The Justice Department on Friday brought federal civil rights charges against a University of Mississippi student who allegedly hung a noose on a statue of James Meredith, Ole Miss’ first black student.
Charging documents identified the suspect in the Feb. 14, 2014 incident as Graeme Phillip Harris, a student at Ole Miss, according to a DOJ press release.
Harris was charged with one count of conspiracy to violate civil rights and one count of using threat of force to intimidate black students because of their race. He was accused of hanging a rope and a flag sporting the Confederate battle emblem around the neck of the Meredith statue.
Last winter, police had said they were close to bringing criminal charges against three freshmen students suspected of taking part in the racially charged vandalism. The university’s Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity chapter also expelled three of its members suspected to have been involved in the incident, leading the fraternity’s national organization to suspend that local chapter.
The names of the students in question were not released by either the police or the fraternity.
“This shameful and ignorant act is an insult to all Americans and a violation of our most strongly-held values,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in a statement announcing the charges against Harris. “No one should ever be made to feel threatened or intimidated because of what they look like or who they are. By taking appropriate action to hold wrongdoers accountable, the Department of Justice is sending a clear message that flagrant infringements of our historic civil rights will not go unnoticed or unpunished.”
< writes> “tedious, future bottom-bunker in federal pen” < /writes>
I hope this student gets convicted and then appeals all the way to the SCOTUS, so Chief Justice Roberts can give Americans another lecture about “post-racial America”.
Sigma Phi Epsilon. Good ol’ Sigma Phi. Good ol’ totally not racist despite the actions of a few bad apples Sigma Phi.
Steve, as much as I’m certain that Sigma Phi Epsilon deserves censure, the link is to an article about the now notorious Sigma Alpha Epsilon. Different variety of bad apple, I understand.
Sigh. Ole Miss: taking three steps forward, and two backward.
On Wednesday, thousands rallied to support the Chancellor.
The same Chancellor who got rid of Colonel Reb, and when the students wouldn’t stop chanting “The South Will Rise Again” after the marching band played a medley (Dixie was part of it) forbade the band from playing Dixie at all.
Probably received death threats for that.