@Halliwell

As with many things, a kin network is easier to recognise when you see one than it is to precisely define. I would say it's an informal social group that lies somewhere between an extended family and a common ethnicity. These connections may give members of the group a competitive advantage in terms of shared expertise, financing and other means of support.

I asked CoPilot about which ethnic groups were prominent in the American motel business:

Indian‑Americans of Gujarati origin—especially those with the surname Patel—are by far the most prominent ethnic group in the American motel business. This is not a stereotype but a well‑documented demographic and economic reality supported by multiple independent sources.

🏨 Dominant Group in the U.S. Motel Industry

Gujarati Patels — Members of the Gujarati Indian community, particularly those named Patel, own a striking share of American motels. Estimates indicate they control around 60% of the U.S. hospitality business, despite being less than 1% of the U.S. population.

This pattern is so widespread that the term “Patel Motel Cartel” is commonly used to describe their presence in the economy‑motel sector.

The Patel presence began in the mid‑20th century, with early pioneers like Kanji Manchhu Desai, whose success encouraged others from Gujarat to enter the industry.

By the 1960s and 1970s, waves of Gujarati immigrants—often connected through family networks—began purchasing small, affordable roadside motels, building a nationwide ownership network.

🧭 Why This Group Became So Prominent

Community financing networks (rotating credit associations) helped new arrivals buy motels.

Family‑run operations reduced labor costs and made small motels economically viable.

Willingness to relocate to rural or highway locations where motels were affordable.

Intergenerational continuity, with second‑ and third‑generation Indian‑Americans continuing in the business.

The Patels in Britain are more closely associated with running newsagents (paper shops, corner shops, Paki shops as we used to call them), although many of them reportedly came from Kenya and Uganda in the 1960s and 70s where their business skills seem to have been similarly underappreciated.

In certain parts of Britain, many petrol stations with their convenience stores seem to be run/staffed by Sri Lankans. I heard that a high proportion of these are Tamils, but I'm not sure.

@KTom

So you're asking Copilot rhetorical questions knowing clearly the answer will support your preformed theory? Ask it to challenge your theory or tell you why in the 1st place Ugandan-Asians had that financial advantage and if it was just ethnic net-workimg and discipline.

@sgtdjones

What does him having a gun on him have to do with the price of rice? He left the store after proving he didn't steal anything. He turned out his pockets. He left after being harassed by them. Two grown men emerge and chased him. He ran. You saw him run. When he saw them running toward him, why didn't he use the gun you seem to be worried about? Multiple witnesses said they didn't see him brandish the gun. The expert witness proved he was shot directly in his back while retreating

Proven liars got away with murder.

Remember Latasha???

Your skin isn't your sin so you can run your mouth.

@KTom

Banks deny Black Americans people loans and give them to Asians. This is well documented. They give them loans with the understanding they will open shops in Black neighbourhoods and NOT in white ones.

They provide a cheap, low quality service. Nothing valuable about it.

We'll see how well they do once the boycott starts bearing fruit. Target is learning the hard way. Time to get on code.

As for the jury, they clearly ignored the evidence.

@ Ms Zsa Zsa

The case has been cited by defense advocates and legal analysts to illustrate the dangers of firearm proliferation among minors. Defense attorneys emphasized during the trial that a 14-year-old child should not have been walking the streets with a loaded semi-automatic pistol, arguing that the presence of the firearm fundamentally shifted the encounter from a store dispute into a perceived life-threatening scenario.

South Carolina Law

South Carolina law provides that a person who steps away from an initial confrontation can regain the right to self-defense if the other party suddenly escalates the situation with a deadly weapon. In this case, the defense portrayed the 130-yard pursuit as a relatively minor store-related dispute that only turned dangerous when Carmack-Belton allegedly introduced a firearm.

They argued that a shop owner is within his rights to follow someone suspected of stealing, and that the situation did not become a deadly encounter until the teen purportedly drew a gun.

The state does not allow for “imperfect” self-defense. Under its legal standard, if jurors believed Chow genuinely feared for his son’s life, even if that belief might later be questioned, they were required to acquit him.

So while jurors may have seen the long chase over a few bottles of water as reckless, the law’s rigid structure meant they could not convict him of murder if they accepted that he fired in response to a perceived threat involving a firearm.

Now based on evidence presented.....it was a jury decision. A 12-person Richland County jury deliberated for roughly eight hours before delivering the verdict.

@Klanswoman stdjones

The Chows were proven to have lied in court. Eye witness testimony stated there was no danger. The kid was running away after being racially profiled. After proven he did not steal. They chased him for no reason. He ran in fear of his life. While running away, the gun dropped out of his bag. He got shot in his facting back...IN HIS BACK.

If you turned out your pockets to prove you had no money to two guys trying to rob you, then walked away, and then a minute later you see them running toward you, and you had a gun, wouldn't you take that out fire at them? Let's make it more appealing for you personally. Two black guys.

There was no fear for life on the Chow's part. There was a desire to kill someone they couldn't catch. There was also a desire to allow the model minority with proximity to Whiteness to murder a black minor. See Latasha, see Trayvon. Jurors/Judges have biases like anyone else. They will ignore facts and evidence when they are ready. I won't go into a mentally ill man getting the life choked slowly out of him. Did he introduce a gun too, buttercup?

Chow said that it was pointed at his son. Multiple eyewitnesses testified that they did not see the kid pointing the gun. Again, he was shot in his back while fleeing with the gun on the pavement.

The AmeriKKKan justice system was set up this way. You can bet your bottom dollar if the races were reversed, the black person would be under the jail.

The same with Alex Pretti. Shot in the back after his gun was taken (instead of dropping). You see how that case not even seeing the light of day, but you want to come tell me about jurors and defense. lol. If they want you to get off YOU WILL GET OFF. Jesse Butler violently raped two girls, got convicted and the judge sent him home instead of prison.

Once again...IN THE BACK while fleeing (according evidence and eye witness). But all that means nothing if the victim is black. Eye witness must have been those pesky darkies too.

Cold blooded murder. The end.

By the way, this is the 3rd time Chow has shot someone.

He has now got off all 3 times.

He is trigger happy.

But let's ignore facts and pattern recognition.

@ Ms Zsa Zsa....😂

The idea that a 14-year-old child lost his life over a completely false suspicion of stealing water bottles is deeply devastating, and it exposes some of the most painful realities about America's gun culture and racial bias. It is deeply unsettling to confront the reality of why a 14-year-old was carrying a loaded semi automatic pistol. Why was this child carrying such a powerful weapon?

By the way, this is the 3rd time Chow has shot someone.

 However, the legal outcomes for those events differed. He did not face criminal charges for the first two incidents, and he was formally acquitted of murder by a jury for the third.

Because Chow chose not to testify, the prosecution lost any opportunity to cross-examine him about his history or use it to challenge his credibility. The jury was not permitted to hear about his 2015 and 2018 shooting incidents during the trial.

A South Carolina jury found him not guilty of murder, accepting the defense's argument that he fired to protect his son.

My response was all based on South Carolina Law and how it applied in such state not emotion.

Civil rights organizations have formally petitioned the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch an independent federal review. They want federal prosecutors to evaluate whether Chow committed federal civil rights violations or hate crimes, which are separate from state murder charges.

I view the US not as the blind lady when it comes to law but as a politician in such robes responding to the party in government.

@sgtdjones

Why was this child carrying such a powerful weapon?

To protect himself from assholes like Chow.

It is a pity the child while bearing arms did not develop a killing instinct an older person might have and shot Chow before Chow shot him.

@Trex

You cannot be serious !!!!

Giving a 14 year old child such a powerful weapon so he can protect himself?

Where were the parents?

How did this child get such a weapon?

Chow came before the Courts and Carolina laws and a jury found him not guilty.

The prosecution had a problem...why was this child carrying such a weapon? Without such Chow would be jailed.

@sgtdjones

Bro, white Murcans been giving their kids guns as Christmas present s for ages. The Georgia school shooting (assault rifle) and The Michigan school murders (parents convicted) are examples. Big problem now a black kid has one...never used it mind you.

@JahJah

Banks deny Black Americans people loans and give them to Asians. This is well documented.

You'll need to be more specific than that. Are you talking about Asians, in general, or certain Asian groups in particular? Does this alleged discrimination extend to all types of credit or merely to business loans situated in 'black areas'?

If it extends to loans in general, would the higher average income/employment levels of Asians - or certain Asian groups, at least - not account for such differences ? In other words, if, collectively speaking, Asians represent a better credit risk than blacks, why employ a conspiracy theory when a set of actuarial tables would suffice?

They give them loans with the understanding they will open shops in Black neighbourhoods and NOT in white ones

Is this all banks or just some? How/why/when was this conspiracy originally organised? I'm struggling to understand how such a set of directives could be transmitted throughout multiple levels of organisations without putting anything incriminating on paper. Does it work by telepathy?

They provide a cheap, low quality service. Nothing valuable about it.

If these businesses have no value, how do they survive? What quality of service should a petrol station and convenience store provide beyond 1)being open 24/7, 2) providing a range of goods/services that customers want to buy? If you want your shoes polished, nails manicured or a personal trainer, go elsewhere. Just don't expect to find them available 24/7 or situated on the outskirts of rural towns.

We'll see how well they do once the boycott starts bearing fruit. Target is learning the hard way.

Boycott of whom? The Chows sold up their business 3 years ago. Do you want to target the new owner/franchisee of the store? Shell stations in general? Or are you talking about Asian businesses in 'black areas'?

@JahJah

By the way, this is the 3rd time Chow has shot someone.

He has now got off all 3 times.

He is trigger happy.

But let's ignore facts and pattern recognition.

Every case should be tried on its own merits, but do you accept the point that the jury weren't allowed to know about the earlier incidents?

@sgtdjones

The idea that a 14-year-old child lost his life over a completely false suspicion of stealing water bottles is deeply devastating

We don't know if it was false or not. The way I understand it - and I'm open to being shown otherwise - the boy took 4(?) bottles of water from a cabinet, before replacing them. On the face of it, a curious thing to do. Did he do this because 1) he genuinely changed his mind, 2) he actually was stealing the bottles and had been challenged or believed he was being observed or 3) he thought he was being unfairly suspected and returned them in protest. I saw no more than a couple of seconds of CCTV from within the store and the sequence of events is unclear.

In a wider sense, it would be interesting to know if he was a regular customer at the store (I assume he lived close by) and whether the Chows knew him by sight and had particular suspicions about him.

Did he have a criminal record? Was he a wannabe gangbanger or just a silly kid with a lethal toy?

Now, I agree that these considerations don't directly impact on the murder case against Chow - except perhaps if the Chows knew/suspected he was carrying a gun - but this isn't a court room and we're free to discuss as we please.

@KTom

Every case should be tried on its own merits

LOL. And they're not supposed to consider his propensity for shooting people for sport????????????????

OOOOOOKKKKKKKK

If this was an older black defendant, they would be hearing about how he skipped school when he was 12 years old. lol

Y'all bigots and your white adjacency aren't pretending anymore.

Where's Ed Blum at these days?