The Accused 3 Defends their Actions and Apologizes to the Public in an Exclusive Interview with Global National

After watching their exclusive interview with Global Nation, I believe they felt sorry for letting this incident happen the way it did. They apologized to the neighborhood for the debacle that took place and to anyone who was offended by the language that was used. And a welcomed statment for me, they also assured the public's safety by saying they're not after anybody. However slightly contradictory, he goes on to say, “We didn’t attack him because he is africian American,we were just driving the truck, It could have happened to anyone – white or black. We’re not into that crap”

When asked “why the language,” the accused stated they weren’t racists but pissed off. They then defended their use of the N-word by saying it was used to make “him mad because he made [them] mad.” And one male also acknowledged that “it shouldn’t have been said.”

The reporter, Dean Stolz, lead the interviewees into answering, "yep" to how the use of the racial slurs were out of character for them. Earlier in the interview, Stolz, who started his broadcasting career 16 years ago, also lead the boys into answering that their use of the racial slur was just a wrong choice of words. I'm slightly dissapointed at Stolz' use of closed ended questions in this interview. These series of pigeonholed questions helped paint these guys in a good light. Journalists are taught that the use of opened ended questions will give more objective answers and will highlight more of the subject's real feelings.

Reporter, Dean Stoltz from Global, asked one of the accused to take him through what happened. The male in the black sweater began to tell the story starting from their departure of the McDonalds drive-thru:

“we were driving the truck through the McDonalds drive-thru when we turned the corner, I guess Jay is his name is – is with a buddy of his on the corner, drove by, something may have been said, and I see a cheese burger flying through the air. That’s when we turned around -- we turned the truck around, and when we did, I preceded out of the truck to ask him ‘why, what are you throwing at my truck.’ He proceeded to throw his hands in the air and call us all names, slander, say he wanted to fight all 3 of us, he’ll take us all on. I don’t want to say the words that he used but that’s pretty much the gist of it.”

When the Stolz wanted to make clear which side the initial insult came from, one male answered,

“we’re not really sure, we seen the cheeseburger flying through the air. We turned around [the truck] and asked him what the deal was. He wouldn’t even answer us why he threw the cheese burger. He just kind of threw his hands in the air calling us all out… you know.”

Another male answered by chuckling after saying, “I just actually seen a cheese burger lying in the back of the truck.”

Asked if they were disgusted when reflecting back on the video, one male answered, “3 on 1 is definitely bad, we usually fight one on one.” (Video: Statement abruptly cut from segment on CHEK on July 9th) Apparently fighting is something they do often. One of the men accused Jay Phillips as the aggressor by referencing the section of video where Phillips can be seen still charging them after getting back on his feet. But I think it's only human nature, especially with adrenalin, to want to get even with your opponents after being swarmed, taken to the ground, and pummeled.

Stolz also asked them to comment on how the internet initially labeled them White Supremacists. One man replied, "It’s disgusting really, it should never had been said. They should have said ‘[three] male beat up on one male’ you know, something like that. It didn’t have to be labeled white supremacists".

How they were unfairly labeled white supremacists was about the only thing I agreed with them on; unfortunately it was also something I did. Early in this development, rumors were flying around that there was a beating of a black man involving some white supremacists. When I saw the video and heard their use of the N-word with such malice in broad day light so loudly in front of people, I truly believed they were part of a hate group. So that was my fallacious reasoning behind unfairly labeling them white supremacists that day. But again I stress, people should not speculate before all the facts are gathered and released by police.

Watch the full RAW interview: Wait for 2 commercials to play
http://www.globaltv.com/globaltv/national/onlyonline/index.html?releasePID=_e_TSIRFFszeJLTOh8PC8Azj2EFH4yzi

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*UPDATE* 10.7.2009 The National Posts and Echo also writes about interview:
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/posted/archive/2009/07/10/300035.aspx
http://www.canada.com/racists+involved+assault/1778321/story.html

*UPDATE* 10.7.2009 The evening news on CHEK, they used the questionable quoted of the language being "out of character," but had anchor Hudson say it live instead of using a clip from the RAW interview. *retraction: host/anchor of CHEK News unknown*

*UPDATE 11.7.2009* Video has now been removed from CHEK/GlobalTV's online video archive.

*UPDATE 12.7.2009* Rumours around town of hate group symbol on back of Adam Huber's black sweater may indicate rank and affiliation. Not Confirmed.