Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump called for hate crime charges to be filed against a University of Kentucky student who was seen on video yelling racial slurs at a college employee.
In the video shared by Crump on Monday morning, 22-year-old Sophia Rosing, who was later arrested, can be seen in an altercation with an unknown university employee, which reportedly occurred in Boyd Hall. During the altercation, Rosing, who is white, can be heard saying racial slurs to the Black employee, including the N-word. Rosing can also be heard using several other curse words.
A person, who was filming the incident, can be heard saying that she got it on video while the employee can be heard saying that she doesn't "get paid enough for this."
"22-yo University of Kentucky student Sophia Rosing has been arrested for attacking and repeatedly calling a student worker racial slurs. Rosing's racist attacks are vile! She needs to be charged with a HATE CRIME in addition to the several charges she's facing!" Crump tweeted.
Crump's comments come shortly after videos of the incident circulated on Twitter on Sunday, which prompted University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto to issue a statement confirming Rosing's arrest.
"Early this morning, an incident involving violence against our students, racial slurs and offensive language occurred in one of our residence halls. One of the victims was a student employee who was working an overnight shift at the front desk," Capilouto said in the statement on Sunday. "From my view of a video of the incident, the student worker acted with professionalism, restraint and discretion. UK Police arrested the perpetrator, who faces criminal charges, and the investigation is ongoing. Our Office of Student Conduct also is conducting an immediate review, and our Student Success teams are reaching out to the student victims who were subject to this behavior to offer support."
Capilouto continued: "We will fully investigate what happened last night, but we also must learn from this moment and do better as a community...Let us take this moment, painful and ugly though it is, to remind ourselves of the work we must remain committed to as a community where everyone is welcome and feels that they belong."
While Capilouto did not confirm Rosing's name in his statement, a spokesperson for the university told NBC News that Rosing was the student arrested after arrest records identified her as "Jane Doe." The arrest records, which were reviewed by Newsweek, showed that Rosing was apprehended by officials with the University of Kentucky Police Department and charged with alcohol intoxication in a public place, disorderly conduct, assault in the third-degree on a police officer and assault in the fourth-degree.
A spokesperson for the University of Kentucky told Newsweek in a statement on Monday that "the University strongly condemns this behavior and will not tolerate it under any circumstance. The safety and well-being of our students has been—and will continue to be—our top priority. These actions are deeply antithetical to what we are and what we always want to be as a community. As for the student involved, a student conduct review process is underway."
Newsweek reached out to Crump for further comment on his calls for hate crime charges.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more
