All you people calling for their heads... and especially the ones making all the crypto-racist comments:
You do realize kids and teenagers fight, right??
Maybe not in your world of sugarplums and fairies... but I got my ass kicked a few times.
I was also kind of a bastard, being much smarter than the dirtbags, I was very good at insulting them at a much higher level than what they through at me and it get my ass handed to me some times.
I turned out just peachy. They ended up in the dumpster. Win-win for me.
Spent a lot of time lifeguarding at places like this and fight happen all the time. This one was pretty rough... but nothing new.
There's a difference between getting in a fight, and getting lynched. This was the latter. There was no honor in it. And it's not even about skin color, it's about respect. This kid did nothing to antagonize them other than having some shoes they wanted.
I've been in my share of fist fights, but they were always one on one. I got my ass "whupped", and I handed out a few myself. But in the end, no one died, no one was hospitalized.
There was only one lynching I witnessed in my life, and it was a scenario similar to this one. Those guys went to jail (well, all except for one who was sent to Chicago because he was headed to the NBA). They went to jail because what they did was a criminal act. No one was ever arrested for one on one fighting (at least not in my under 18 years old days).
Plain and simple, these kids are dregs on society. I'd say the same fucking thing if they were white.