In what seems like a "Trayvon Martin-esque" case, two brothers accused of beating a black teen in an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Baltimore back in November, 2010 have begun their trial.
Both Eliyahu and Avi Werdesheim are accused of beating a 15-year-old boy after they saw him walking through their neighborhood. Although they claim self-defense, saying the teen was holding a nail-studded board, the documents state that the brothers pulled up to the teen in their car, got out and "surrounded him." The passenger threw the teen to the ground while the driver hit him in the head with a hand-held radio.
The victim remembers the driver yelling, "You wanna (mess) with us, you don't belong around here, get outta here!" according to court documents, which do not identify which brother was driving.
The brothers are charged with second-degree assault, false imprisonment, and carrying a deadly weapon (the hand-held radio). Both face up to 13 years in prison if convicted on all three counts.
Local civil rights activists hope that the Trayvon case will shine more light on these racially profiled attacks being committed by neighborhood watch vigilantes.
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