Professor Is Accused of Staging Hate Crime by Vandalizing Her Own Car

A psychology professor at Claremont McKenna College who said her car had been vandalized and painted with racist and sexist slurs was herself responsible for the damage, the police in Claremont, Calif., said Wednesday.

Kerri F. Dunn, a visiting professor of social psychology at Claremont McKenna, spoke at a campus forum about hate crimes on March 9. When she later returned to her vehicle, which she had parked on the campus, she said the front window had been smashed and all four tires slashed. According to Ms. Dunn, who complained to the college and the police, someone had used black spray-paint to scrawl "whore," "nigger lover," and "bitch" on the car.

The incident prompted administrators to cancel classes on March 10 at Claremont McKenna and the six other institutions that are part of the Claremont Colleges system. Hundreds of students marched on the campuses to protest the vandalism.

"Never in your wildest dreams did anyone expect such a violent act to take place here," said Marc S. Bathgate, who is a junior and president-elect of the student government at Claremont McKenna, located in a quiet community about 30 miles east of Los Angeles. Students at the college are on spring break this week, but Mr. Bathgate said on Thursday that those he had spoken with felt "shocked, confused, angry, disgusted, and betrayed" by the possibility that Ms. Dunn was the perpetrator, not the victim.

The Claremont Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation said they have completed their investigation of the incident.

"During the course of the investigation, two eyewitnesses came forward who positively identified the victim as vandalizing her own vehicle," said a statement released by the police on Wednesday. "Additionally, interviews with the alleged victim revealed inconsistencies in her statements regarding the incident."

Ms. Dunn could not be reached for comment on Thursday. But in an article in Thursday's Los Angeles Times, she said she was "enraged" at the police allegations. "This is so overshadowing the bigger problem on campus, which is that the administration has turned its head regularly on hate speech and hate crimes," Ms. Dunn told the newspaper.

Ms. Dunn, a white woman who earned her Ph.D. from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, has been teaching at Claremont McKenna for a year and a half under a contract that ends in June. "Based on the information from the police investigation, Claremont McKenna College will be conducting a further investigation into the professor's employment relationship with the college," said Pamela B. Gann, the college's president.

After the vandalism occurred, the college offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the perpetrator. In an interview on Thursday, Ms. Gann said it was too soon to say whether the money would be distributed.

Two incidents earlier this year have concerned administrators and students at the Claremont Colleges. In January four athletes were punished for taking an 11-foot-tall cross from Pomona College and burning it at Harvey Mudd College -- both part of the Claremont system. They told the police it was a prank, not a hate crime.

Then, in February, a picture of George Washington Carver hanging in a dormitory at Claremont McKenna was defaced. The incidents led Claremont McKenna to sponsor the forum at which Ms. Dunn spoke.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the police said Ms. Dunn could be charged with filing a false report, a misdemeano

Her speech:

Thank you so very much. Thank you, um, and thank you so much for being here. Um, I don't have anything prepared so what I say is probably (inaudible) I don't have anything prepared so what I, what I'll probably wind up saying will be sort of disconnected, although all of the thoughts that I have are true to my heart. I spoke today at the faculty meeting and, um, mentioned that I was scared, but that I felt very proud and somewhat empowered by knowing that the people at that meeting were standing beside me. And I can't tell you how it makes me feel to look out into the sea of you and know that you are here to support me and rather the larger issues of civil rights and equality for men, women, people of color, um, people of all sexual orientations, um, etc. Um.

(Applause)

There were, there are a couple things I wanted to touch on because I think that, um, this whole thing kind of started, and snowballed, and how I wound up in the midst of it is really just basically a lark. Um, I read about the cross burning, and I read about the, uh, word [racial epithet] being written on calendars and I was appalled. I just couldn't believe in 2004 this was happening. As a psychologist, I teach on a regular basis about the nature of prejudice. And we talk about how prejudice nowadays is supposed to be modern, and covert, and based on ignorance, and stereotyping. And I thought these acts aren't ignorant. This isn't the result of some covert thought. This was a well planned out act of terrorism.

(Applause)

And I don't believe for one second it was one person. I think that there's a group here, a small group, but I do believe that there is a group here that perpetuates this in all different kinds of ways. And I think if you confronted those people they would deny it because they're cowards.

(Applause)

They are not looking for open dialogue. They are not looking for discussing whether the word [racial epithet] is an appropriate word to use with people of color. They're sneaking around at nighttime writin' this [expletive] on walls.

(Applause)

So as I said at the faculty meeting and as I've said before I think that calling these acts acts of ignorance is a dangerous misnomer.

(Applause)

What I do think is that (inaudible) the espousal of a certain ideology and being in a free country I certainly believe these people have a right to their ideology, but we have a right to ours as well.

(Applause)

And what I did that pissed people off so much and made them ruin my beautiful 1992 beater Honda Civic was that I said let's get together and say our ideology is more popular than yours.

(Applause)

Diversity is more popular than segregation. Love is more popular than hate.

(Applause)

That's what I did to wind up in as much trouble as I wound up in. The other thing that I, I also wanted to address, um, was in my class when I talked to people about - what are you gonna do, I said, I kept saying what are you gonna do, these are your friends under attack, these are my friends under attack, these are your colleagues, these are your peers, you're my students who are being attacked. What are we gonna do? Many people responded with, well you know Professor Dunn, we've always been taught that we should be racially blind, and that by not paying attention to it and not calling attention to differences we would minimize them. You know, that's a beautiful, beautiful, explanation - or should I say, um, all right, piece of [expletive] -

(Applause)

It has absolutely no substance and no utility in society wherein we are founded on diversity. The Statue of Liberty stands every day of all of our lives theoretically welcoming people to this land to become part of us. So to say that we should act like we're colorblind I really believe is an excuse. I believe it's an excuse to remain lazy, it's an excuse to turn your head. And it's an excuse to allow these idiots to continue with their agenda.

(Applause)

Last thing and I'll shut up, for real, for a little while anyway -

(Crowd chants: "Don't shut up"; applause)

Thank you. Um, I want to address one last thing that I think it's really important for us to pay attention to. Um, it also has come to my attention, you guys know I'm an attorney, that many, many people don't understand that the initial acts that took place on campus were not legally hate crimes. Whether you agree with that or not that's something we deal with the Legislature about.

But I heard people bad-mouthing the administration for not taking a more harsh stance against these acts when in fact there was nothing more that the administration could do. And what I want to say is from my position, and from the position of me feeling like a victim, I can't say thank you enough to the administration. They have been there supportive of me. Um, Pam Gann is here at a rally, as president of CMC. Torry Sun is here as well, and many many other administrators are here, and I have to say they're doing not just what they have to do administratively, but they're doing what they should be doing as human beings. And I think the message -

(Applause)

I think that the message that we need to take from this is that social change comes about on different levels and through different means. Some ways social change takes place is in the box office, um, is in the voting office, when you vote. Other ways - maybe it takes place in the box office, um, it definitely changes our attitudes. Um, it takes place on individual levels, it takes place on group levels, but it's, for things like this, when these events that were going on were beyond the reach of the police, but they were offensive and terrorizing to our friends, us individually, um, our peers, our colleagues, the action that need to take place is exactly what you are doing right here. And I just, you know, I want to end this by saying as a group, we stand here, and we say we're pro-diversity and anti-hate -

(applause)

- and that the people who espouse these hateful ideologies, really, I said earlier today should go underground. What I meant is that they should go to hell.

Lies in the furtherance of hatemongering.

In this case, that shoe sure fits.
I really love this story, it gets to the heart of the thing.
It is satisfying because of the arrogant finger pointing
attitude of this whole mind set."We know better".
Always, "we know better", and "we are making new rules fpr you to live by".
So when they are revealed, it is a bit fun.

They are crying out for an answer.

How to make them drop the ego driven intellectual rationalizing and number crunching long enough to see it?

I think they are closer to it than they would admit. the greater the anger, and demand for "good", the closer they are. Fundamentally, this woman is crying out for folks to be good to each other.
there is always the striving,yearning for "good". Moralities are always present, but are petty, trivial, as in PC language, and the whole idea of a "hate crime".

As opposed to a love crime. the kid who shoots the working stiff convenience store clerk?

the fine line that divides us most of all is the leap of faith. the ones who don't make it are angry
bitter, shortsighted, impatient. Thier soul demands the good, yet they fight with thier intellect.

They will continually make up new rules and schemes for the rest of us, to fill this void, to make up for the absense of the obvious they refuse to see.

it manifests in little "guilt trip" causes. Thier lack of faith, belief in utter randomness and belief in "learned" morality fills them with fear, makes them see conspiracies of evil all around them.
They are immersed in it, and cannot see out.

I do think the most hardcore of these are the ones who can be reached. The conflicts in them get to a fever pitch, and a logical, truthful approach can get em out of the torment.

One on one is a really powerful way to get at it.

Where does this vision of "good" come from? is a good question. You see"evil", you want to fix it, whY? etc.

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