Visiting Africans hate crime target, UA police say

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

African community leaders who are at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville for a White House-supported summer fellowship told police early Sunday a man knocked on their door and used racial slurs, a university police official said, and investigators are classifying the incident as a hate crime.

Capt. Gary Crain said a UA program official called police at 2:51 a.m., then spoke with some of the house’s current occupants, a group of 25 fellows in the Young African Leaders Initiative. The program’s participants — studying public management to improve problems in their home countries — are staying in a university-owned property sometimes known as Garland House, which houses the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity during the school year.

“We received a report that someone, an unidentified person, had knocked on the door and asked for admittance and indicated that they were an alumni of the fraternity,” Crain said, adding that the man awakened some of the house occupants. “And then, when refused admittance, actually spouted some racial slurs.”

Police were told the man also pushed on a window, causing minor damage to a window screen, Crain said.

“It was more criminal mischief and harassment, as opposed to someone trying to break into the house,” with the man quickly leaving, Crain said.

Police interviewed two people “who actually conversed with him that heard the statements he made,” Crain said. Investigators don’t have a description of the suspect but plan to interview more house occupants, Crain said.

Chancellor G. David Gearhart met with the group Monday afternoon to emphasize they are welcomed on campus and answer any of their questions, university spokesman Laura Jacobs said.

In a written statement, Gearhart said he is “appalled that anyone would engage in such an ugly act of criminal mischief and harassing guests staying on campus.”

“Campus police are doing everything humanly possible to identify the perpetrator, and we will prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law,” Gearhart said in the statement, adding that university policy have implemented a night shift patrol and security plan for the area.

A UA staff member notified a program official with the U.S. State Department on Sunday about what had taken place, Jacobs said.

A report of the incident was published Monday by a South African news outlet.

Mbali Ntuli, one of the fellows, told The Mercury that “there was a young white man shouting racial slurs” who wanted to be let inside the house.

She added: “When one of the fellows said we were here for the summer as visitors, the man shouted that he didn’t pay fees so that [racial slur] could stay in his house,” Ntuli told The Mercury.

The Young African Leaders group is staying in Arkansas as part of a six-week program teaching public management. The UA is one of 20 national sites to host groups of 25 scholars, entrepreneurs and community organizers. This is the last week that the participants are scheduled to be on the UA campus.

They will finish their stay in the United States by traveling to Washington, D.C., to meet with President Barack Obama. The program is described on its website as “President Obama’s signature effort to invest in the next generation of African entrepreneurs, educators, activists and innovators.”

A spokesman said the White House had no comment about the hate crime report.

Leyah Bergman Lanier, one of the organizers of the UA program, called the incident “a most unfortunate, sad reflection of our community.” She said the group was given the option to move to a new residence but chose to stay.

Three fellows in the program did not respond to requests for comment.

The president of the UA chapter of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, Daniel McCarthy, emailed a statement on behalf of the fraternity to “condemn wholeheartedly the actions of the unidentified person who committed this act.”

“If that person is identified and is a member of our fraternity, our chapter will take appropriate actions, including necessary steps for expulsion and banning that person from fraternity facilities and events,” he said in the statement.

The fraternity “acknowledges and encourages the use of our chapter house by other university guests during the summer, and our members are not allowed to occupy the house during this period,” it said.

University police track hate crimes they have investigated yearly. No hate crimes were investigated in 2013, Crain said. Two such crimes were investigated in 2012, both involving racial bias, according to a report from university police.

UA System President Donald Bobbitt also issued a statement about the incident.

“It is my hope that these visiting scholars see this isolated incident for what it was, and that it is not in any way reflective of how honored we are to have them in our state and on our campuses,” Bobbitt said in his statement.