Vandals Targeting UC Davis Professor Scrawl Racist Messages On Windows
DAVIS (CBS13) — It's a campus-wide call-out to help track down a racist vandal. UC Davis police say a prominent professor was the target of a hate crime.
It happened at a UC Davis building just off campus. Someone walked up to a window, took out a marker, and left a message he or she knew a certain professor would see.
Dr. Ebenezer Yamoah is a researcher who has made it his mission to help deaf people hear.
"We've been trying to look at how we can regenerate inner ear hair cells," said Yamoah.
But it's what this UC Davis researcher saw outside his office last Monday that left him and so many others speechless.
"I'm very surprised," said a UC Davis student.
"Yeah, it kind of blows my mind," said another student.
Someone took a marker and wrote racial slurs on two first-floor windows at the UC Davis Neurosciences Building. The racist scrawl was written just across from Dr. Yamoah's office.
"It's sad to see that happening," said UC Davis student Brian Nguyen.
The messages said "N—–, go away" and "N—– lovers go away." The latter message was targeted at a colleague of Yamoah.
Campus police are trying to find the vandals responsible, issuing a campus-wide alert to make students aware of the hate crime.
"It's actually very shocking, just considering it's the 21st century. We are a college campus. You have educated students -- or you hope they're educated students," said UC Davis student Tereza Sputova who received the alert.
This isn't the first hate crime to hit the UC Davis community.
In June, 2012 a noose was found hanging from a Davis High football goal post. Less than a month later, a swastika was burned into a picnic table at a Davis junior high school and another swastika was found on a bike trail.
Some students say the bigotry is baffling.
"I think a lot more needs to be done. At the very least, I think we need to talk about it more as a community," said UC Davis student Nguyen.
"It just makes you think how far we've come and how far we actually haven't when something like this happens," said Sputova.
"All we can do is do better," said a student.
Professor Yamoah did not want to talk about the incident, but plenty of people on campus are.
If you know anything about this, UC Davis police want to hear from you.
Related Stories
