College town scene of unprovoked attacks
A reader’s comment: “I am from this area. I would say that 80-90% of the assaults are beingdone by Blacks. Iowa City has a racial problem, but no one wants toadmit it for fear of being called a racist. And Iowa City is a liberalcommunity, so there is an aversion to looking at the reality of theracial component. The whole thing is pretty scary. There was anemployee from the University of Iowa that was walking down the Ped Mallabout 2 weeks ago and got sucker punched–breaking his jaw. And itdoesn’t appear to be Black students from the University causing thisproblem–but there is a racial factor at work here.”
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IOWA CITY. IA–Gangs of men punching people on the streetat random. Street fights where bystanders sometimes cheer, and wherethose who try to intervene sometimes get beaten themselves.
Policein this quintessential college town say there’s been a dramatic rise inunprovoked beatings in the downtown area next to the University of Iowaover the last several months. Though the mix of young people andalcohol often leads to fighting, police say the intense violence andrandom nature of the attacks have them worried.
Police don’t break out statistics forthe downtown area near campus, but they point to several disturbingincidents in the past month alone:
_On March 27, acollege-aged man was assaulted at about 2 a.m. downtown. Witnesses saidsix to 10 men ganged up on him, and when another man tried tointervene, he too was knocked unconscious. Police say the assailantsthen ran along a downtown street, punching other men as they passed.**
_On April 2, a 22-year-old man was smoking outside a downtown bar whensix men approached him and asked for cigarettes. As he was handing themout, the men knocked him to the ground and took the whole pack. Later,the same man walked past a group of men who knocked him to the groundand stole his watch.
_On April 6, a man woke up to bystandershelping him sit up. The man told police someone he didn’t know knockedhim unconscious. He didn’t realize his jaw was broken until a hospitalvisit the next afternoon.
_On April 16, two college-age menstepped outside a bar to smoke at about 1:15 a.m. After an argumentwith others, one of the men was pushed to the ground, then kicked andpunched by several people. He suffered a broken nose and a head cutrequiring staples to close.
“I really don’t understand themotivation for the violence,” Iowa City Mayor Regenia Bailey said.”It’s severe and concerning that people find this acceptable and peopleare seeking this out.”
Kelsay said police have stepped uplate-night patrols downtown, but they have had a hard time trackingdown suspects because they usually can’t find witnesses. And sometimesthose who see a beating actually cheer on the attackers, he said.
“It’s become an unfortunate part of the bar culture in Iowa City,” Kelsay said.
**Beating in Ped Mall being investigated
IOWA CITY, IA. — The Iowa City Police Dept,is investigating an assault that occurred in the Ped Mall, on Friday,3-27-09, near the intersection of Dubuque and College St, between1:45am and 2am. Witnesses reported that the victim had run to the aidof a college age male who was being beaten up by 6 to 10 black males.The victim, who was knocked unconscious to the ground, was treated fornon life threatening injuries at Mercy Hospital.The suspects were last seen running north on Dubuque St, randomlypunching other males as they ran by them. One of the suspects isdescribed as a thin, light skinned black male, about 6′ tall, with hishair pulled back into a pony tail, wearing a gray hoodie and white t-shirt with black writing or logo on the front.
Iowa City Area CrimeStoppersis offering a reward of up to $1000 for information leading to thearrest of this suspect. Anyone with information about this crime isurged to contact CrimeStoppers at 358-TIPS (8477). All calls are heldin strict confidence and anonymity is guaranteed. Individualsproviding information do not have to reveal their identity to collect areward.