Thursday, June 13, 2019
IDS Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
Woman reports she was raped Saturday
“People are people, some are good, some are bad. And in our democracy, we tolerate living with diverse viewpoints.” Joseph Tomain, IU Maurer School of Law lecturer
By Annie Aguiar aguiara@iu.edu | @annabelaguiar
Police are investigating after a 27-year-old woman reported she was raped Saturday night, Bloomington Police Department Lt. John Kovach said. Officers responded to a call at 11:25 p.m. Saturday night. The 27-year-old transient woman said the assault took place somewhere in the 1800 block of West Third Street in the wooded area near the American Legion. She was drinking with her friend and another man but was intoxicated and couldn’t remember specific details. She said she woke up to a man assaulting her in a tent before jumping up and running away. She couldn’t recall if the man who assaulted her was the same man she and her friend were drinking with but suspects it was. She didn’t know his name. Kovach said police tried to get her to take them to the site of the assault, but she wasn’t able to. The woman later completed a sexual assault examination. The sexual assault nurse examiner said there were no injuries or signs of injuries on the woman. The woman’s friend gave a description of the man who was drinking with them earlier in the night. She described him as 5 feet 9 inches tall and in his early 40s with a medium build, dark hair and a salt and pepper goatee. Kovach said officers were able to develop a suspect and a photo lineup. The woman picked out the man they were drinking with, who was located by a patrol officer and brought to the station. The man, who is 43, admitted he was drinking with the two women but denies doing anything sexual with the 27-year-old woman. He said she kept walking away from the tent and coming back before finally walking away from the tent. The investigation is still active.
City road restrictions are planned, bus stop reopens By Matt Rasnic msranic@iu.edu | @Matt_Rasnic
The City of Bloomington is overseeing several construction projects this summer which will involve lane restrictions, road closures and the reopening of a bus stop. 17th Street bus stop reopens Roadway improvement plans caused the relocation of the Lismore Drive and West 17th Street bus stop. The bus stop reopened in its original location according to a Bloomington press release. The project to reconstruct roadways and add pedestrian walkways to the area of West 17th Street between Vernal Pike and North Monroe Street is anticipated to be complete by fall of this year. City construction on campus continues The area of North Jordan Avenue between 10th and Seventh streets remain closed as the Bloomington Utilities Department works to replace a 6-inch water main with a 12-inch one. Despite recent inclement weather, the road is still on schedule to be reopened on or before June 28 according to the release. Street paving closures The Department of Public Works' Street Division plans to work on road repaving projects this week if weather permits. Below are the anticipated road closure dates for corresponding roads. • South Bradshire Court, June 10 • West Clubhouse Drive from North Kinser Pike to North Old State Road 37, June 11 and 12 • East Treadwell Lane, June 14
IDS FILE PHOTO
People walk through the aisles of vendors at the Bloomington Community Farmers' Market near City Hall on June 16, 2018. A letter sent June 4 alleges a vendor at the market, Schooner Creek Farm, is owned by white supremacists.
HATE A letter alleges two local farmers are members of the hate group Identity Evropa. By Ellen Hine emhine@iu.edu | @ellenmhine
During the market season, people rise at the crack of dawn, grab their reusable bags and head downtown to stock up on bright red tomatoes, rainbow-colored carrots and crisp green beans. The Bloomington Farmers’ Market has been a touchstone of the community for years. But over the past week it’s become the center of a fierce debate about white supremacy and freedom of speech. On June 4, IU Ph.D. student Abby Ang submitted a letter with more than 200 co-signers demanding the removal of a vendor named Schooner Creek Farm from the Bloomington Farmers’ Market. The letter claimed owners of the farm, Sarah Dye and Douglas Mackey, are members of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist group. The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies Identity Evropa as a hate group. The group posted fliers in 2017 on the office doors of faculty members of color in IU’s Maurer School of Law and Ballantine Hall. Ang presented messages found in white supremacist chat rooms she and others claimed were posted by Dye under the name Volkmom. She also linked to FBI testimony from Nolan Brewer, who will serve 3 years in federal prison after vandalizing a Carmel, Indiana, synagogue. Brewer identified Volkmom as a woman named Sarah and said he had met her and her husband Douglas through Identity Evropa. That couple was the same
couple running Schooner Creek Farm, Ang said. She and the other co-signers demanded the farmers’ market remove them as a vendor or face official complaints to the Indiana State Health Department and United States Department of Agriculture. The Bloomington Farmers’ Market responded. It told Ang it would not remove Schooner Creek Farm. “To our knowledge, this vendor has not shared these views at Market and has treated customers with respect,” said Marcia Veldman, program/facility coordinator for Bloomington’s Parks and Recreation Department, in an email response to Ang. “The City is constitutionally prohibited from discriminating against someone because of their belief system, no matter how abhorrent those views may be. The City may only intercede if an individual's actions violate the safety and human rights of others.” *** The first comment is innocuous enough. “Thanks @Deleted User,” Volkmom posted Sept. 9, 2017. It’s the start of a year and a half of comments on the popular messaging app Discord. Unicorn Riot, a reporting collective focused on covering social and environmental issues, released Volkmom’s messages in March 2019 as part of a 770,000-post leak from Identity Evropa servers on Discord. The leak revealed Identity Evropa helped plan the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, according
ELLEN HINE | IDS
Buttons reading "Don't Buy Veggies From Nazis" sit on a table June 8 at the Bloomington Farmers' Market. Some community members say the owners of Schooner Creek Farm, a vendor at the market, are members of the white nationalist group Identity Evropa.
to a post on Unicorn Riot. Volkmom posted frequently on the group’s main server, “Nice Respectable People Group” and another titled “MacGuyver Skills & Academics.” “Volk” is a German word for people. It and the adjective “voelkisch,” which means "people’s", were used by the Nazis to distinguish Germans from those they labeled inferior, according to the BBC. In some of her comments, Volkmom wrote about farming and posted pictures of her vegetables under the hashtag “gardening.” Some of her comments were a mixture of the mundane and the extreme. She wrote about homeschooling her kids and giving people recommendations for “non-PC books.” “Especially this year as we are starting History. I am going to reference March of the Titans by Arthur Kemp ( history of the White race) alongside
the more mainstream 'Story of the World,'” she posted Aug. 17, 2018. She complained about her mother-in-law. “anyone have any examples of blatant anti-white rhetoric , headlines, quotes etc off the top of your head for my boomer MIL?” she wrote Feb. 2. “She is telling me she hasn't seen anything like that. Making progress with my talking points though.” Others were simply racist. “They [Native Americans] can't use the term ‘genocide,’” Volkmom posted Jan. 20. ”Technically we have created conditions for them to prosper, although they do not today for other reasons.” “The word ‘indigenous’ only means poc to leftists,” she posted Feb. 14. “They conveniently forget about when it SEE SCHOONER, PAGE 4
After video, IU removes Fair Oaks products By Claire Peters clapete@iu.edu | @claire_peterss
Videos of animal abuse came from Fair Oaks, a northwestern Indiana dairy farm and agricultural tourist attraction, are prompting Residential Programs and Services to remove all of its products from IU dining. An investigator from a Miamibased animal rights group secretly recorded alarming videos of Fair Oaks employees kicking and throwing newborn calves, hitting them with steel rods and branding them. The videos also show employees taking what appears to be cocaine and Fair Oaks property being used to grow what appeared to be marijuana plants.
Three people were charged Monday with animal cruelty by the Newton County Sheriff 's Department in connection with the videos, according to the Chicago Tribune. The sheriff 's office did not release the identities of the people charged or details of the allegations against them. “The minute we found that article, our director sent a notification to all the staff to fully remove all Fair Oaks products from our system,” said Susan Herr, system support manager for IU dining. IU Dining received a 100% refund for all products it removed, Herr said. It only had to remove a couple of retail items since none of its recipes contained products from Fair Oaks. It will continue to use
Prairie Farms for its dairy. Fair Oaks released a statement Tuesday outlining the steps it will take to eliminate further abuse from happening and to ensure its farms remain compliant with the National Farmers Assuring Responsible Management program. “We will take immediate and corrective action towards any employee who may be found abusing animals,” the statement said. “This action will include employee retraining, probation or termination and, if appropriate, legal action.” Although Fair Oaks Farms founder Mike McCloskey said the company was not aware of the abuse, it is taking full responsibility. The farmers who were in the videos have been fired.
Even though Fair Oaks is having retraining and corrective programs, Indiana Animal Rights Alliance executive director Joel Kerr said he thinks it will not make a difference on dairy farms. “They can train and do whatever they want to try to clean things up, but the violence is inherent in the industry,” Kerr said. “There’s no way to escape from it.” The Newton County Sheriff 's office is investigating allegations and is requesting the names of the person who filmed the videos and the workers that appeared in them, according to a statement released Wednesday. It will work with the county prosecutor's office to assess whether it will file any criminal charges.