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Ranchers.net

A conservative black organization calls it an outrage that authorities and the media are ignoring the racial connection to the brutal beating death of a Bosnian-American at the hands of black youths in St. Louis.

St. Louis police have charged 17-year-old Robert Mitchell in the death of 32-year-old Zemir Begic, who was attacked and killed by youths wielding hammers.

Police have a total of three suspects in custody and are looking for a fourth. The beating death comes in the wake of the recent rioting and looting in nearby Ferguson, after a grand jury did not press charges against a white police officer who killed a black teenager Michael Brown, after the teenager assaulted him and refused to cooperate.

St. Louis Police Chief Sam Dotson said Begic's death was an isolated incident and was not targeted because he was Bosnian.

Chris Arps, a St. Louis resident and spokesman for the Project 21 black leadership network, says the local media is also downplaying the racial aspect.

"When the story first came out - and the St. Louis Post Dispatch has a history of this - they didn't tell the races of the perpetrators," says Arps. "They just gave a description without mentioning their race and their ages."

Despite the brutality of the Begic murder, he doubts authorities would pursue hate crimes charges against the perpetrators.
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