Escence McCoy ’06 was driving home from work last October when a crowd blocked the road in front of Campion. All but one man intentionally stood there. After a minute of honking her horn and flashing her high beams, he stepped aside.
She parked her car and walked back to her dorm. The same crowd drove past her. “The guy in my way yelled out of the window: ‘Get out of the way you n*****!’ and sped off,” said McCoy.
According to crime statistics from 2002, there were zero reports of hate crimes on campus that year. However, three such incidents were reported in 2003.
“Hurling racial slurs is a horrible act of cruelty,” said Rev.- Charles Allen S.J., executive assistant to the president. “Sadly, the punishment is ever rarely able to fit the crime.”
The formal definition of hate crimes often includes language such as “bodily injury.” While African-American students do not experience “bodily injury” when they are called a racial slur, they can remain traumatically scarred by the harassment.
Last May, James Keene ’06, Christopher Merritt ’06 and Kentebe Ogbolu ’06 were walking back to campus from town with weekend guests. Four passengers in a Jeep drove by twice screaming “Keep walking n*****.”
They ignored the comments and quickened their pace to the townhouse gates.
“We climbed over the closed gates so security came,” said Keene. Security advised them to stand by the gate to see if they would pass by. The car drove past them again screaming a racial slur.
Security caught the plate number then contacted the office to phone Fairfield police. Those in the car turned out to be Fairfield Prep students.
“They had no look of remorse, so we filed a report and pressed charges,” said Keene.
The Prep students were not the only ones spitting racist remarks that night. As the police questioned Keene and friends, the remark “Look at all those black people” came from a car of Fairfield students.
Larry Mazon, the university’s director of multicultural relations explained Fairfield’s policies for penalizing verbal racism. According to Mazon, Fairfield pursues the educational route in name-calling incidents. For example, judicial assigns them to work in the multicultural office.
The additional penalty includes a meeting in Mazon’s office between the students for a face to face formal apology, which he finds more effective than a fine. “When the person has to look the other in the eye and apologize, that gets real tough” said Mazon. “It usually ends up in tears from the accused.”
“If it had not been for the alertness of security, the incidents would have passed us by,” said Mazon.
The harassed students praised the way security handled the issues.
“I found security very helpful in terms of what they could do,” said McCoy. The investigation involved watching security cameras to spot the car, reviewing line-up photos and the face book in order to recognize the offender or his friends.
“They did a great job,” said Merritt. “One actually went to court with me.” He and the other students attended two hearings to testify against the driver and front passenger of the Jeep.
Although security took action, there are some matters beyond their control. “Security does not have the power to arrest or can’t be involved with judicial sanctions,” said Frank Ficko, associate director of security. “Our job is to jot down the facts.”
Security turned the reports over to campus judicial or the district attorney. But all students felt the charges were inadequate. “The one who said the slur was a visitor who just got a letter banning him from campus,” said McCoy, “while his host had to do community service and was tearing when he apologized for him.”
In Keene and Merritt’s case, the judge ordered numerous fines and community service for one, but issued a “breach of peace” for the other.
“I felt violated when the one kid just got away free,” said Merritt. “I still get this feeling every time a car of screaming kids drives by in town or campus.”
“Of course there aren’t rampant hate crimes here because racists here are cowards,” said Merritt. “The graffiti stays anonymous and the racial slurs are shouted from speeding SUVs.”
Leave a Reply