Patti LaBelle: Witch of Narnia
March 11, 2011
The Narnia metaphor doesn’t quite fit this story, because that witch is called the “White Witch” and, well... Patti LaBelle isn’t. But I’m using it anyway, because she acts exactly like you would expect the nasty, evil, Chronicles of Narnia White Witch to act.On March 11, 2011, a West Point cadet named Richard King (“King”—the Aslan part of the Narnia metaphor—see why I couldn’t resist?) was standing in the passenger pickup area of Houston’s Bush Intercontinental Airport when he accidentally irritated the sensibilities of Patti LaBelle’s luggage. Maybe he entered the luggage pile’s personal body space, nobody knows for sure.
What we do know is that diva Patti rolled down the window of her limousine and told her black dwarves... er, I mean her bodyguards to “Sic him!” whereupon they marched up to the completely unaware Mr. King—unaware that he was close to anybody’s luggage, unaware that any sort of diva was nearby, unaware of anything beyond his cellphone conversation—and attacked the unfortunate college student so viciously that they put him in the hospital with a concussion.
The concussion part of this story is important, for two reasons. One, they knocked him so silly he couldn’t stand up, which the LaBelle party callously exploited for their own benefit by claiming he was drunk. Two, the victim was a cornerback on the West Point football team and had previously incurred multiple concussions on the field, forcing him to miss the entire season of his junior year. After this latest head injury, doctors told him he could never play football again, so Patti LaBelle’s “sic him” ended his college athetic career.
Then, when they saw the police report inspired by the LaBelle thugs, West Point kicked him out of school and, since this is the military after all and cadets belong to the Army, announced that he would be sent directly into combat.
Spoiled diva sics bodyguards on innocent student putting him in the hospital—victim gets kicked out of school and sent to the front lines where he can die. So far this doesn’t sound like a Bogus Hate Crime, does it? It sounds like a real hate crime.
Here’s where the bogus part starts. Turns our there was an airport security camera filming the whole incident, which you can watch here:
Mr. King, the victim, is the guy in the yellow shirt talking on the cellphone. Notice that he walks just fine before getting clobbered by LaBelle’s bodyguards. And notice how Patti poses for photographs with Houston police officers after her victim has been hauled off to the hospital in an ambulance. Lovely, eh? Not the finest moment for Houston’s finest.
Video evidence in hand, King sued LaBelle because her spiteful “sic him” cost him his football career, his enrollment at West Point, and possibly even his life since he was being sent into combat. When Patti realized how much pure unadulterated manure she was standing in, she decided to countersue, and in her countersuit she claimed that the bodyguards’ vicious attack was warrented because... here it comes, are you ready for it? (You know what’s coming, don’t you?)
She did exactly what every other lowlife, class-deficient, race-exploitive student of the modern-day victimization culture does: she claimed in her countersuit that Richard King deserved his mugging because he tried to force his way into her car and used offensive, racist language.
In other words, she was actually the victim! Her bodyguards were simply protecting her from a hate crime!
You be the judge. Watch the video. West Point apparently did and decided to reinstate Richard King. He still can’t play football, but at least he’s back in college.
Meanwhile, the LaBelle party is in for a little schooling of their own: Patti The Witch still has to face the lawsuit for damages and the two bodyguards are facing assault charges.
Followup note: the cadet ended up losing his lawsuit because the Labelle entourage backed up each others’ stories. Never mind that the video clearly shows them aggresively intiating an unprovoked attack. With four people backing each other up and calling the poor kid a racist, the jury ruled against the cadet.
Sources:
3/11/11 - YouTube - Patti LaBelle Securty Assault West Point Cadet - Raw Video
6/2/11 - KHOU-TV - West Point cadet sues Patti LaBelle, bodyguards over alleged assault at Bush IAH
6/3/11 - HudsonValley.com - Richard King involved in altercation with Patti LaBelle’s bodyguards, time at West Point appears to be over
6/28/11 - Houston Chronicle - Soul diva Patti LaBelle countersues over airport altercation
7/8/11 - ABC Houston affiliate KTRK - Two charged in case involving Patti LaBelle
8/19/11 - The Hawk Eye - Cadet in LaBelle tussle back at West Point
9/24/14 - Huffington Post - Ex-West Point Cadet Richard King Loses Lawsuit Against Patti LaBelle’s Staff
Posted from Reno, Nevada, USA
