Black Indiana Man Threatened With Lynching By Racist White Mob

Another day, another sickeningly racist incident.

Source: George Tsartsianidis / EyeEm / Getty

Vauhxx Rush Booker of Monroe County, Indiana shared a disturbing Facebook video of a July 4 incident where he was attacked by a mob of white men who threatened his life in a hate crime. Booker, a local civil rights activist and member of the Monroe County Human Rights Commission, shared a clip of the white men accosting him leading to a minor concussion, abrasions, bruising, and ripped out patches of his hair. He said one of the men stood on his neck and he heard one of them say “get a noose” during the shocking attack. 

According to Booker, the sordid story started when a man wearing a confederate flag hat accused him and his friends of trespassing on private property during a gathering at an Indiana Lake. Booker later discovered that the man who was part of a larger group, didn’t own the property. The group of rancid racists, five in total, were seemingly looking for conflict and Booker said he heard them yell things like “white power” to individuals passing by before attacking him unprovoked.

The unscrupulous soup cookies were so brazen that they did all of this in front of onlookers and shouted that they were going to “break his arms” while pinning him to the tree. Later they implored someone to “get a noose” and called him “the boy.”

“Two of them jumped me from behind and knocked me to the ground,” wrote Booker. “I tussled with the two and another one joined in, then two more. The five were able to easily overwhelm me and got me to the ground and dragged me pinning my body against a tree as they began pounding on my head and ripped off some of my hair, with several of them still on top of my body holding me down. They held me pinned and continued beating me for several minutes seemingly become more and more enraged as they kept trying to seriously injure me and failing. At one point during the attack one of the men jumped on my neck. I could feel both his feet and his full bodyweight land hard against my neck.

At this point the commotion and the sounds one of the men’s young teenage daughter screaming for her father and the others to let me go started attracting more people, (most whom I didn’t know) who started attempting to intervene. The attackers told the growing group, “we’re going to break his arms” (while literally attempting to bend my arms behind me) and then stated to the members of their party several times to, “get a noose”, amongst some other choice slurs. With me still pinned underneath them they kept telling onlookers to leave the, “boy” and that everyone else (all white) could go. Folks then started filming the confrontation, and shouting that they wouldn’t leave me to be killed.”

Luckily there were witnesses there to stop the men and eventually they let up when white allies stepped in.

****TRIGGER WARNING, THE FOOTAGE IS GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING*****

Unfortunately but not surpsingly, NONE OF THE MEN WERE ARRESTED and the victim is rightfully side-eyeing the Indiana Department of Natural Resources conservation officers. According to Booker the investigators kept talking about the property owner’s rights—instead of his rights as a human being.

“They left a clear and present danger loose in our community,” Booker told TheIndyStar. “I don’t have a doubt that if it would have been five black men who had attacked a white man, they would have been in jail that night.”

 

Bloomington Mayor’s John Hamilton has since expressed “outrage and grief” over the incident to Yahoo News and noted that he personally knows Vauhxx Booker to be a pillar of the community. According to Mayor Hamilton, the racist incident is unacceptable and it’s time to stop “pretending” that the city doens’t have “hate incidents every year.”

“I do know Vauhxx Booker. I’ve been mayor for five years and I’ve probably known him for five years. And he’s been a very active member of the community. I care a great deal and I want to help my residents have justice.

And of course, we want to stop this kind of thing from ever happening. It’s a terrible reminder that racism– we’re a very progressive city, democratic city, progressive, liberal. We believe in inclusion.

But in our community, we know we have hate incidents every year. We know there is racism in our community and around our community. And we can’t pretend that’s not the case.

We hope this brother gets justice ASAP, if people weren’t there to intervene it’s quite clear what would’ve happened next.