Wednesday, October 15, 2008

A hate crime where I do internship

There's been a racist hate crime where I do internship. Arg. Here's the report from the director of security with any identifying information taken out. The campus is responding to it.
This past Saturday at approximately 8:50 in the morning, a female African-American student reported that as she was walking towards campus, she noticed two white male subjects in their mid 30’s, watching her from their older model light blue pick-up truck. The subjects did not say anything to her, but had a wood sign attached to the front grill of the truck that said “All black people must die”. The letters were hand written in black ink.

The victim stated that she saw the same vehicle and occupants on Friday at approximately 3:00 pm. This time there was a dead raccoon hanging from the front grill.

The Campus Community and the Police Department take this incident very seriously; anyone with information related to this incident or observes the truck should contact the Police Department immediately at 9-1-1.

Then later... All in our campus community, as well as citizens living in our neighborhood, agree that the hate message painted on the sign attached to the vehicle gives voice to a despicable spirit. We agree that such a sentiment should have no place in our community or society at large. Such a spirit of hate threatens the life-safety of select members of our community and it threatens the well-being of all of us. I am very pleased to report that no one has been physically injured through this incident, but the crime goes far deeper in it’s effect than physical pain and injury.

4 comments:

Sarah said...

People are sick.

Cheryl said...

First and foremost, I think hate crimes are horrible, the threat of hate crimes are horrible, and I do believe this should be investigated fully.

That said....

At the risk of sounding extremely cynical without knowing any more information than you're giving here, I'm going to point out a couple of things...

Both of these sightings took place in broad daylight, and only one person (the same person) noticed/reported it? Was the sign so small that she had to be close to read it? If so, why no verbal threats? If not a small sign, why did no one else see it?

Was the truck reported to campus police the first time? If not, why not? Why wait another week to report it on the second incident? Was the vehicle just sitting there on both occasions, or was it rattling through town with these things on its grill?

Why not call from a cell phone to report the second sighting? I'm sure a light blue truck with raccoons hanging from it is a fairly rare sighting and would be easily spotted by police alerted to its presence.

Any racist who made a sign to threaten an African American would not call them "black people." They would use the full force of the "N" word.

I'm not doubting it could have occured and I know hate crimes do occur (too often), but I also know people sometimes make accusations to get attention or for other motives. And I know you probably don't have the answers to the questions I'm asking.

I'm just sayin' I think there might be more to this story than we know. It smells fishy to me. Please keep us posted.

Anonymous said...

Growing up in a white small town, I didn't understand the racism that was out there until I moved out to Denver and began working with all races of people.
It has been an eye-opening, blood- boiling experience.

Unknown said...

not to mention the students that were threated by guns this week. and the little girl in our neighborghhood that was shot and killed the other day too....its so sad.