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Racist scribbles haven't warranted hate-crime charge … because?

Racist scribbles haven't warranted hate-crime charge … because?


Racist scribbles haven't warranted hate-crime charge … because?

A conservative group is questioning why a university in Atlanta refused for weeks to identify the race of a suspect arrested for theft and writing racist graffiti in a campus building.

The accused, Roy Lee Gordon, Jr., in early August allegedly drew a racial slur and swastikas in a hallway near where black employees and a Jewish worker are located. "These acts of racism and antisemitism are painful …. They will not be tolerated," the school stated on August 10. In a follow-up release ten days later, Emory University identified Gordon as a suspect, reported a warrant had been issued for his arrest, and added that the school "is committed to fostering a safe and inclusive campus …."

Matt Lamb of The College Fix, however, says Emory failed to report Gordon is black. That fact – according to The College Fix – was not revealed publicly until September 23.

Lamb, Matt (The College Fix) Lamb

"They've known for at least a month that the employee who committed this act was a black man. But … if it was a white person who did this, I think it's pretty clear that that information would have been released by the university," he tells AFN.

The College Fix reports it filed "multiple" public records requests with the university and law enforcement seeking a copy of the police report but was repeatedly rebuffed. Lamb argues they were intentionally stonewalling those requests for political reasons – and he points out that most arrest warrants include a suspect's race.

"This is allegedly an act where a black person wrote the N-word and drew swastikas – and that does not fit into a narrative of white supremacists on campus or a neo-Nazis or Klansmen," he says.

Lamb finds it curious that Gordon, a former Emory employee, has been charged with second-degree burglary – but not with a hate crime under Georgia's new hate crime law.