Racially Motivated Attack in Courtenay, BC

I came across this chilling report via Kulpreet on Twitter:

The original YouTube video of the racist scumbags attacking the Black man, Jay Phillips, is here.

I am glad to find the CBC reporting that the attackers have been charged:

Three men have now been charged with assault in an attack on Vancouver Island that appears to have been racially motivated.

The accused, aged 19 to 25, were arrested after Jay Phillips, 38, was punched and kicked in the parking lot of a Courtenay fast-food restaurant on Friday. The men have been released and are scheduled to appear in court at the end of August....

RCMP Const. Tammy Douglas said there are indications the attack was racially motivated and the Mounties have asked their hate crime team to look into it.

It is, however, being treated as an isolated incident and will not be labelled a hate crime until all the evidence is in.

"We don't believe these people are white supremacists or have those sorts of affiliations," RCMP Insp. Tom Gray told reporters on Tuesday.

The  answer to Kulpreet is more people have feelings of racist hate than we'd like to believe. Jay Phillips says the attack on him was not an isolated incident.

In an interview on Tuesday, Phillips told CBC News the attack was not an isolated incident.

He said that he and other minorities in this town are often yelled at and pushed around — and they're tired of it.

We have yet to face and address our past and our past lives strongly in the present.

People using a particular racial epithet are "calling me a slave," Phillips said.

"I'm nobody's slave. That's a hate crime to me and I want these guys prosecuted to the maximum."

The men's intent was obvious, Phillips said. Beside the racial epithets, they threatened him and his family with violence.

"Get the hell out of town, we're going to come back and lynch you," Phillips recalled the men screaming. "I remember the word 'lynch' quite a bit — 'we're going to lynch you and your whole family.'"

It is fortunate that Phillips was able to defend himself. I admire his courage and his coming forward to speak publicly about the incident in solidarity with other racial minorities in his community.

Phillips suffered cuts and bruised ribs when the trio got him to the ground.

But his background in mixed martial arts made him more than a match for his attackers.

Phillips said he hoped news of the attack would benefit others in the community.

"I don't want this to happen to anybody — anybody," Phillips said.

"There's a lot of native people here, a lot of Asian people here. Nobody should have to go through this."