attacking everybody for no reason whatsoever."

"It was 100% racial," claimed Eric, an Iraq war veteran from St. Francis who says young people beat on his car.

"I had a black couple on my right side, and these black kids were running in between all the cars, and they were pounding on my doors and trying to open up doors on my car, and they didn't do one thing to this black couple that was in this car next to us. They just kept walking right past their car. They were looking in everybody's windshield as they were running by, seeing who was white and who was black. Guarantee it."

Eric, a war veteran, said that the scene he saw Thursday outside State Fair compares to what he saw in combat.

"That rated right up there with it. When I saw the amount of kids coming down the road, all I kept thinking was, 'There's not enough cops to handle this.' There's no way. It would have taken the National Guard to control the number of kids that were coming off the road. They were knocking people off their motorcycles."

Another witness, who asked to remain anonymous, said, "it was like a scene you needed the National Guard to control."

"To me, it looked like a scene out of a movie," claimed the anonymous witness.

"I have not seen anything like this in my life. It was a huge mob, and it was a fight that maybe lasted one to two minutes."

Roffers claimed that as he left the state fair with his wife, crowds near that entrance were large, and someone in that crowd.

"As we got closer to the street, we looked up the road, and we saw a quite a bit of commotion going on and there was a guy laying in the road, and nobody was even laying there. He wasn't even moving. Finally a car pulled up. They stopped right next to the guy, and it looked like someone was going to help him. We were kind of stuck, because we couldn't cross. Traffic was going through. Young black men running around, beating on people, and we were like 'Let's get the heck out of here.' The light turned, and I got attacked from behind. I just got hit in the back of the head real hard. I'm like, 'What the heck is going on here?' I heard my bell ring."

Roffers further described what witnesses said happened to the man who was lying in the street.

"People were saying he was on a bike. They tore him off his bike and beat on him. We were walking to the west on Schlinger. I was watching behind me a lot more diligently, making sure there wasn't anybody coming to get us anymore."

One person claimed that someone was knocked off a motorcycle.

TODAY'S TMJ4 video shows West Allis police handcuffing at least one person, but they won't say how many people they took into custody.

Some witnesses described attacks on the State Fair Grounds as well.

Milwaukee Police said that their officers were sent to State Fair Park for "complaints of battery, fighting and property damage due to a large, unruly crowd."

A police sergeant told TODAY'S TMJ4's Melissa McCrady that the number of calls describing injuries are still coming in, so they could not give an accurate number of people who were injured.

That sergeant explained that some injuries were serious, and local hospitals were attending to the injured.

As of early Friday morning, Milwaukee Police said they had no one in custody.

One woman told police that she was sitting in her car with a window down when some teenagers reached through her window and started attacking her.

"I think once we get all the info in it'll be just like that, like what happened in Riverwest," said the police sergeant.

West Allis Police ask you to call them at 414-302-8000 if you have any information.

Eric: "I feared for my life"

Eric, who asked Newsradio 620 WTMJ not to use his last name, talked about the incidents that happened as he, his wife and a neighbor left the fair Thursday.

"We exited at the Schlinger and 84th exit, and we walked south about a block, and then went up and got our car, came back up and around down Schlinger. When we made a left hand turn, we were stopped in traffic. I looked toward the bridge, right before you get on the freeway, and all I saw was a road full of black kids, jumping over people's cars, jumping on people's hoods, running over the top of them."

Eric then claimed that he saw hundreds of young black people coming down a sidewalk.

"I saw them grab this white kid who was probably 14 or 15 years old. They just flung him into the road. They just jumped on him and started beating him. They were kicking him. He was on the ground. A girl picked up a construction sign and pushed it over on top of him. They were just running by and kicking him in the face."

Then, Eric talked about trying to get out of the car to help the victim.

"My wife pulled me back in because she didn't want me to get hit. Thankfully, there was surprising a lady that was in the car in front of me that jumped out of the car real quick and went over there to try to put her body around the kid so they couldn't see he was laying there and, obviously, defenseless. Her husband, or whoever was in the car, was screaming at her to get back into the car. She ended up going back into the car. These black kids grabbed this kid off the ground again, and pulled him up over the curb, onto the sidewalk and threw him into the bushes like he was a piece of garbage."

Eric claimed that the victim in that beating was by himself, and that there was a split of white people on one sidewalk and black people on the other.

"There was nobody else around to help him. There were no other white people, period, on that side of the street. They were going in the opposite direction because, those people who were coming out of the fair that saw these people coming, they either went back into the fair or took off running south on 84th Street."

Eric expressed anger at the State Fair Police for what he considered a lack of response.

"The thing that irritated me, the State Fair Police, the State Police, were down by the Pettit entrance to get in there," said Eric. "There was probably 5 or 6 officers down there. That's where all these kids came from. They came out of the Midway, across the front of the Pettit. They were still filing out of there. The State Fair Police, they knew this was going on. They knew these kids were beating these guys in between that exit and Schlinger at the next gate."

"They were stopping traffic, and I said 'What in the hell,' excuse my language, 'what are you guys doing directing traffic when there are 300, 400 black kids up the road beating the hell out of everybody, pushing people off of motorcycles?' I was livid. I could not believe they were directing traffic."

Fair worker: attacks not limited to outside fairgrounds

A witness told WTMJ that as he worked in a kiosk at the State Fair Midway, he saw what he described as "a Riverwest type mob. Easily between 50 - 100 kids all under 18 and all African American. They were running around knocking people over (young kids and adults), looting the Midway games (stealing the prizes), starting fights."

The witness, who asked not to be identified, couldn't say for certain if only white people were being attacked.

"It was just complete chaos. There were police on horses, lots of security guards, and EMT's on the scene. They never got control of the area."

A State Fair spokeswoman said that there were arrests made involving the incidents on the grounds.

The worker said that as the violence happened, he was "getting ready to grab my cash register and run."

"Not to mention this type of behavior started around 7pm and forced me to close down my stand at 9pm. It scared the paying customers out of the midway."

The man said he was hoping to bring family on Friday, but has decided not to.

"I was planning on bringing my two kids to the fair tonight. I won't be. We'll go to the zoo instead."

Woman: Teenagers in mob didn't attend rap concert

One woman who asked not to be identified tells us that contrary to some belief, the young people involved in the mob did not go to the rap concert that night.

"The mob of black teenagers involved in the beatings and damage outside of State Fair last night were not there for the MC Hammer concert," said the woman.

"I attended that concert with three of my friends last night and the crowd was mostly white and adult (as are my friends and I). Any kids there seemed to be with parents."

She described what she saw as she left the fair.

"As we came through the exit we saw a white boy lying in the street, in the fetal position right by the traffic light, and coming towards us was tons and tons and black teens – there had to have been over a hundred – in the middle of 84th Street and on the sidewalk headed south," she said.

"Some who stopped to kick or punch him - or in the case of one girl drop kick him in the head - as they walked past. My friends and I started towards him to help him up and a black girl walked past telling us 'ya’ll gonna get your ***** kicked' repeatedly. As my friend stood in front of the boy trying to get him up one of the teens picked up a traffic cone, hit her in the back of the head and ran off. A car stopped, a white woman got out to try and help. Teens jumped onto the hood of the car and ran over it. She just kept saying 'What is wrong with you!?' "

The witness also told us that not every African-American teenager outside the fair grounds acted violent.

"We continued to move towards the parking lot, through even more black teenagers. Thankfully this part of the crowd was not violent."

Roffers: "What in the hell's going on there?"

Roffers described his emotions and reactions to the attacks outside the park.

"I turned around and looked, there was this black kid standing there laughing, thinking it's funny. My wife's like, 'Let's get out of here.' It's one of those things, you don't expect it. Your reaction to it is, first of all, quite surprised, then you get so angry, it's like, 'What in the hell's going on there? Why are these guys acting like such hoodlums? What are they picking on anybody for?' We were just like cattle being herded out of the park, and they were picking and choosing who they wanted to beat on."

He said his injuries were limited to a headache.

Roffers said the attack wouldn't stop him from attending the State Fair.

"We will be going back," said Roffers.

"It's a family event for us. We get together with our family and we do stuff at the park to enjoy the fair. My biggest concern is that the State Fair Park Police and West Allis get their heads out of their butts and figure out how to do some security over there. This isn't the first year State Fair has been going on. They should know what the heck they've got to do and where they've got to have people in place by now."

He said that the fear spread beyond those who he believed were the target.

"There were a lot of people scared," claimed Roffers.

"There were even some young black girls. They were screaming. They were running across the road. This one girl was like, 'I don't know how I'm going to get out of here. I'm all by myself.' My wife heard her saying that. She said, 'Walk with us. Stay with us and you'll be OK.' We told her we were going down the street. If she needed any assistance, we were just going down to our car. She needed to go quite a way."

"There was this terror going on when you leave the place, you just wonder. Luckily, all the violence that was happening stayed right close by the park entrance. As we got a block away from the park, that's when the cops started showing up."

He said the lack of police and security presence will bring about his complaint up the various channels of State Fair and local police.

"They should be able to provide safety and traffic control," said Roffers. "I've never worried about it before."

He said he would give a written complaint to the State Fair and put in a call to West Allis Police, but that's not all.

"I will be contacting the State Fair Park Board and I'm going to chew on their butts a little bit about what happened."

State Fair spokeswoman: "Unfortunate situation, hopefully an isolated situation."

State Fair Director of Marketing and Communication Kathleen O'Leary told Newsradio 620 WTMJ's "Wisconsin's Morning News" that the incidents should not stop people from coming to the fair.

"Certainly, don't change your plans," said O'Leary. "Please understand that this is an unfortunate situation, hopefully an isolated situation."

Though witnesses had reported incidents inside the fair, she said the problems were mainly outside the fairgrounds.

"Not so much inside," claimed O'Leary.

"We had complete control inside of what was happening inside of our gates. It's what what spread into the neighborhoods."

O'Leary also pointed out that the fair has "taken measures already with the bag checks, when you come into the fair," but will increase authorities' presence for the remaining days at the fair.

"We will be taking severe measures, significant measures. We are in task force already, circling back around, doing everything that we can to make sure the experience is enjoyable and that the safety is insured," said O'Leary.

"They see the yellow security shirts. We have mounted police. We have bike police. We have our patrolling police. We have undercover police. That's all because that's exactly what we want. We want the safety measures intact at every turn."

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/126…

http://tinyurl.com/42r6jed

http://www.wcpo.com/dpp/news/news_archiv…

http://tinyurl.com/3fljgnz

Ten years later: Black-on-black violent crime rate rises

Posted: 03/11/2011

* By: Tanya O'Rourke

CINCINNATI - One of the most troubling developments over the last 10 years may be black-on-black violent crime.

In the five years prior to the riots, the homicide rate in Cincinnati never rose higher than 40 percent. After the riots, that number increased to a high of 88, and has never returned to the lower levels we saw prior to the riots. The statistics also show that black males are killed far more often than any other group.

"The vast majority of people being murdered are African American in the City of Cincinnati," said Hamilton County Prosecutor, Joe Deters. "The vast majority. Well outside the 40 percent of the population it should be. In 2009, the City of Cincinnati did not have a single white victim of a homicide. (That) tells me that we have a subset in the underclass of Cincinnati which is committing a lot of violent crime and they tend to be black. And the reality is, you almost always commit murder within your racial classifications. So when we've got a young black man up in the coroners office, it's almost always a result of another young black man shooting him."

That same year, 2009, no white men were killed but 44 black men were victims of homicide in Cincinnati as well as 11 black women. Prosecutor Deters says he doesn't know why there are so many homicides in the African American community in Cincinnati, but he can speculate.

"I'm not a sociologist," said Deters. "I don't know the answer to that. I do know that, in our juvenile system, when you go to juvenile prison, I have been told that over two thirds of those kids in juvenile prison were raised by their mothers only or their grandmothers only and they had no male authority figure in the household."

Deters' belief is not his alone. The Reverend Damon Lynch III says the family unit is suffering and therefore, so is the community at large.

"The biggest challenge is restoring the family unit," said Rev. Lynch. "The destruction of the black family is the main cause - the root cause - for all of these ailments that we see in our community. The violence, the teenage pregnancy. The infant mortality rate in our community - and people watching this - many of them know the history. In 1920, 90 percent of black families had a father in the house. In 1960, 80 percent of black families had a father in the house. In 2011, it's only 30 percent. Three out of 10."

Joe Deters agrees, saying teenagers are unprepared to be parents are having babies and that is hurting society.

"What bothers me is, it's OK for a young male to impregnate eight different women. It's almost like a badge of honor. In some parts of the community, young girls, 15 years old having babies. You know I see a girl on the street who's 18 pushing a baby stroller and she's pregnant again and you're just like, do these kids have any chance at all?'" asked Deters.

However, David Singleton, the Executive Director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center, a public interest firm that works for criminal justice reform, says the answer is much more complex.

"I think it's, number one, the clustering of poverty in a densely and racially segregated inner city," said Singleton. "Number two, I think, part of the reason is we are talking about folks who are dropping out of high school at alarming rates. Third, you've got the lack of what many would consider viable employment opportunities. Fourth, you've got the prevalence of a violent, underground economy, largely centered around drug dealing that folks find attractive and really the only way they think they'll be able to survive and provide for their families and fifth, I think it's partly self hatred. I think when you combine all of those factors together, it is a toxic brew that results in the black on black crime that we see that's very alarming and very disturbing."

So how do you stop crime? How do you prevent murders before they happen? One answer may be in the fourth grade classes all over Cincinnati.

Statistics show, learning to read at an early age is important. But the fourth grade year is crucial and can literally keep a person out of prison.

"You can guesstimate what the crime rate is going to be based on the educational achievement by the fourth grade, specifically reading. And that is really troubling," said Singleton. "In fact, statistics show two thirds of children who don't read at grade level at the end of the fourth grade will either end up in jail or on welfare. Still, while education, environment and opportunity need to be improved, some say personal responsibility and acknowledging the problems are vital. That includes Dr. O'Dell Owens, Hamilton County's former Coroner and the current president of Cincinnati State College.

"The sad part, and this is going to be controversial because people don't ever want you to say certain things. But the sad part is African-Americans haven't stepped up," said Dr. Owens. "We've created more opportunities. Yet, I'm just not seeing enough young people graduate from high school. Not seeing enough young people go to college The opportunity is there. The money is there, somewhat. And people just aren't stepping up."

David Singleton believes starting the conversation, and keeping it going is key.

"We have got to have the willpower to come together as a community, white, black, people of all races and economic backgrounds. We've got to come together and talk about this and not just say, well the events of 2001 have long past and we don't have a problem. We do have a problem. And we need to all come together and figure out how to solve it."

Blacks had better hope the USA remains majority white, because Asians and latinos have absolutely no white guilt, and most of them hate blacks even more than white rednecks do.

BLAME WHITEY!!!  Oh wait, whoops, sorry...

Irving ISD study finds black fifth graders feel 'lonely'

[Irving is a large suburban city near Dallas Texas]

by DEBBIE DENMON 

WFAA

Posted on August 29, 2011 at 6:33 PM

IRVING — A new study finds African-American fifth graders in the Irving school district feel lonely and alienated, in part due to Hispanic influence in the classroom.

The 100-page study, titled "The Skin They're In" consisted of interviews with 124 black fifth graders over a three-year period. The study was commissioned because Irving ISD is about 71 percent Hispanic and 12 percent black, and it found African-American students are disciplined more than twice as often as other students.

"The African-American child is lonely because of being one of the few, somewhat proud students of African descent in a classroom full of minority students whose brown mannerisms, style, and language form the dominant culture of Irving's elementary classrooms," the study said.

Otis Brown Elementary School has more African-American students than most campuses in Irving ISD, though there are still classes that are 100 percent Hispanic.

Tysha Miner, the mother of two black students at Otis Brown Elementary, said her children have adjusted very well. However, their experience hasn't been without problems.

"We had one incident where name-calling and racial slurs were said, but the teacher addressed it," Miner said. "My daughter comes home and tells me things, so I had to explain to her the difference and really try to figure out how she felt when it happened."

The study found the children feel "isolated" and "inferior" because of the large number of Hispanic children who speak Spanish more than English.

"I'm glad that the study is going on, so everybody's voices can be heard and [changes] can be made," Miner said.

Teachers also learned from the study.

The African-American fifth graders felt their teachers showed favoritism to Hispanic students, so educators have opened up a dialog to encourage equality.

"We all have the same goal — which I really believe we do — and we do talk about it," said teacher Shelley Jeoffroy. "People shed some of their sensitivity about, 'Oh, don't accuse me of this, don't accuse me of that,' and let's just talk about it. Because that's one thing about children — they're incredibly honest."

Dana T. Bedden, the superintendent of Irving ISD, said the $100,000 study was approved before budget cuts.

However it has provided some results. The number of black children being disciplined has declined.

Two years ago, there were about 124 African American students in alternative schools. Since the study started, that number has fallen to 67.

E-mail ddenmon@wfaa.com

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/irving-is…

http://tinyurl.com/3hf9vlj

Oh, I thought was because of the "legacy of slavery", LOL!

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2…

Public release date: 29-Aug-2011

Contact: Renee Cree
rencree@temple.edu
215-204-6522
Temple University
Differences in cell response could explain higher rates of hypertension in African-Americans

A key difference in the way that cells from African-Americans respond to inflammation could be an answer to why this group is disproportionately affected by hypertension, something that has eluded scientists for many years.

In a study published this month in Vascular Health and Risk Management, lead author Michael Brown and his team tested the effects of TNF-ά, a protein that causes inflammation when cells are damaged, on endothelial cells – which line blood vessels – in both African-Americans and Caucasians, to determine whether the inflammation affected the cells differently.

Among African-American cells, there was a nearly 90 percent increase in the production of endothelial microparticles, small vesicles that are released during inflammation. Individuals with hypertension have been shown to have higher levels of these microparticles in their bloodstream. Among Caucasians, there was only an eight percent increase in their production.

Brown said that although follow-up research needed to be done, "it appears that the endothelial cells in African Americans are more susceptible to the damaging effects of this inflammation." Brown is the director of the Hypertension Molecular and Applied Physiology Laboratory at Temple's College of Health Professions and Social Work.

Brown's research is unique in that it focuses on studying risk of hypertension at the cellular level; most research focuses on the clinical or physiological aspect. For more than 10 years, Brown has been trying to unlock the genetic reason behind the higher rates of hypertension and cardiovascular disease among African Americans.

Brown's research includes an exercise component, to test whether physical activity can reverse or prevent the damage done by hypertension at the cellular level.

"In our human study we have pre-hypertensive African-Americans, and we find this level of endothelial impairment. Knowing so early how inflammation can affect cells means we can be at a place to intervene before they go on to develop hypertension," said Brown. "That intervention could be lifestyle modification, diet and exercise to improve vascular health."

Other authors on this study are Deborah Feairheller, Sunny Thakkar, Praveen Veerabhadrappa and Joon-Young Park of the department of kinesiology. Funding for this study was provided by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2…

http://tinyurl.com/646ppx7

Public release date: 17-Jul-2011

Contact: William Raillant-Clark
w.raillant-clark@umontreal.ca
514-343-7593
University of Montreal
Genetic research confirms that non-Africans are part Neanderthal

Some of the human X chromosome originates from Neanderthals and is found exclusively in people outside Africa, according to an international team of researchers led by Damian Labuda of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Montreal and the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Center. The research was published in the July issue of Molecular Biology and Evolution.

"This confirms recent findings suggesting that the two populations interbred," says Dr. Labuda. His team places the timing of such intimate contacts and/or family ties early on, probably at the crossroads of the Middle East.

Neanderthals, whose ancestors left Africa about 400,000 to 800,000 years ago, evolved in what is now mainly France, Spain, Germany and Russia, and are thought to have lived until about 30,000 years ago. Meanwhile, early modern humans left Africa about 80,000 to 50,000 years ago. The question on everyone's mind has always been whether the physically stronger Neanderthals, who possessed the gene for language and may have played the flute, were a separate species or could have interbred with modern humans. The answer is yes, the two lived in close association.

"In addition, because our methods were totally independent of Neanderthal material, we can also conclude that previous results were not influenced by contaminating artifacts," adds Dr. Labuda.

Dr. Labuda and his team almost a decade ago had identified a piece of DNA (called a haplotype) in the human X chromosome that seemed different and whose origins they questioned. When the Neanderthal genome was sequenced in 2010, they quickly compared 6000 chromosomes from all parts of the world to the Neanderthal haplotype. The Neanderthal sequence was present in peoples across all continents, except for sub-Saharan Africa, and including Australia.

"There is little doubt that this haplotype is present because of mating with our ancestors and Neanderthals. This is a very nice result, and further analysis may help determine more details," says Dr. Nick Patterson, of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, a major researcher in human ancestry who was not involved in this study.

"Dr. Labuda and his colleagues were the first to identify a genetic variation in non-Africans that was likely to have come from an archaic population. This was done entirely without the Neanderthal genome sequence, but in light of the Neanderthal sequence, it is now clear that they were absolutely right!" adds Dr. David Reich, a Harvard Medical School geneticist, one of the principal researchers in the Neanderthal genome project.

So, speculates Dr. Labuda, did these exchanges contribute to our success across the world? "Variability is very important for long-term survival of a species," says Dr. Labuda. "Every addition to the genome can be enriching." An interesting match, indeed.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-enviro…

Neanderthal sex boosted immunity in modern humans

By Matt McGrath Science reporter, BBC World Service

Sexual relations between ancient humans and their evolutionary cousins are critical for our modern immune systems, researchers report in Science journal.

Mating with Neanderthals and another ancient group called Denisovans introduced genes that help us cope with viruses to this day, they conclude.

Previous research had indicated that prehistoric interbreeding led to up to 4% of the modern human genome.

The new work identifies stretches of DNA derived from our distant relatives.

In the human immune system, the HLA (human leucocyte antigen) family of genes plays an important role in defending against foreign invaders such as viruses.

The authors say that the origins of some HLA class 1 genes are proof that our ancient relatives interbred with Neanderthals and Denisovans for a period.

At least one variety of HLA gene occurs frequently in present day populations from West Asia, but is rare in Africans.

The researchers say that is because after ancient humans left Africa some 65,000 years ago, they started breeding with their more primitive relations in Europe, while those who stayed in Africa did not.

"The HLA genes that the Neanderthals and Denisovans had, had been adapted to life in Europe and Asia for several hundred thousand years, whereas the recent migrants from Africa wouldn't have had these genes," said study leader Peter Parham from Stanford University School of Medicine in California.

"So getting these genes by mating would have given an advantage to populations that acquired them."

When the team looked at a variant of HLA called HLA-B*73 found in modern humans, they found evidence that it came from cross-breeding with Denisovans.

Scanty remains
While Neanderthal remains have been found in many sites across Europe and Asia, Denisovans are known from only a finger and a tooth unearthed at a single site in Russia, though genetic evidence suggests they ranged further afield.

"Our analysis is all done from one individual, and what's remarkable is how informative that has been and how our data looking at these selected genes is very consistent and complimentary with the whole genome-wide analysis that was previously published," said Professor Parham.

A similar scenario was found with HLA gene types in the Neanderthal genome.

"We are finding frequencies in Asia and Europe that are far greater than the whole genome estimates of archaic DNA in modern humans, which is 1-6%," said Professor Parham.

The scientists estimate that Europeans owe more than half their variants of one class of HLA gene to interbreeding with Neanderthals and Denisovans.

Asians owe up to 80%, and Papua New Guineans up to 95%.

Uneven exchange
Other scientists, while agreeing that humans and other ancients interbred, are less certain about the evidence of impacts on our immune system.

"I'm cautious about the conclusions because the HLA system is so variable in living people," commented John Hawks, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, US.

  DNA from a tooth (pictured) and a finger bone show the Denisovans were a distinct group
"It is difficult to align ancient genes in this part of the genome.

"Also, we don't know what the value of these genes really was, although we can hypothesise that they are related to the disease environment in some way."

While the genes we received might be helping us stay a step ahead of viruses to this day, the Neanderthals did not do so well out of their encounters with modern human ancestors, disappearing completely some 30,000 years ago.

Peter Parham suggested a parallel could be drawn between the events of this period and the European conquest of the Americas.

"Initially you have small bands of Europeans exploring, having a difficult time and making friends with the natives; but as they establish themselves, they become less friendly and more likely to take over their resources and eliminate them.

"Modern experiences reflect the past, and vice versa."

You will probably delete and censor this as "trolling".

Watch the video at the link - what would you "journalists" at Slog write about this incident if the races were reversed?  A mob of black "youth" football coaches and players attacks a white referee in Sarasota FL:

http://www2.tbo.com/news/breaking-news/2…

http://tinyurl.com/3dohf4

By JOSÉ PATIÑO GIRONA, PETER BERNARD | The Tampa Tribune
Published: August 31, 2011

SARASOTA --
A referee's call in a youth football game over the weekend led to an attack on him during the contest by players, coaches and parents from one of the teams.

The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office has identified four suspects. The suspects have been interviewed and they have cooperated with the investigation, said Sarah Kenniff, a sheriff's spokeswoman. The investigation hasn't been completed, but it could be finished by Friday, Kenniff said.

No one has been charged at this time, she said.

Detectives have also interviewed witnesses and the victim, referee Jayme Ream, 41, of St. Petersburg.

Ream initially signed a waiver of prosecution on Saturday after the incident and didn't want to press charges. But earlier in the week he withdrew the waiver of prosecution, Kenniff said.

The melee occurred on the field just before halftime of a game Saturday afternoon between the Sarasota Gators and the North Port Huskies at Riverview High School in Sarasota. The players were 13 and 14-years-old.

Debbie Ismail, a parent and treasurer for the North Port Huskies, said she was on the sideline at the time of the brawl.

"It was unbelievable," Ismail said. "Very bad, poor sportsmanship. It was horrifying."

In the video, Ream is seen fighting with another man, who appears to be a member of the Gators coaching staff. As the man falls to his knees, another man who also appears to be a coach on the Gators staff is seen grabbing Ream and pulling him away.

A third member of the staff then tries to confront Ream, and a youth in a green shirt takes a swing at him. Ream starts to run away but a Gators football player runs at him at full speed, wraps his arms around him and slams him to the ground. The player hops next to the Ream as if egging him on to get up and fight.

A woman's voice on the recording yells, "Oh, my God!" A man shouts through the public announcement system for people to get back.

Adults converge on Ream who is still on the ground and start kicking him. He is eventually pulled away.

By the end of the video, there are a number of people on the field – some are involved in the altercation and others are trying to restore order.

Ismail said Ream was taken by ambulance to a local hospital. A woman who answered the phone at the Ream's home on Wednesday night said he's doing fine.

Battery on a referee is a felony under state law.

"The video speaks for itself," Sheriff's Col. Steve Burns said. "It was disturbing."

Mike Cody, the coach for the North Port Huskies, spoke to his team a few days after the incident.

"There was no excuse for it," Cody told his team. "One of the most disgraceful things I have ever seen in my 24 years of working with children."

A representative for the Sarasota Gators declined to comment. The team is a member of the Mid-Florida Football and Cheerleading Conference.

Scott Ferguson, a Sarasota County School District spokesman, said in the future the league won't play games on school district fields.

"Under certain conditions, the league can practice on our fields, but they won't be able to play on our fields anymore," Ferguson said.

James Hogan, president of the Middle Florida Football and Cheerleading Conference, the group that oversees the Gators and other youth football leagues, said players and coaches directly involved in the fight will never be allowed to participate in league activity again. The team might be allowed back in the league next year.