Are there some crimes that are so vicious and so tawdry and so incomprehensibly heinous that — even though no one dies — the punishment for the criminal must end in death?
Yesterday, we were introduced to such a warranted death via video surveillance.


Here’s the story behind the bloody beating. Rose
Morat, a 101-year-old resident of Queens, New York, was assaulted in
the vestibule of her apartment building last week during the noon hour.

She was beaten up by an unknown Black male wearing a ski mask.
He first stalked her from the main lobby of her building and then
attacked her in the vestibule.

He stole $33 and spit on her as she fell to the ground.
Here’s the anatomy of Rose’s beating from the surveillance camera in
her building:

  • Rose, using her walker, exits the lobby and enters the vestibule so she can leave the building. The time is 12:30pm.

  • Rose’s attacker grabs her by the head. His left hand holds
    her head upright while his right hand punches her three times in the
    jaw. The blob behind Rose’s head is her hat flying off her head.

  • Rose, after taking three blows to the head, staggers. Her
    right arm reaches out for her walker to steady her, but her attacker
    moves her walker out of reach. Blood is running from Rose’s nose. She
    is dazed and unaware of her surroundings. Her attacker straightens the
    collar of her overcoat.

  • Rose’s torturer spits on her and punches her a fourth and
    final time in the head before he turns to leave the building with his
    pink and red bicycle.

Here’s the damage done to the left side of Rose’s face. She feels sorry
for her attacker. “He must be desperate to take $33 dollars from an old
lady.”

30
minutes later — and half a mile up the street — Rose’s robber attacks
an 85-year-old woman in her apartment building. He rides the elevator
with her, gets off a floor early, runs up the stairs to her floor and
beats her bloody in front of her apartment door. He repeatedly punches
her in the face and bloodies her lip. His take: $4 and her wedding
ring.

Here’s the last best image we have of this brutal robber.

Let’s hope it’s the last time we see him alive.

75 Comments

  1. I imagine that on the street nobody boasts of beating up elderly women.
    Even amongst the hardest criminals, they would probably say “I have done some bad things in life but that was just wrong!”

  2. Hi Gordon —
    Right. I think the street would take care of this cad. He’ll find the fists of his friends in his face if he isn’t careful.
    Do you think a criminal like that deserves death or not?

  3. Perhaps I will be the odd person out but I think unless his injuries cause death, he does not deserve it himself. I think actually an extended confinement in a Japanese solitary prison would be a good punishment – preferably one with a leaky ceiling.

  4. Hi Gordon —
    I am against the Death Penalty — but the brutal beating of that woman has resurrected a cry for the man’s death here in NYC in very liberal circles. It seems there are some crimes against the elderly and the innocent that just seem to demand the removal of the perpetrator from the face of the earth.
    Perhaps we could at least reserve a room for him at Walter Reed Bldg. 18.

  5. It’s an ugly video. She doesn’t do anything but stand there and take the beating. He needs to go.

  6. It’s an ugly video. She doesn’t do anything but stand there and take the beating. He needs to go.

  7. Hi Anne —
    It is disgusting to watch him hold her head so she won’t fall down the first few times he punches her.
    Such cruelty deserves a greater punishment. I don’t think you’ll find a “Bleeding Heart Liberal” in NYC that would would argue against a deadly punishment for that crook.

  11. Heh, Anne! That would be divine. Spare his life by putting him in prison and his imprisonment becomes his death sentence at the hands of the prisoners. I’m sure he’d know his doom, too.

  12. Heh, Anne! That would be divine. Spare his life by putting him in prison and his imprisonment becomes his death sentence at the hands of the prisoners. I’m sure he’d know his doom, too.

  13. Are you asking if this particular criminal deserves death, or if the death penalty as a system is wrong/broken/whatever?
    I mean, yes, I do think he deserves death. It’s pretty obvious that it isn’t any kind of ‘normal’ robbery and he just likes beating up old women. People like that will never stop – it’s akin to being a serial killer.
    However, I think that overall, death penalties instituted by the government are harmful. After all, if you have death penalties, than you have to admit that sometimes, the government is going to make a mistake. I don’t think the innocent life is worth it. Even if it’s only one, which I’m pretty sure it’s not.
    Here are two websites, one anti-death penalty and one pro.
    http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ and http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/
    So, yes, I think he deserves death, but that doesn’t mean I think the government should give it to him. Put him in prison with lots of inmates who have grandmas.
    Also, I don’t even think this would be a death penalty case, unless he kills someone. Personally, there are a lot more people that I think deserve to die than they actually prosecute. Serial rapists and child molesters for example.

  14. Are you asking if this particular criminal deserves death, or if the death penalty as a system is wrong/broken/whatever?
    I mean, yes, I do think he deserves death. It’s pretty obvious that it isn’t any kind of ‘normal’ robbery and he just likes beating up old women. People like that will never stop – it’s akin to being a serial killer.
    However, I think that overall, death penalties instituted by the government are harmful. After all, if you have death penalties, than you have to admit that sometimes, the government is going to make a mistake. I don’t think the innocent life is worth it. Even if it’s only one, which I’m pretty sure it’s not.
    Here are two websites, one anti-death penalty and one pro.
    http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/ and http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/
    So, yes, I think he deserves death, but that doesn’t mean I think the government should give it to him. Put him in prison with lots of inmates who have grandmas.
    Also, I don’t even think this would be a death penalty case, unless he kills someone. Personally, there are a lot more people that I think deserve to die than they actually prosecute. Serial rapists and child molesters for example.

  15. Hi Stacy!
    Your comment was caught up in a cache refresh here — so I moved you down here do I can directly reply to your fine and thoughtful comment! Lately WordPress.com doesn’t sometimes show comments as published right away and great comments get lost until the cache refreshes locally.
    Yes, I’m asking if that THAT GUY — who beats up 101-year-old and 85-year-old women for their lunch money — deserves his death in the punches he provided to their faces. I too, am against the Death Penalty — but in this case where the crime is so visual and ongoing and “caught on tape” I think the guy deserves more than just doing time in a cell.
    I agree catching him and putting him in a prison will get him the sort of end he deserves if he doesn’t chicken out and demand solitary confinement. I’m sure the system will work out a way to eat him alive. Even the bad guys have morality that trumps any sort of governmental justice system.

  16. Hi Stacy!
    Your comment was caught up in a cache refresh here — so I moved you down here do I can directly reply to your fine and thoughtful comment! Lately WordPress.com doesn’t sometimes show comments as published right away and great comments get lost until the cache refreshes locally.
    Yes, I’m asking if that THAT GUY — who beats up 101-year-old and 85-year-old women for their lunch money — deserves his death in the punches he provided to their faces. I too, am against the Death Penalty — but in this case where the crime is so visual and ongoing and “caught on tape” I think the guy deserves more than just doing time in a cell.
    I agree catching him and putting him in a prison will get him the sort of end he deserves if he doesn’t chicken out and demand solitary confinement. I’m sure the system will work out a way to eat him alive. Even the bad guys have morality that trumps any sort of governmental justice system.

  17. Yeah, I totally agree. It’s not like there is a whole lot of uncertainty in this case or anything. I just hope he gets caught so he can’t hurt anyone else.
    Quite honestly, I’m amazed those women survived. They must be pretty tough.

  18. Yeah, I totally agree. It’s not like there is a whole lot of uncertainty in this case or anything. I just hope he gets caught so he can’t hurt anyone else.
    Quite honestly, I’m amazed those women survived. They must be pretty tough.

  19. Hey Stacy —
    Yes, for a guy like that to beat up old women for some change, you know he must have been doing stuff like that for quite a while now. You don’t plan that kind of attack out of thin air. You’ve practiced it. You’ve done it before. You know the wages of your sin.
    I agree those women are tough! I guess you have to be to live in NYC into your ancient old age like that. You’re likely an immigrant who has had to fight and scratch for every little bit of your living and so some dumb thug with a fist isn’t going to defeat you — because you’ve been brutalized by the system of a city in churning so much already.

  20. That’s terrible.
    I remember reading a story in the news over hear about an elderly woman getting mugged for her fish and chips. Unfortunately I can’t find a link to this story.

  21. One of these days, one of these guys is going to try to steal something from an old woman who also knows martial arts.
    I’m pretty sure I read a story about somebody trying to rob a woman who was 8 months pregnant, but she was also a blackbelt. She almost killed the guy. I don’t think I can find a link for it though, it was probably two years ago.

  23. Stacy!
    If we are trained to fight back we should — and those awful people should be removed from society.
    There was a story awhile back in the news where a mugger came upon a 77-year-old couple and when the elderly man fought back and put the mugger in a choke hold that killed the mugger — no charges were filed. The police said it was justifiable homicide as the elderly man was protecting his life and his wife’s life.

  24. Despicable, unfortunately if he makes it into prison he will be segregated, stuck in with the sex offenders and other at risk prisoners. Kept away from the general prison population who may seek to administer some of their own justice.

  25. David,
    I am not against the Death Penalty in general, nor am I against it for a crime like this with such vicious and horrific intent.
    To beat someone to a pulp and leave them for dead is not kinder than actually killing the person and should not be punished any differently. Some people who have experienced such terrible acts of violence have wished that they had been killed so they would not have to suffer the emotional aftermath of such an experience.

  26. Hello Michael!
    You’re right! His appointed attorney will defend him and save him and provide him the shelter and comfort in prison he gave no one else in his real life on the street. What a shame.

  27. Emily —
    I appreciate your experiences you have previously shared with us as well as now in providing your deeper personal insight on this awful beating.
    I do think there are some crimes that, on a moral and values level, that can cause a community to turn away in revulsion and not even the executioner’s sickle could to begin to satisfy the fury for the robber’s blood.

  28. David,
    One reason I advocate the Death Penalty is because it is a kinder and more humane punishment than what the victim of the crime had to endure. That is precisely why some people don’t like it because many in our society prefer “an eye for an eye”: You beat someone to death, and you should get beaten to death. You rape and murder someone and that is what should happen to you. The problem with “an eye for an eye” is it advocates and carries out the same kind of bloodthirsty violence it claims to punish and condemn.

  29. David,
    One reason I advocate the Death Penalty is because it is a kinder and more humane punishment than what the victim of the crime had to endure. That is precisely why some people don’t like it because many in our society prefer “an eye for an eye”: You beat someone to death, and you should get beaten to death. You rape and murder someone and that is what should happen to you. The problem with “an eye for an eye” is it advocates and carries out the same kind of bloodthirsty violence it claims to punish and condemn.

  32. I refused to watch the videos – the stills are shocking enough – I did not need to see them. I abhor violence of any nature ………. especially when directed at the weak and vulnerable. I do hope both women recover – so often at that age they do not.
    Prison sounds a good place for him – unless his *bothers* find the crime so repulsive they solve the problem for us.
    I always ask how that young man got into that position in the first place – what causes that desperation – why has that person been so alientated he had no other option but to do what he did. How can we prevent it happening again?

  33. I refused to watch the videos – the stills are shocking enough – I did not need to see them. I abhor violence of any nature ………. especially when directed at the weak and vulnerable. I do hope both women recover – so often at that age they do not.
    Prison sounds a good place for him – unless his *bothers* find the crime so repulsive they solve the problem for us.
    I always ask how that young man got into that position in the first place – what causes that desperation – why has that person been so alientated he had no other option but to do what he did. How can we prevent it happening again?

  34. Emily —
    Your defense of the Death Penalty because it is “kinder and more humane” is sort of a strange argument to make. All current forms of the Death Penalty are pretty violent: Hanging, firing squad, electric chair and Lethal Injection. Lethal Injection is the worst, really, because you are made to suffocate first before your heart is stopped.

  35. Emily —
    Your defense of the Death Penalty because it is “kinder and more humane” is sort of a strange argument to make. All current forms of the Death Penalty are pretty violent: Hanging, firing squad, electric chair and Lethal Injection. Lethal Injection is the worst, really, because you are made to suffocate first before your heart is stopped.

  38. Nicola —
    The images here are nothing like the video. Her entire body shudders with each blow and never once does he raise a hand to defend herself — because she can’t — she needs to keep both hands on her walker so she won’t fall over.
    It is important to ask “What Happened?” when it comes to degenerates like this. Are the born are does society create them?
    We have wondered on that very question here and here.

  39. Nicola —
    The images here are nothing like the video. Her entire body shudders with each blow and never once does he raise a hand to defend herself — because she can’t — she needs to keep both hands on her walker so she won’t fall over.
    It is important to ask “What Happened?” when it comes to degenerates like this. Are the born are does society create them?
    We have wondered on that very question here and here.

  40. Hi David,
    The answer to how someone could sink so low and become so violent probably lies in chemical addiction.
    I bet the guy robs the elderly — even though his take is so small — because he wants to scrape together $10 to get crack or some other substance with little perceived risk.

  41. Hi David,
    The answer to how someone could sink so low and become so violent probably lies in chemical addiction.
    I bet the guy robs the elderly — even though his take is so small — because he wants to scrape together $10 to get crack or some other substance with little perceived risk.

  44. Chris!
    Yikes! I do not see your comment in the Akismet queue. This is happening on other blogs here, too. Usually if we wait a few minutes the missing comment appears. I don’t see your comment anywhere! Can you try to post it again?

  45. Chris!
    Yikes! I do not see your comment in the Akismet queue. This is happening on other blogs here, too. Usually if we wait a few minutes the missing comment appears. I don’t see your comment anywhere! Can you try to post it again?

  46. David,
    Surely all of those deaths are better than the brutal beatings these old women received. They are, at least, quick.

  47. David,
    Surely all of those deaths are better than the brutal beatings these old women received. They are, at least, quick.

  50. HAHAHAHAHA!
    Now THAT name I like!
    After some quite sombering and morbid research into Death Penalty methods, I cannot find any data for how fast these methods really are. I’ll keep looking, though!
    I would assume they are faster than it takes an old woman to die from being beaten with fists.

  51. HAHAHAHAHA!
    Now THAT name I like!
    After some quite sombering and morbid research into Death Penalty methods, I cannot find any data for how fast these methods really are. I’ll keep looking, though!
    I would assume they are faster than it takes an old woman to die from being beaten with fists.

  52. Hi David,
    My comment must have gotten lost in the ethersphere someplace.
    I bet the alleged criminal will be found pretty quickly now that the heat is on with all of the publicity.
    I also bet that the ferocious nature of the attacks will be related to a chemical dependency that must be fed continuously throughout the day. That’s why he attacks people even if he’ll only get a few bucks.

  53. Hi David,
    My comment must have gotten lost in the ethersphere someplace.
    I bet the alleged criminal will be found pretty quickly now that the heat is on with all of the publicity.
    I also bet that the ferocious nature of the attacks will be related to a chemical dependency that must be fed continuously throughout the day. That’s why he attacks people even if he’ll only get a few bucks.

  54. Emilyish —
    Assume Nothing, you Claw O’ Death! Research it and write it up as an article!
    We’ll publish it right after your “Why I Hate Children” rant!
    :mrgreen:

  55. Chris —
    What you are saying concerns me. Losing comments is a dreadful thing and I keep looking for your comment to pop up somewhere in an email notification or Moderation or Akismet. I don’t see anything yet. Scary.
    I thought he’d be found by now! How many giant guys like that ride a child’s pink and red bicycle in that area of Queens? He has to be a local. You can’t go far on that kind of bike and be that big and heavy.
    I think you’re right about these beatings fixing a drug need. That’s why we should create “Junkie Island” and exile all drug abusers there and feed them and let them roam the island and we’ll provide all their drugs for free.

  56. Hi David,
    The loss of the comment is strange … I’ve never had that happen before without the comment being caught by Akismet.
    The reason why the criminal hasn’t been caught is probably the “Don’t Snitch” code of the street that allows these guys to wander free. It’s sad that people won’t speak up because it leads to a cycle of violence against innocent people.

  57. Hi David,
    The loss of the comment is strange … I’ve never had that happen before without the comment being caught by Akismet.
    The reason why the criminal hasn’t been caught is probably the “Don’t Snitch” code of the street that allows these guys to wander free. It’s sad that people won’t speak up because it leads to a cycle of violence against innocent people.

  58. Chris —
    Yes, the loss of your comment is incredibly bothersome because it is the next, logical, step in the comments cache not properly updating: Comments just get lost instead of mysteriously appearing in a few minutes. I wish we had more information that is trackable so we could report it. If it happens again to you or anyone, I’ll definitely submit a trouble ticket.
    I thought crimes against children and the elderly were exempt from snitch protection on the street? I guess not… since he isn’t caught yet…
    There is a clearer image of him grinning at the security camera. The one I posted in my article is fuzzy but it’s been enhanced and cleaned up now because his face is being shown all over the TV and his features are much more precise. Let’s hope someone good recognizes him and turns him in!

  59. Chris —
    Yes, the loss of your comment is incredibly bothersome because it is the next, logical, step in the comments cache not properly updating: Comments just get lost instead of mysteriously appearing in a few minutes. I wish we had more information that is trackable so we could report it. If it happens again to you or anyone, I’ll definitely submit a trouble ticket.
    I thought crimes against children and the elderly were exempt from snitch protection on the street? I guess not… since he isn’t caught yet…
    There is a clearer image of him grinning at the security camera. The one I posted in my article is fuzzy but it’s been enhanced and cleaned up now because his face is being shown all over the TV and his features are much more precise. Let’s hope someone good recognizes him and turns him in!

  60. No no no, I do not hate children! I love them, but I feel I should stay childless. I think I should stay childless because I do not think I would make a good mother, not because I don’t adore them.

  61. No no no, I do not hate children! I love them, but I feel I should stay childless. I think I should stay childless because I do not think I would make a good mother, not because I don’t adore them.

  64. Hi David,
    You should post the clearer picture — one of your readers might be the one who spots the guy.
    Also, it’s telling that he’s grinning into the video camera like he knows he’s going to be “infamous.” It’s the same as the people who post videos of their crimes on Myspace to get attention.

  65. Hi David,
    You should post the clearer picture — one of your readers might be the one who spots the guy.
    Also, it’s telling that he’s grinning into the video camera like he knows he’s going to be “infamous.” It’s the same as the people who post videos of their crimes on Myspace to get attention.

  68. Chris!
    Yes! I will look for a better image. If you see one online, holla!
    I agree he’s a mugger mugging for the camera. It’s just gross.

  69. Chris!
    Yes! I will look for a better image. If you see one online, holla!
    I agree he’s a mugger mugging for the camera. It’s just gross.

Comments are closed.