An 18-year-old South Burlington High School graduate is facing a felony unlawful mischief charge for allegedly spray-painting racist graffiti on an athletic field at South Burlington High School on June 6.
Tyler Austin, who graduated in June, was cited Friday to appear on the charge in Vermont Superior Court on August 26. He was released after being cited and remains free until the arraignment.
South Burlington Police Chief Trevor Whipple issued a statement Friday saying the pending charges came after a “lengthy investigation involving numerous interviews, evidence collection and forensic analysis.” He did not say specifically what led police to Austin.
Isaiah Hines, the recent South Burlington High School grad who led the push to drop the Rebels nickname, has said he was the target of the graffiti, and that it referred to him by name as a “dumb nigger.”
Police have been mum on what exactly the graffiti said and who was targeted. “I’m again not repeating nor confirming what was written,” Whipple said Friday. The wording will be public record once an affidavit is filed with the court in the next few weeks, he acknowledged.
Hines told Seven Days that he was relieved to hear of the pending charges.
“I guess it is nice to have some sort of, like, closure,” Hines said.
Austin is a fellow member of the SBHS class of 2017 and recently graduated, according to Hines. “I don’t know him at all,” Hines said. “I never really had any sort of interaction with him.”
Efforts to reach Austin for comment were not immediately successful.
Whipple said he decided not to pursue hate crime charges after studying Vermont’s law. “A hate crime has to have a crime directed at a person and this is a crime directed at property,” Whipple said. He added: “As troubling as it is, it doesn’t qualify.”
Still, Whipple said, the charges are an indication that the community won’t tolerate racist displays.
“This racist-based graffiti is not acceptable and we’re hoping that this sends a message that it’s not acceptable and there are consequences,” he said.
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Cannon used racial slurs while threatening to kill an 8-year old child. That’s a crime directed at an individual, thus, the hate crime charge. https://www.hiiraan.com/comments2-news-200…
In this case, there’s no threat of violence, and no crime directed at Hines. Thus, no hate crime charge.
What is the legal definition of “directed” in this case?
Okay, SteveO- maybe you’d like to explain this. http://www.wcax.com/story/9892626/burlingt…
What is so ironic is that the person he is calling dumb is headed to NYC and Columbia in the fall. This turkey is likely heading nowhere and he knows it. That is the source of his fury this is the act of impotency. Now besides be a loser white dude stuck in Vermont hes got a criminal felony record on his back forever. He knows he is loser and he is furious like so many of his ilk. I like the idea of making him scrub graffiti off walls for the length of whatever sentence they give him.
That’s not how the law works at all, written.
SteveO – if there was a name it was a hate crime. Spray painting someone’s name in conjunction with a racial slur targets an individual. Also, love the way “Felony Unlawful Mischief” is the charge.
Unlawful Mischief. Ridiculous.
Oracle and Fred, it’s not actually a crime directed at the individual. It’s certainly insulting and very distasteful, but that sort of language directed at another person is still legal. The crime in this case is the destruction of property itself.
I think this dumb ass should be sentenced to removing graffiti from Burlington walls with a toothbrush. (30 consecutive days should wake him up.) BTW, he included a name which makes it a hate crime.
A prominent brow ridge on this guy… Just sayin’….
Hold on. If Mr. Hines is right about what the graffiti said, then it WAS directed at a person, and IS a hate crime.