It Is Going To Be Hard.

It is going to be hard to prove a bias crime in the case of the NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Tournament where the Utah Women’s team was racially abused.

Utah women’s basketball team ‘troubled and shaken’ as ‘disturbing’ details of alleged racist abuse directed at players emerge
CNN
By George Ramsay and Jill Martin
March 27, 2024

Members of the Utah women’s basketball team have been left “deeply troubled and shaken” by what team officials called “hateful and disturbing” racial abuse ahead of their NCAA tournament opening game.

The team has filed a police report and is now releasing more details of what it says occurred in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on Thursday ahead of a game against South Dakota State in Spokane, Washington, which is about 30 miles away.

According to a statement from Utah Athletics Director Mark Harlan, deputy AD Charmelle Green and women’s basketball coach Lynne Roberts, the team was on its way to dinner when a vehicle drove past and “shouted racial epithets at the group.”

Later, when the team was on its way back from dinner, a vehicle drove slowly past the group, “revving its engine” while the occupants again shouted “racially disparaging words and threats,” the statement said.

It added: “As can be imagined, many students, staff and other members of the traveling party were deeply disturbed and fearful after the incidents, in what should be a safe and enjoyable experience.”

In an interview with CNN affiliate KSL, Green said that the N-word had been shouted at the team on each of the two occasions.

Police have opened an investigation.

Well it will be very, very hard to get past the First Amendment if all they did was yell racial slurs then it will be really hard to prove a crime was committed. But if as the article states, “racially disparaging words and threats,” made the threats then it goes beyond speech and now includes the possibility of violence.

For better or worst, the First Amendment gives wide latitude to what is protected speech. I hope that they can prove that threats were made then criminal charges can be filed.

There was a case at the University of Connecticut where some students as they walked across the parking lots were and yelling racial slurs and they were arrested and thrown out of school. The students won on First Amendment grounds and are now suing the school and police.