BERKELEY (KRON) — Two UC Berkeley students have reported hate motivated crime after a suspect spat on them after yelling racial and homophobic slurs at them on Election Day.
On Tuesday evening, around 6:40 p.m., the two victimized students, a male and a female, were watching election coverage on campus at Upper Sproul Plaza, according to UC Berkeley police.
The suspected man then approached the two students and yelled slurs at them. The suspect then spat on the victims, police said.
The suspect was described as a white male in his 50’s with short grey hair and a ruddy complexion, standing between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 7 inches tall, with a heavy build. The suspect was wearing a red plaid shirt, a gray hoodie, blue jeans and sneakers.
Anyone with information is asked to contact campus police at 510-642-0472 or 510-642-6760.
An anti-white supremacy rally is scheduled Saturday night on the UC Berkeley campus.
KRON4’s Hermela Aregawi spoke to UC Berkeley students who say the campus is known for being inclusive, but since Election Day something has changed.
“I am definitely hearing a lot more about this stuff since the election,” said student Abby Anderson. “I think a lot of what Trump has said has been validated since people have voted for him and that’s a scary thing. These sexist racist and homophobic comments are now being given some sort of weight in our political system and culture.”
“When I came to Berkeley, I was surprised to see that there wasn’t a lot of racial acts out in the open,” said student Thomas Dobbs. “There wasn’t a lot of racism out in the open and if something came out into the open, it was attacked. It was put down and it was. There was a lot of community support and I’m really upset to see that happening here.”