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Today's Paper | December 23, 2024

Updated 11 Nov, 2016 06:02pm

California cops probe 'hate crime' against hijab-wearing student after divisive US election

California authorities were investigating a reported attack on a college campus of a Muslim student wearing a headscarf as a hate crime Thursday.

San Diego State University's police department said two suspects who assaulted the student on campus Wednesday had targeted her because of her faith and made comments about Donald Trump's election.

The woman was not hurt.

Authorities said the assault occurred in a parking complex while the woman was wearing a hijab. The suspects stole her car keys, and the vehicle was later reported missing, authorities said.

"We condemn this hateful act and urge all members of our community to join us in condemning such hateful acts," SDSU President Elliot Hirshman said in a statement.

A similar report came from Northern California, where a woman said she was walking in a parking garage at San Jose State University when a fair-skinned man in a hooded sweatshirt came up behind her and pulled at her head scarf, the university said in a statement.

The victim was briefly choked and lost her balance before the suspect ran away, the statement said.California Attorney General Kamala Harris on Thursday issued an information bulletin to law enforcement agencies, outlining laws that prohibit hate crimes.

Reports of attacks against minorities included at least two assaults on women in head scarves, as well as racist graffiti and bullying of immigrant children, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, and other civil rights groups.

"It's the inevitable result of the mainstreaming of Islamophobia we’ve seen in recent months with the presidential campaign,” CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said in a phone interview. "Unfortunately, it really is up to Donald Trump to repudiate this kind of bigotry.”

Trump's campaign could not be reached for comment.

During the campaign, Trump called for banning Muslims from entering the country for security reasons. The wealthy businessman, who won his White House bid with strong support from white voters, has made calls for unity since the election.

Hooper said the president-elect's supporters appeared to be getting a different message.

Anti-Trump incidents

There were also reports of Trump supporters being targeted by ugly rhetoric and worse.

In a video posted on social media, at least two people can be seen beating a man at an intersection as others are heard yelling: "You voted Trump" and "Don’t vote Trump."

Chicago police spokesman Frank Giancamilli confirmed the 50-year-old man was attacked by five people on Wednesday following a traffic altercation in the city, but said police had not determined the motive for the attack.

A Palm Bay, Florida, high school student carrying a Trump campaign sign was punched in the face by another student during gym class, local media reported.

On social media, many people described threats and insults against minorities they said were made by apparent Trump supporters.

Spray-painted messages such as "Black Lives Don't Matter and Neither Does Your Votes" on a wall in North Carolina and a swastika and "Make America White Again" on a baseball dugout in New York went viral.

Civil rights leaders told a news conference in Washington on Thursday they were hearing of an increase in bullying incidents against children from racial and religious minority groups.

Mark Potok, senior fellow at the Southern Poverty Law Center civil rights group, said he had not seen such a rash of hate crimes in the United States since Barack Obama was elected America's first black president in 2008.

A similar wave occurred when Britain voted in June to leave the European Union, Potok said.

"I don't really expect it to go on for four years," he said. "In the case of Brexit, it calmed down after a couple of weeks."

Fabricated reports

Meanwhile, a Louisiana student acknowledged she fabricated a reported attack by two men, one she said wore a 'Trump' hat.

In the Louisiana case, the Lafayette Police Department said in a statement that it is no longer investigating the 18-year-old woman's claims, which were made within hours of Trump's presidential victory.

Police said the student told investigators she was walking near the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's campus Wednesday morning when she was accosted by two white men who drove up in a gray Sedan.

Police added the student had claimed the men shouted racial obscenities as they knocked her down and stole her wallet and the headscarf.

Charlie Bier, a spokesman for the university, said a federal privacy law prohibits him from saying whether the student could be disciplined.

Lafayette Police spokesman, Officer Karl Ratcliff, did not immediately respond to emails or phone messages from The Associated Press seeking further comment. But he told The Advocate that the woman offered no explanation for lying.

He said the woman might now face charges herself related to filing a false police report.

"We don't take this lightly, and it's made national headlines now," he said. "There will be consequences."

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