POLICE ARE LOOKING for a suspect in a December assault who seems to have disappeared. Twenty-eight-year-old Rickey Lee Watson Jr. is wanted on suspicion of assaulting an Egyptian-born Portlander in a bathroom at the nightclub Dirty on December 11.
The attack could be more unfortunate fallout of Mohamed Osman Mohamud’s plot to bomb Pioneer Courthouse Square. Before Watson allegedly punched the victim, Mufeed Yacoub, in the face he spit out the words, “You Arab, I know your kind.” Police are investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Over the past three years, 16 hate crimes against Arab men and women have been reported in Oregon. In that same span, Arab men have been suspects in five hate crimes. The largest group of perpetrators is white men, who have committed 64 percent of reported hate crimes in the state since 2007.
Local community leaders have been worried about retaliatory attacks against Arab and Muslim Oregonians after the FBI sting on Mohamud made national headlines over Thanksgiving weekend. Interfaith groups and city officials held two peace rallies in Pioneer Courthouse Square during the past two months, and no major violence against Oregon Muslims has been reported after the firebombing of the Corvallis mosque Mohamud attended.
Yacoub, a mechanical engineering student at Portland State University, moved from Egypt to Portland with his parents in 1999. He was out late that Saturday night, partying with friends and his brother to celebrate the end of the fall term.
The group wound up at Dirty, an always raucous club on NW 3rd. Yacoub and a friend got a shot and headed to use the bathroom. While he waited by the sink, Yacoub heard a voice loud and clear over the din of the bar: “You Arab. I know your kind.”
“I turned around to see if he was kidding, if he had a smirk on his face. Right as I turned, he pushed me and then punched me in the right side of my face,” says Yacoub. The punch knocked Yacoub to the floor, chipped his tooth, and left him with a bloody hole above his lip.
Yacoub’s brother drove him to the emergency room. While he waited for stitches, the pair tried to figure out whether they should report the assault to the police. They decided to head back to Dirty to see if they could review that night’s security tapes and identify the assailant. But Yacoub says when they got back to Dirty, the bar owner said they could not look at the tape and that if they went to the police, they would be banned from the club.
The owner of Dirty, Chris Lenahan, contests that point. “That’s ridiculous. Never happened.” Lenahan says he told the brothers they couldn’t come into the bar because workers were counting money—but that they could come back the next day to watch the tape. The brothers decided to report the attack to the cops, who then used Dirty’s security record (they scan every ID over a camera at the door) to identify the suspect.
The gash on Yacoub’s face is now a small scar. Yacoub says he’s gotten a lot of support from friends, but that he feels a bit nervous hanging out in crowded clubs. “I’ve always been grateful for being in Portland, and I still am. I felt this shock, I felt disappointed for this happening,” he says.
Police initially thought they could find the suspect, but last Friday, January 7, asked for the public’s help in tracking him down.
Police ask anyone who might know the suspect, Rickey Lee Watson Jr., or where he could be, to call Detective Kevin Warren at 503-823-3761.
” The largest group of perpetrators is white men, who have committed 64 percent of reported hate crimes in the state since 2007.”
Well it says it all right here. If you need even MORE proof that ANGRY WHITE MEN pose the biggest terrorist threat in the U.S., one need look no further than the teabagger skinhead who commited a terrorist shootng in Tuscon last Sat.
I’m confused, the info graphic would seem to indicate that white males are the most likely group to be a victim? Either way, it’s sloppy. And Damos, stop being racist, it doesn’t look good on anybody.
“I’m confused, the info graphic would seem to indicate that white males are the most likely group to be a victim?”
That’s b/c pretty-much ALL of the White men targeted for hate crimes in Portland have been GAY men, duh.
DamosA,
How about you learn what the TeaParty originated as before you throw that around. I currently live in Az. The disturbed young man that did this horrible act had extreme mental issues and was obsessed with conspiracy. He was not a skinhead or a “TeaBagger”. Also, I believe the ease at which you can obtain firearms here also contributed.
To be honest Damosa.I fear you.You have incredibly major anger problems.You may well snap someday.Get help please.
@MiMa,
One look at Jared Loughner’s MUG SHOT & you dare claim he’s NOT a skinhead? Sure, not ALL White men w/ shaven heads are nazis & it would be stupid to suggest so. However, all White men w/ shaven heads w/ extremist anti-govt. veiws w/ ties to a WP magazine w/ anti-semitic views who GO ON A SHOOTING SPREE where the main target (Giffords) just happens to be a reformist/progressive Jew… that guy is most definately a nazi!
And yeah, it’s very easy to get guns in AZ. You say you live in AZ, so YOU ought to know that Jan Brewer has EVERYTHING to do wtih that!
And yes also, Loughner has severe mental issues too. So does Nidal Malik Hasan, another guy who went on a shooting, wasting abunch of people. Anyways, if YOUR governor hadn’t slashed mental health services in AZ, maybe Loughner might’ve gotten some help years ago when it might’ve done [him] some good. This is ironic, considering Brewers’ own son has been locked up in an asylum since 1990 for violent rape.
@DamosA
To begin with, I happen to be ANGRY about the amount of brazen ignorance, racism, sexism, homophobia, class stratification, gentrification, the absurd and damaging gender role expectations inflicted on both men and women around the world, the fact that we have people in our country that own several cars and houses while there are still others starving to death in our country and around the world. I’m ANGRY about nuclear proliferation, and the apparent disregard for the health of our natural environment on the part of many of our businesses, industries, and private citizens. I’m also seriously ANGRY about our deplorably inadequate educational system, and the sick joke that passes for a “justice system” in this country.
As it just so happens, I’m also a WHITE MALE.
I guess that makes me an ANGRY WHITE MALE.
So, take note DamosA, and watch out! I’m dangerous and on the loose! You may have already seen me popping up at non-profits around town as a volunteer (scary!), and in the near future might even see my (real) name in print in a scholarly journal or two as I finish my education and embark on a career in public service.
Damn those scary ANGRY WHITE MALES!
I’m sooo scared.
With a name like Muddy Starfish, you’re the one with problems! Jeezus.
This is why I tell other black and brown folks in the metro area to be kind and work with each other because we are going to need each other’s support in a major event, breakdown of local gov’t type of thing. There are plenty of AWMs out there that have pure hatred for any human that is non-white. They just aren’t showing their full colors (no pun) until there is a breakdown of law.