Excellent short video of a white Everyman on black crime in Buffalo, New York State

http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/crime/ar…

Arson fire may have been race-related
FBI asks for public’s help for more information

Updated: Friday, 08 Jun 2012, 9:55 AM EDT
Published : Thursday, 07 Jun 2012, 5:19 PM EDT

Ed Drantch
Posted by: Eli George
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) – The FBI now believes an arson fire in Buffalo’s Old First Ward may have been a hate crime. Upon hearing the news the fiery crime may be rooted in racism, a neighbor gave a stunning reaction.

JdN: Location of Buffalo, New York. President Grover Cleveland was once the sheriff here, and personally hanged convicted murderers, saying such grim tasks should not be delegated to deputies. 

Federal prosecutors stop short of calling this a hate crime, but continue to look for evidence to prove it as such. They have been investigating the Mackinaw Street fire for more than a year.

“The property owner and the victim was a refugee that had fled oppression and had immigrated to the United States in pursuit of the American dream,” said Frank Christiano, Resident Agent in Charge of the ATF.

Fifty-eight-year-old Michael Fijal of Buffalo was charged with arson and is awaiting trial. Prosecutors say he paid someone to purposely set the empty building on fire. The blaze was so intense, it damaged the home next door.

Now authorities say they’re looking for more evidence to prove race may have been a motivating factor. The FBI is offering a reward to anyone who can help with further information, leading to an arrest of the person who burned the house down.

FBI Special Agent Christopher Piehota said, “The elements of the case indicate there may be a hate crime motivated incident and we want to get to the bottom of it.”

We wanted to know if residents believed race played a role in the crime. One neighbor, working on repairing a home damaged in last year’s fire, had some comments that may shock you.

“I think that if people just stayed on their own side of town in their own neighborhood that things like that wouldn’t happen,” the man said. “Every race and color has their own section of Buffalo, so if they just stay in their own neighborhood, things like this wouldn’t happen.”

He’s has lived in the Old First Ward for more than 30 years.

The man stated, “People in these neighborhoods don’t want those type of people moving down here and destroying the property value. So when things like that happen, it shouldn’t such a shock.”

We asked the man what he meant by “those types of people.” He responded: “Minorities. African Americans.”

We asked the man why he holds these opinions.

He answered, “Because I own a home and I see what happens when they move into the neighborhood. Property value goes down, kids on the corner, crime goes up. The east side used to be a beautiful place; look what they did to that.”

But not everyone felt the same way. One woman who moved to the area right before last year’s fire said she was disappointed to learn the crime could be racially motivated.

“It seemed like this was their dream. They came here I think from the Congo probably to have a better life, and this is what they have now,” she said.

Despite the mix of opinion, the man stands by his assertion. We asked the resident if he thinks there’s anything wrong with what he had said.

“I don’t feel there’s anything wrong with it. A lot of people would feel wrong about it, but I don’t.”

If you have information for officials, you can call the FBI at 856-7800 or the ATF at 853-5070. The FBI is offering $10,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case.

• Category

  • News & Politics
• On a WN website
• Watson 11: The guy is right. I’m from NY and have family in Buffalo. My grandpa is from the east side and the neighborhood used to be BEAUTIFUL. Now it looks like a bomb went through it. Buffalo ranked among the most dangerous cities in the country last year, and you would be disgusted to see what the east side looks like.Watson11: I hate how in the radio interview one of the guys says he moved into white neighborhoods where white people sold drugs and trashed the neighborhood. I would love to have heard what neighborhood that was. Because I know the Buffalo area very well and I can assure you that there is not a single white neighborhood that has as much crime and shootings as the east side does. I was in Buffalo once, on the north side (the nicest part, the whitest part), but we were close to the east side. We were sitting on a family friend’s front porch talking and heard “bang bang bang,” three shots in the distance. About 60 seconds later, sirens. One of my cousins teacher’s house is near the east side, and he said she told the class her house was ransacked, thousands of dollars worth of stuff was stolen.White neighborhoods that are trashy may have one scumbag who grows weed and sells it, smokes it, etc… but guess what? How many people does he jump every day, shoot, rob, etc? How much graffiti is he spraying on peoples houses? How many innocent kids are being caught in crossfire on playgrounds in white neighborhoods?Fulminata: Blacks ruined my old neighborhood. Yeah, its a bit of a generalization obviously, not every black person is a criminal or keeping a dirty house, but enough are that the old neighborhood is a craphole. You cant have a nice, middle class neighborhood made into a ghetto by only a few bad apples.
  From American Renaissance:sbuffalonative: Buffalo has been rated the 5th poorest US city and the 6th or 7th most segregated city. It’s also overwhelmingly Democrats. No one ever seems to make this connection.What this man did was nothing short of courageous. However, this isn’t the end of the story, it’s only the beginning.This man is going to be crucified by the ‘progressive’-liberal establishment. As I noted in a previous post, Rev. Darius Pridgen (who is also a member of the Buffalo Common Council ) spent a great deal of time talking about this man being a landlord. The implication being that racist landlords in south Buffalo are a serious problem that needs to be adressed.

  Until recently, south Buffalo was overwhelmingly white and long been condemned as a racist enclave. The city of Buffalo and HUD have been closing housing project to ‘decentralize’ blacks and they have been sending them to south Buffalo. Two birds with one stone; decentralize blacks and break-up a racist, white community.

  While I applaud this man for speaking the truth he also put a target on the back of south Buffalo. We are going to be slammed with stories and reports, demands for inclusion and tolerance, and calls for more ‘die-versity’.

  Right now, Buffalo News editorialist, Donn Esmonde, is busy penning a hate piece condemning this man and segregation in south Buffalo.

  Lucas Evans: That’s how the blacks keep whitey inline. Pure violent intimidation. That is exactly why every white person who feels this way should do exactly as he did. We’ve been running (white flight) for 50 years. Either we stand our ground NOW, while we are still a majority or we surrender and guarantee our children will be slaves until our race and culture go extinct.

  Anon12 (partial): …”Good” blacks? Where, may I ask? Makes you “sad” that THEY have to suffer because of the bad blacks?

  Pardon me, but I do not believe there are very many “good” blacks and even if there were what difference would it make? Those “good” ones will never come to our defense nor help us in any way and you should know that by now. In fact, they are the enablers of the bad blacks.

• On another hand I have seen that happen with my aunt in Miami. She bought some land, built a house which was worth around 300,000-350,000 dollars.
• Fast forward 15 years, She can’t sell the house because nobody wants to move there. The crime rate in the area is also high. All the people that lived there moved out.
  -Again,. I moved in New England a few years back. It was a small town.You could leave your car running with the keys in there and sht wouldn’t stolen. Fast forward 8 years. Cocaine dealing is up, there are areas you can’t drive thru and there are also gangs. My sister is already saying that she might move to different town for that very reason.