Posted on: August 15, 2023, 09:23h.
Last updated on: August 15, 2023, 09:23h.
A white woman assaulted a Black man — and a white man twice uttered a racial slur at the same Black man – after the Black man sat down near the whites at a Louisiana casino floor earlier this month, video and online reports revealed.
USA Crime said the incident took place at the Margaritaville Resort Casino in Bossier City. That location could not be confirmed immediately by Casino.org.
The same report identified the white couple as Ashley and William Dison of Louisiana. Their names were posted widely in social media. Their identities could not be independently confirmed.
This week, the victim, Devon Leslie Jr., on Facebook also identified the assailant as Ashley Bieber Dison.
Leslie was at a slot machine when the woman started to allegedly harass and attack him. She allegedly slapped him and kicked him in the back.
“The story was that the woman got upset that a black man was sitting near her,” a poster identified as Tizzy Ent said in a tweet. “Or as she put it, maybe an Arab.”
N-Word Used Twice
The male accomplice also told the victim, “Stop being a little bitch, you f*****g N****r.”
The victim asked him to repeat what he had just said.
“You heard me,” the man responded. “You f*****g N****r.”
“Where the f*** are you from,” the woman demanded to know as she kicked at him. “You f*****g idiot.”
At one point, she called the victim an “Arabian.”
The victim told them, “I’m pressing charges.” A casino employee allegedly asked the victim to stop recording. He refused.
This woman went off on me hit me in the face and kicked me in the back, because I sat to[o] close to her and her boyfriend so this is how I was treated,” Leslie said in the Facebook post.
Both suspects were arrested on August 3, he claimed. He alleges her charge was assault.
Bossier City LA Who are they? pic.twitter.com/9uKHKWaZE9
— TizzyEnt (@TizzyEnt) August 14, 2023
I did absolutely nothing wrong nor did I defend myself against them,” Leslie added. “Thanks to the Bossier City Police and the casino for standing up for me!”
The victim is apparently a veteran of the U.S. military.
A video of the incident was posted by Tizzy Ent. It has gone viral. It had 597.4K views as of Tuesday afternoon. An earlier video, posted by the victim, had 248K views as of this week.
Legal Scholar Disturbed
When reached for comment about the video, Southern University Professor of Law Angela Bell told Casino.org, “It was deeply disturbing to me.”
She noted the Black man at the casino lost his dignity in public after he could not sit near the whites. There were many similarities to the George Floyd murder, she added.
Bell, a legal scholar, took part in last year’s posthumous pardon ceremony of Homer A. Plessy by Gov. John Bel Edwards, D-La. Plessy was convicted of violating Louisiana’s Separate Car Act of 1890. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which set up the separate but equal legal doctrine in its ruling on Plessy vs. Ferguson.
The casino incident was reminiscent of the attitudes during the separate but equal period, she said.
People of color were not equal to you,” she explained. “They don’t dare to be seated next to you.”
When watching the video, Bell said the “rage” on the white woman’s face was also reminiscent of the anger shown by white women fighting against the civil rights movement.
Based on the initial video, she also questioned if the response by the apparent employee who was attempting to hold back the white woman was effective.
“She didn’t see the urgency,” Bell said. “She allowed it to go too far.”
Also, Bell questioned if the casino has yet released a statement on the incident. “Their silence speaks volumes.”
Casino.org reached out to Penn Entertainment, parent company of the reported casino for comment. No immediate statement was provided.
