Sara(h) was interviewing me for her thesis about Bloomington punk and asked a question about skinheads when I remembered this incident in the past year of Bloomington. I had written some lyrics for a new Defiance, Ohio song about it, but had never researched the details. I quickly found this information from the HT:
Police and city officials are still investigating the beating of a 25-year-old man Tuesday morning as a hate crime, even though the victim was not black, as had previously been reported.
The man was attacked after a group of white men with what appeared to be shaved heads yelled anti-black racial slurs at him.
A little after 4 a.m., the victim and his wife were leaving a downtown tavern when they began hearing racial slurs from across the street.
The group of white men, all dressed in dark-colored clothing, then crossed the street in the 500 block of East Kirkwood Avenue and began attacking the victim.
One of the assailants used a skateboard to strike the victim, causing several lacerations to the man’s head.
He was taken to the hospital after his wife ran to get their car. The victim told police he had suffered a concussion and two dislocated bones in his arms.
Police officials said there was no new information regarding the case on Wednesday, and encouraged anyone with knowledge of the attack to contact them.
City spokeswoman Maria Heslin said the incident would still be pursued as a hate crime, even though a police report made no indication of the victim’s race.