FBI probing apparent Obama-related assault on Staten Island
by Staten Island Advance

Friday November 07, 2008, 5:44 PM

The FBI has joined the investigation into an alleged racially-motivated beating that took place on Staten Island election night, where a black teenager says he was attacked by a group of white men with bats who yelled "Obama."

The U.S. District Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York announced today that it and the FBI are investigating the assault of 17-year-old Ali Kamara, a black Muslim who reported he was beaten in apparent retaliation to Tuesday's historic election.

Kamara says he was jumped on Pine Place in the borough's Stapleton community at about 11 p.m., the time Barack Obama was declared winner of the presidential election, by a car-load of white men wielding baseball bats who shouted, "Obama!"

Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, called the feds' involvement in such a case "normal" and said it would be working jointly with the county district attorney and NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force.

A police spokesman said that the attack on Kamara has not been officially classified as a hate crime. The beating is so far the only assault alleged to be connected to the presidential election reported in the city.