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| Vauxx Rush Booker on a happier occasion, from his Facebook page. |
There's plenty of ill will sloshing around near a lakeside beach in Bloomington, Indiana this month thanks to an ugly conflict that occurred July 4th, when a local civil-rights activist, Vauxx Booker, and a small group of friends of unreported ethnicity crossed paths with a semi-inebriated group of white people.
The family of one of those white people, Caroline McCord, owned the land; another man in that group was her boyfriend, Sean Purdy. Booker and his group were heading to a Monroe County beach to watch a lunar eclipse and apparently thought the land was part of a public park.
Booker's group continued on after apologizing for trespassing, Booker says.
McCord's land may have been a well-known shortcut, because there were several bystanders who took video of what followed when Booker's group retraced their steps a few hours later, when they again encountered McCord's and Purdy's group.
According to the white group, McCord told them he was a county commissioner and said they were "in violation." Booker is, in fact, a member of the Monroe County Human Rights Commission, but his saying so didn't help the atmosphere.
Words were had. Punches were thrown. And while Purdy held Booker against a tree, head down, someone yelled "get a noose!"
That remark isn't on anyone's video, but it made a big impression on Booker, who called 911 at his first opportunity.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources took two weeks to investigate, producing a 68-page report. Today, two men of the white group were charged with crimes.
Sean Purdy was charged with three felonies: criminal confinement, battery, and intimidation. His friend Jerry Cox was charged with helping out with the
criminal confinement and battery, both felonies; and intimidation and two counts of battery, both misdemeanors.
The investigation reported that Booker and one other person in his group may also have committed crimes stemming from the fisticuffs at the encounter.
The FBI is investigating the incident as a hate crime.
Do you think this incident was racially based harassment, or just an example of drunken partiers picking a fight? Will the argument turn Indiana into a racial tinderbox? What's the best possible outcome of this incident? What's the worst?
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