The mob beating of 19-year-old Marcellus Andrews last month prompted outcries from civil rights groups, calls to action at community forums and candlelight vigils across the state.
Andrews died when he was removed from life support at an Iowa City hospital two days after he was pummeled on Cottage Avenue in Waterloo. On Sept. 8, police arrested 19-year-old Paris A. Anding and charged him with second-degree murder. He allegedly used a baseball bat in the attack.
The Waterloo Police Department and the Black Hawk County Attorney’s Office soon came under scrutiny for not labeling the killing a hate crime after witnesses said the assailants called Andrews a derogatory name relating to sexual orientation as they beat him.
But the refusal of police and prosecutors to do so is par for the course in Iowa, where only a handful of criminal incidents each year are ever designated as hate crimes.
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Complete article at Globe Gazette : http://bit.ly/qHlWI3
