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by Bat-Wielding Homophobe
 Atlanta, Georgia-A Morehouse College student whose bat-wielding attacker complained of being looked at in the showers, had his skull fractured November 3. The beating victim, who was struck several times, denies his assailant's complaint and says that he himself is not gay. He was released by the Atlanta Medical Center and, according to a college official, he is said to be recovering in the Morehouse College infirmary "and doing well."Aaron Price, the alleged attacker, was arrested and, say school administrators, he has been expelled from the black, all-male institution. He'd reportedly confessed to authorities after having a discussion about what he'd done with his father, a Chicago minister. Price was released the next day from the Fulton County Jail after posting a $10,000 bond. According to the ^Atlanta Journal-Constitution ~another Morehouse student revealed: "A lot of people believe he deserved to be beaten up if he was looking in the shower stall…But everyone thinks the bat was a little extreme…Nobody deserves to get beaten with a bat." Spokespersons for Morehouse College say that the case is being investigated but that it is still too early to call the attack a hate crime. The College refused to provide the^ Journal-Constitution ~with a copy of Price's arrest report, telling the newspaper that campus police were cooperating with the Atlanta Police Department. Atlanta police, however, deny taking any part in the investigation. Morehouse administrators are being urged by the Human Rights Campaign to publicly denounce last week's attack which, says the HRC, was because of the victim's perceived sexual orientation. "Aaron Price allegedly attacked the unnamed junior with a baseball bat after what he called an 'unwelcome, unwarranted advance' in the dormitory showers. In a letter sent yesterday to Morehouse College President, Dr. Walter Massey, HRC Executive Director Elizabeth Birch called on college leaders to send a clear message to students that hate crimes on campus will not be tolerated. "As you know, bias crimes or perceived bias crimes affect not only the victim but others in the community who share the victim's characteristics, leaving them feeling vulnerable, isolated and victimized. Often it leaves them feeling fearful of the very institutions that are there to serve and protect them. It is critical for the college to address the issues of hate and hate-motivated harassment, intimidation and violence," said Birch. "Regardless of the victim's actual sexual orientation, it seems clear that Aaron Price brutally attacked this young man because he perceived him to be gay. This is part of an unsettling national increase in hate crimes targeting the gay community," said HRC National Field Director Seth Kilbourn. A recent report released by the FBI showed that hate incidents based on sexual orientation have increased from 1,299 incidents in 2000 to 1,392 in 2001 -- a 7.2 percent increase. Reported hate crimes based on sexual orientation have more than tripled since the FBI began keeping statistics in 1991. To read the hate crime section of the FBI report, visit: http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius_01/01crime2.pdf. "If this incident turns out to be bias-related, we urge Morehouse College to submit it to the FBI for inclusion in its 2002 hate crimes report," said Kilbourn. "This is yet another example of the importance of enacting meaningful hate crime legislation to uniformly protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people across the country." Currently, there are no federal laws that address hate crimes against the GLBT community. The state of Georgia passed a law in 2000 that allows for stiffer penalties for crimes motivated by bias or prejudice. However, the law does not have a specific provision for the prosecution of crimes based on sexual orientation. |