Hate Crime Victim Jumps From Cruise Ship, Dies

[Rhino]

Teen Survivor of Hate Crime Attack at Texas Party Jumps From Cruise Ship, Dies
Monday, July 02, 2007

HOUSTON — A Texas teenager who testified before Congress in April about his horrific beating was killed Sunday when he leaped from the upper deck of a cruise ship into the Gulf of Mexico.

David Ritcheson, 18, of suburban Houston, was pronounced dead Sunday morning after being pulled aboard the Ecstasy, a 70,000-ton Carnival Cruise Lines ship en route to Cozumel, Mexico, from Galveston.

Ritcheson, a Mexican-American, was beaten unconscious and sodomized with a plastic pole by two men shouting "White Power!" during a drug-fueled party in April 2006. He was hospitalized for more than three months and endured 20-30 painful surgeries in the months following the attack....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287721,00.html

[Wolfcounsel]

I think he either fell overboard or someone else threw him over. If he was getting over his ordeal, why would he kill himself?

[Rhino]

A spokesman for Carnival Cruise Lines said several witnesses saw Ritcheson jump from an upper deck of the ship Sunday morning..

[Sarah]

I think he either fell overboard or someone else threw him over. If he was getting over his ordeal, why would he kill himself?
I guess he wasn't really able to come to terms with it.

[DesertFox]

That's what I think. That would be hard to get over.

[Wolfcounsel]

Several witnesses seeing him jump just means he could have been threatened with the same thing as before, plus a knifing, if he did not take his chances in the ocean. Who's he going to tattle on if he survived?

[omegatrump]

It's hard for me to understand why a guy would do that. I mean if you were intent on doing yourself in, then take the other guys with you (the guys that did that to you). It would probably be the only justice they would ever get.

Our court system is seldom about justice, or law and order. That could be why he felt helpless to keep going. Yea, who is he going to tattle to?

[buzzthepug!]

From the get-go that's really terrible. And, alll crime is a hate crime.

[DesertFox]

Nah. Stealing a piece of bubble gum, or even a Tootsie Roll, ain't no hate crime.

[buzzthepug!]

Ok, I stand corrected. All violent crimes are hate crimes.

[Wolfcounsel]

"Nah. Stealing a piece of bubble gum, or even a Tootsie Roll, ain't no hate crime." --DesertFox

You! Quit feeding the liberals!:punish:

You HATE to pay for the bubble gum or tootsie roll, no?
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[DesertFox]

Bubble gum, no. Tootsie Roll, yeah. I steal as many as I can, to feed my late night Tootsie Roll addiction. *sob* I can't help it! I LUV those guys!

[PaulRevere]

Nah. Stealing a piece of bubble gum, or even a Tootsie Roll, ain't no hate crime.
Not even if you hate Tootsie Rolls?

[DesertFox]

Only if you stab the Tootsie Roll in the process of committing the crime. :D

[DeclinetoState]

It appears Ecstasy can be hazardous to your health.