A student at the University of Iowa was beaten by a group of white men last Saturday night. Now, police and the university are saying they are investigating the report as a hate crime.
Marcus Owens, a 19-year-old freshman from Naperville, Ill., was beaten brutally after leaving a bar. The attackers? A group of white men who were yelling racial slurs at Owens, according to Reuters.
The Associated Press reported that Owens walked into the Iowa City Police Department after the attack. He told the police that he was walking in an alleyway near the bar when three white men of average height, about 19 to 22 years old, approached him and struck multiple times. Owens suffered damage to his eye socket, had his front teeth kicked out, and maintained an injury to his lip that required about a dozen stitches.
Apparently, Owens first went to the university to report the crime. As soon as they heard it happened downtown, they sent him to the police station rather than asking any further questions, according to The Gazette. They did not learn that the attack was a hate crime until the story had already circulated on media outlets. This is standard protocol for UI—but university president Bruce Harreld figured out this may not be the best technique for handling such crimes.
“We now recognize this as a failure in current UI protocol and will be working with many campus and community partners, including UIPD, to improve reporting mechanisms for the future,” Harreld told the Gazette. “The University of Iowa is working to create a climate of inclusion, and this hate crime demonstrates we have a great deal of work left to do.”
The University of Iowa, as of Fall 2015, enrolled about 30,000 students. Only three percent of these were African American students.
“I’m deeply concerned and saddened by the report that this was a hate crime,” Tom Rocklin, university vice president for student life, told the AP. “We want our students to feel safe on campus and we have student today who are not feeling safe.” Rocklin also expressed hope for criminal charges to be brought soon and the suspects to be found. They would face suspension and expulsion at UI.
According to Reuters, Owens’ uncle Darrell Owens seemed disturbed by the fact that the attack was a hate crime. “This is 2016. You shouldn’t expect this to happen.”
Students at UI took to Twitter to express their disgust with both the attack and how the university handled Owens’ report.
When your school claims to bleed black and gold but doesn’t let anyone know when Blacks are bleeding…#ExplainIowa
— Aubrea (@AubreaJ) May 4, 2016
Black suspects get 3 hawkalerts
Black student gets severely beaten by three white men and all I hear are crickets.#ExplainIowa
— ok. (@Ok_Ukah) May 4, 2016
How am I suppose to focus on finals when the University of Iowa can’t even warn me about hate crimes on campus #ExplainIowa
— Flourishing (@_TheFLOWERchild) May 4, 2016
Let’s hope the perpetrators of this attack are brought to justice.