Group of White Men Beat Black Man While Shouting Racist Names: Not a Hate Crime

An attorney for a Roosevelt man who police say was beaten with a bat by men spewing racial slurs said yesterday the federal government should probe whether Nassau County authorities' tactics and public statements tainted a possible hate-crime case against the defendants.

The attorney, Fred Brewington of Hempstead, is critical of the police investigation of his client's beating, especially a preliminary finding that the assailants, including a New York City cop, committed a felony assault, though not a hate crime.

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Jackson, 52, who is black, is recovering from injuries he sustained Sunday when four men beat him outside a Roosevelt delicatessen. At least one of the men shouted racial insults, including "Go back to Africa," police said. All four have pleaded not guilty.

Brewington has demanded that the case be prosecuted as a hate crime, but authorities have said despite the racial words, the assailants attacked Jackson not because of his race, but because he wouldn't move from the front of the deli.