CORRESPONDENCErnLetter From Utahrnby William Norman GriggrnThe New Race WarrnLast September, 17-year-old Utah residentrnAaron Chapman found himselfrncaught in traffic outside Salt Lake City’srnTriad Amphitheater following a rockrnconcert. Chapman’s red flannel shirtrnattracted the attention of eight to tenrnTongan Crip gang members, who surroundedrnChapman’s car and beganrntaunting him. Although Chapman ignoredrnthe harassment, the Crips beganrnto punch him through the open car window.rnChapman’s niece, 17-year-oldrnMonica Vigil, pulled him clear of therncar. When a gang member approachedrnChapman with a metal pipe, she tried tornshield her uncle with her body. ThernCrips buried the giri aside, threw Chapmanrnto the sidewalk, and continued thernbeating.rnVigil later recalled, “I was telling everybodyrnto help, and they were looking atrnme as if I was stupid.” Hundreds of spectatorsrnobserved the atrocity with stolidrnindifference. Suddenly, 17-year-old AsirnMohi emerged from the crowd. Shoutingrn”You want more, here’s some more,”rnMohi drew a .22 pistol and shot Chapmanrnpoint-blank. The boy died 45 minutesrnlater.rnSalt Lake police arrested Mohi thernnext morning at his Bountiful home.rnMohi led the police to the murder scenernand retrieved the pistol; he quickly confessedrnto the killing. Mohi was wellacquaintedrnwith police procedure, asrnhis record at the time of the shootingrnincluded five felonies and 15 misdemeanors.rnA year before the shootingrnMohi had completed a nine-month probationrnterm for gang-related violence.rnChapman’s murder made for predictablyrnmaudlin media coverage. Inrnboth print and television accounts of thernincident, Utah’s self-appointed moldersrnof the public mind sermonized aboutrnthe “tragedy” of gang violence. UtahrnGovernor Mike Leavitt called the staternlegislature into special session for thernpurpose of devising “anti-gang” measures,rnincluding tighter gun controls. Butrnthe most arresting aspect of the incidentrnwas the utter refusal of Utah’s elite torntreat the beating/murder of a whiternteenager by a Tongan gang as a racial incident.rnGranted, the Tongan Crips had initiallyrnbeen provoked by the color ofrnChapman’s shirt, not the color of hisrnskin. But it is useful to speculate howrnUtah’s “tolerance” industry would havernreacted had a Tongan or another “personrnof color” been beaten and murdered byrna gang of eight to ten white youths.rnAs soon as the media had wrung thernpathos out of Chapman’s death, it beganrnto lavish compassion upon the “otherrnvictim”—none other than the confessedrnkiller, Asi Mohi. This effort began withrna remark made by Salt Lake Police LieutenantrnDennis Tueller, who for some reasonrnsaw fit to minimize Chapman’s murder:rn”Chalk it up to the heat of passion.rnMohi saw his buddies in a fight andrnjumped out to help them.” By whatrnreckoning is a situation in which a gangrnis beating a single victim considered arn”fight”? To how much “help” are eightrnto ten large Tongan men entitled inrnan effort to brutalize one helplessrnteenager?rnBrian Preece, one of Mohi’s coaches atrnSalt Lake’s West High School, told thernSeptember 9 Salt Lake Tribune, “Therernare many victims in this tragedy. Thernpotential of each one of these youngrnmen’s lives will be permanently lost.”rnMohi had been a cocaptain of the WestrnHigh football team. While Aaron Chapman’srnparents buried their son, Mohi’srnteammates wrote the confessed murderer’srnjersey number on their helmets as arnprotest and a gesture of solidarity withrn”the other victim.”rn”What went wrong?” sniffled thernheadline of a September 12 Tribunerncover profile of Mohi. The paper portrayedrnMohi as a troubled, misunderstoodrnyouth whose family had fled L.A.rnto liberate him from the tenacious griprnof his gang loyalties. Mohi had been arndismal student and had fathered a bastardrnchild. However, the Tribune insisted,rnMohi had been “rehabilitated” andrnplanned to start a new life before hisrnsudden murderous atavism.rnThe story even took a stab at blamingrnChapman for his own death: “ThernChapmans insist Aaron was not in arngang, and there’s no indication he was.rnStill, investigators did find a gun in hisrncar after the shooting, and students inrnboth West and Granite high schoolsrn[Chapman attended the latter] insistrngang members attended his funeral.” Itrnis impossible to imagine a similar effortrnto tarnish the dead with innuendo hadrnthe murder victim been a member of anrnaccredited minority group.rnSalt Lake attorney Ron Yengich, onernof the state’s most visible “civil rights”rnlawyers, stepped forward to defendrnMohi. Yengich quickly deployed thernrace card: “It troubles me that if fourrnwhite kids get together and beat somebodyrnup, we don’t say that’s gangrelated.rnBut if they’re four Samoans orrnfour Hispanics or four blacks, automaticallyrnwe assume it’s gang-related.” Thisrnis patently absurd: if eight to ten whiternyouths were to beat and kill a “person ofrncolor” in Utah (or anywhere else), the actrnwould be taxonomized a “hate crime”rnand become a global news event. ButrnChapman’s death at the hands of anrnethnic gang was referred to the Salt LakernArea Gang Project, rather than the staternhuman rights commission, and left completelyrnunreported outside of Utah.rnOf all the contending varieties of ethnicrngangs, apparently only “skinheads”rnare capable of committing “hate crimes.”rnUtahns have been kept in a low-gradernpanic about the skinhead “menace”rnsince a small group of the tonsuredrncretins took up residence near Zion NationalrnPark in late 1992. Immediately afterrnthe skinheads materialized, minorityrn”leaders,” from the NAACP to the staternsodomite lobby, began to whine for arnmore stringent “hate crimes” law.rnOn July I, 1993, a small group of skinheadsrnwas intercepted outside of anrnapartment complex in the northernrnUtah community of Layton. Policernseized several weapons from the skinheadsrnand filed misdemeanor charges.rnThe Utah NAACP and the FBI urgedrnthe Davis County prosecutor to file “haterncrimes” charges against the skinheads,rnnoting that the Utah statute does not requirernthe commission of a violent act—rnall that is required is “intent to intimidaternor terrorize” an individual or grouprnon the basis of race, ethnicity, or religiousrnaffiliation.rnThe Utah NAACP has also detectedrnracial motives in the attempted murderrn42/CHRONICLESrnrnrn