Posted on in Video 49

BALTIMORE (AP) — Two brothers accused of beating a black teenager while patrolling an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood are set to go on trial Monday in a case with similarities to the Trayvon Martin shooting. The brothers, who are white and Jewish, have claimed self-defense, saying the teen was holding a nail-studded board. Local civil rights activists hope the Martin case will draw more attention to what they believe was racial profiling by neighborhood watch vigilantes. Eliyahu and Avi Werdesheim are accused of beating a 15-year-old boy who was walking through a Baltimore neighborhood in November 2010. The brothers pulled up next to the teen in a vehicle, then got out and "surrounded him," according to charging documents. The passenger threw the teen to the ground and the driver hit him in the head with a hand-held radio and patted him down. The teen remembered 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. While the teen struggled, a third man got out of a van and kneed the teen, pinning him to the ground. The teen told police that he stopped struggling and the third man continued to search him, while the teen insisted he didn't have anything on him. Eliyahu Werdesheim told the Baltimore Jewish Times that he was acting in self-defense because the teen was holding the piece of wood. The teen picked up the board during the encounter, but put it back ...

  1. 1814dreadyhead
    Yep. and its all a blaze right now on whats going to happen with these young men.
    April 23, 2012
  2. dollbaby4400
    Wow this is my hometown. B-more. It happens there to. Thanks for sharing. Blessings.Doll
    April 23, 2012
  3. 1814dreadyhead
    Your view is valid for you but not for me. I am black and i have been in almost every neighborhood possible and i have been called names and i dont respond and i have never been jumped on or beat up. i have been to all types of areas an no issues yet.
    April 23, 2012
  4. 1814dreadyhead
    So you are saying and i want to make this clear what is a black boy doing walkig in a jewish or nutty ass neighborhood for in the first place. I have walked in many neighborhood never jumped on never beaten up. then at the same time are we suppose to
    April 23, 2012
  5. 1814dreadyhead
    Well i wouldnt say there is not justice i would or probably say its just the way of the world, but the bible says that which is last will one day be first. Its going to take time to get people to understand that we need to come together.
    April 23, 2012
  6. LOVEYU87
    Lost for word it no justice for black people
    April 23, 2012