Free Fat Nick! Free Fat Nick! That has been the battle cry exclaimed by Star a.k.a. Troi Torain of the Star and Bucwild Show, a radio program broadcast on New York's Power 105. Fat Nick (Nicholas Minucci), the young man pictured above, is about to stand trial for an alleged racial attack that occurred last year in the infamous Howard Beach section of Queens, N.Y. This controversy arrives approximately two decades after a prior racial attack which occurred on Dec. 20, 1986. Racial tension in Howard Beach exploded onto the national landscape when a gang of white youths brutally attacked three African-American men resulting in the death of 23-year-old Micheal Griffith who was chased and struck by a car. In the matter of "Fat Nick," he is accused of clubbing a Black man with a baseball bat just a few blocks away from the first incident, fracturing the victim's skull in what authorities have also referred to as a hate crime. In addition, Minucci along with several accomplices allegedly used racial epithets during the attack. I would be remiss in not mentioning that the young men that Minucci and his cohorts attacked admittedly were in the neighborhood attempting to steal a car, later changing their minds.
"This is what you get if you want to rob white boys, nigger!" one of the attackers spewed as Glenn Moore, 22, lay bleeding, the victim's friends told police officers, law enforcement sources said. What makes this case more interesting is Minucci's unusual legal strategy now known as the Hip Hop defense. Minucci states that he is totally immersed in hip hop culture and that tossing the "N-bomb" around is just part of his language....having been initially raised in a predominantly Black town (East New York)with Black friends and attending High School with African-Americans. Hell, when Nick allegedly encountered these cats he was even driving a "rimmed up" Escalade wearing a baseball cap, Rolex watch and playing 50 cent. Is Nick's defense valid? I think we have another quagmire folks...hence the title of this entry. Have some Blacks asked for this? Nigger..ahem, excuse me Nigga, has been commercialized and emblazoned in rap culture which conversely is popular culture. If the victim was legitimately in Howard Beach, he would have my full support against such savagery....but..he and his friends were there (allegedly) to steal a car. It's one thing to be profiled but it is another to be correctly profiled. I think it is time to admit some Black folk are complicit with nigga being an operative term used under the guise of Hip Hop language. I conclude this entry by simply stating.....Free Fat Nick! Free Fat Nick!
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