On Monday, August 17th, 2020, the Spirit Rock that proudly radiated a message of racial equality was tarnished with hate; the message that read, "black lives matter" was illegally violated as perpetrators deliberately peeled off the word, "black". This action is not only vandalism that is a violation of civil rights as it is a clear attempt to revoke The JMU NAACP's freedom of speech but this also a hate crime. James Madison University needs to seek out justice and enforce the rule of law by reporting the vandalism as a hate crime to the local Harrisonburg Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation branch in Richmond, Virginia.

How is This a Hate Crime?

The perpetrators committed vandalism which is a crime. They intentionally targeted the word "black" from "black lives matter" when they chose to deface the rock. By doing this, they conscientiously wanted to create a message that black lives don't matter. The FBI and Federal Department of Justice both classify a hate crime as, a “criminal offense against a person or property motivated in whole or in part by an offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity, gender, or gender identity.” The combination of vandalism of the rock and the motive of targeting the black community in attempts to revoke their freedom of speech and convey that their lives do not matter, classify this as a hate crime.

What Will Reporting This as a Hate Crime Do?

• Creates an environment at JMU and in the Harrisonburg/Rockingham County area that demonstrates that racial and ethnic hate are in no way tolerated. The FBI, who is the most specialized and investigative when it comes to hate crimes, claims that reporting them is the most effective way to reduce future hate crimes as it pushes for accountability of the perpetrators of the criminal activity. 
• Provides justice and safety on behalf of all racial and ethnic minority groups that attend JMU and/or live in the city of Harrisonburg. The defacement of the Spirit Rock demonstrates that hate does indeed exist in the city. Enforcing the proper rule of law by reporting the incident as a hate crime to the HPD and FBI demonstrates that JMU is willing to protect, defend, and listen to all diverse groups that make up JMU’s student body.
• Enforce the rule of law as the Department of Justice upholds the standard that all hate crimes should be reported to the local police department and local FBI branch. On the DOJ’s “Get Help Now” page, they urge all victims to immediately contact the police and then contact the nearest FBI branch to inform them that a hate crime has occurred. Not only was JMU’s investigation not reported to the JMU police department, but it hadn't been reported to the local HPD. It should also be noted that the FBI is currently reporting a decreasing trend of hate crimes in the U.S. but this is mainly due to the fact that majority of victims are not reporting these crimes as hate crimes.
   
  I’ve formally addressed this to President Alger, Tim Miller, Art Dean, and Board of visitors members. Here is a copy of the email that I’ve sent to them: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1d2lL1JE6Iy-ncToZnwiOMrucRmlZqMnetIyPdtoe6vY/edit?usp=sharing

Links:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CD_Ufs-pXCw/?igshid=o5tyyotrcacl (Image is from @Scar_JMU on Instagram. Please follow this new group as they were one of the first on-campus organizations to report the crime)

 https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/learn-about-hate-crimes/chart

https://www.justice.gov/hatecrimes/get-help-now

https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/civil-rights/hate-crimes

https://www.propublica.org/article/police-dont-do-a-good-job-tracking-hate-crimes-a-new-report-calls-on-congress-to-take-action

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/07/us/hate-crime-charges-black-lives-matter-mural-painted-over-trnd/index.html