Hate's hidden toll: Crimes Underreported

Max Scripture walked down Kirkwood Avenue, tightening his thick-striped tie around his neck to shield himself from the frigid air.

He was silent.

After reaching the brick sidewalk on the corner of Washington and Kirkwood, he stopped. The Sample Gates were visible down the road, fewer than four blocks away.

“This is where it happened,” he said.

Two weeks before, Scripture, an IU senior, was assaulted and beaten to the ground by a stranger for being gay.

Scripture said he was bar-hopping with his friend, senior Sydni Phelan, and others, celebrating the start of Thanksgiving break. They started at Kilroy’s on Kirkwood, making their way to the Dunnkirk after. By the time Scripture left for Sports, it was around 1 a.m.

Phelan, a life-long friend of Scripture, said he and his friend, senior Tony Skelton, fell far behind the group, out of sight.  

It would be at least another hour until she saw Scripture again.

While Scripture walked with Skelton, a stranger from behind shouted, “Wow, those jeans really make you look like a faggot.”

“A guy tried to antagonize Max because he is gay,” Skelton said. “They only picked on him, not me.”

Scripture, who has been openly gay since his senior year of high school, said he has dealt with ignorant comments about his sexuality in the past.

He turned around and told the man to shut up, but was urged to walk away by Skelton.  

“The guy screamed, ‘I wasn’t done talking to you’,” Scripture said. “I only turned halfway around before he decked me in the face. I hit the concrete. Hard.”

***

Scripture posted a picture of his bloodied face to his Instagram later that night. Next to it was a snapshot of the man Scripture said attacked him.

“Cheers to the douche bag that found it necessary to sucker punch me to the concrete for being a homosexual,” he wrote in the caption. “It’s 2013 and your ignorance is beyond ridiculous.”  

The image received 128 likes.

Scripture never went to the hospital. He never called the police.

The FBI classifies an assault motivated by a person’s bias toward a particular race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity or gender as a hate crime.

The IU Police Department publishes statistics on hate crimes in its annual security report. IUPD is required by the Clery Act and the Higher Education Opportunity Act to make the University’s procedures, practices and crimes available for public access.

Since Scripture decided not to report his attack, it won’t be listed in IUPD’s security report.

“Most of the hate crimes we’ve recorded at IU fall into the intimidation or vandalism category,” IUPD Lieutenant Craig Munroe said. “If incidents aren’t reported to us, we have no way of responding to them.”

This year’s report stated that zero assaults motivated by bias occurred in the past year. The only hate crimes on record include one 2011 assault motivated by racial bias and fewer than 20 instances of vandalism from 2010 through 2012.

Munroe said he takes comfort in the small number of incidents recorded in this year’s security report.

“I would report a crime that happened to me,” he said, “but I can’t speak for others.”

Other entities serve to address hate crime and discrimination on IU’s campus. Four IU incident teams operate year-round: disability, gender, racial and religious, and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender. Each of the four teams are comprised of faculty and staff with expertise in diversity issues and conflict resolution.     

The Bloomington Human Rights Commission serves as a sounding board for victims of hate incidents. It publishes an annual incident report, with details for each particular case.

But the report only cites incidents made known to the commission which, according to BHRC Director Barbara McKinney, may not be an accurate representation of the amount of hate crime occurring in Bloomington.

“I would guess that many hate incidents go unreported for a variety of reasons,” she said. “Just as many rapes don’t get reported.”

Through the last three years, the BHRC has reported between 11 to 18 incidents annually.

McKinney began tracking hate incidents in the early 1990s after receiving phone calls in her office about incidents motivated by bias.

The BHRC incident report has been a sounding board for victims of hate incidents for more than a decade. IUPD launched a full-scale investigation when the BHRC reported in April last year that someone scrawled “Hitler” and a swastika on a Jewish studies poster in Goodbody Hall.  

When an individual calls the BHRC, McKinney and her team will refer them to the police. At that point, the victim can pursue charges and officially declare the incident as a hate crime.

“If there are any details about an incident, I want to hear them,” McKinney said.

***

The assault left Scripture with a swollen and cut lip. He said his tooth sliced through the inside of his mouth, causing it to bleed.

“After the attack, everyone was saying I needed to press charges,” he said. “I was pissed. We didn’t even know if I should go to the hospital or not, so I just left it.”

Skelton and two strangers took Scripture to his apartment, where they debated taking him to the hospital. Scripture said they watched his head for signs of trauma, but decided he would be fine without medical attention.

About an hour later, Scripture left his apartment to find his friends at Sports. He said the same stranger who punched him was present at the bar.  Scripture proceeded to give him the middle finger and attempt to have him removed from the premises.  

Scripture was drinking, but he said it wasn’t enough to impair his ability to function or remember.

“I’ve never even had anyone or anything come close to this incident,” he said. “It really shocked me.”

When asked why he never reported his attack, Scripture stared quietly.

It was two weeks after the incident, and his lip and face were completely healed.

“I’m not worrying about if someone knows about it,” he said. “It happened so fast, he was already gone before I could do anything.”  

Follow reporter Matt Bloom on Twitter @matthew_bloom.