CEDAR RAPIDS — Whether or not the death of a young Waterloo man is eventually ruled a hate crime mattered little to the hundreds of vigil attendees who gathered in downtown Cedar Rapids Thursday night.

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr. (letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963)

Andrew Harrison, of Cedar Rapids, is someone who has typically been involved with local vigils and demonstrations as an advocate of the local LGBT community. But when the Club Basix bartender learned of the brutal beating death of Marcellus Andrews, 19, and that anti-gay slurs that were reportedly a part of the incident that took Andrews’ life, Harrison felt compelled to step forward.

“I put this event on Facebook because I saw no one else was doing anything, and I was just outraged,” Harrison told The Iowa Independent Thursday night at the vigil. “I knew I couldn’t go up to Waterloo and be a part of any vigil there, and I thought we should do something here in Cedar Rapids because our community has always turned out for observances, vigils and demonstrations.

“I knew that Cedar Rapids could show our state and the nation that we’re not going to put up with bullying and taunting.”

Harrison’s quickly made Facebook event resulted in roughly 300 people converging near the Tree of the Five Seasons monument for a vigil consisting of official statements from equality advocates, prayer, moments of silence and singing of the gospel hymn, “Amazing Grace.”

Participants at the candlelight vigil for Marcellus Andrews represented at least four counties in eastern Iowa. (Photo: Lynda Waddington/The Iowa Independent) 

Harrison added that regardless of if law enforcement investigating Andrews’ death rule the attack a hate crime, members of the LGBT community are aware of witness reports that the man was taunted with anti-gay slurs.

“No matter what one’s sexual orientation is, or what it is perceived to be, no one should be treated that way,” he said. “No one should have to hear such things — especially not at the end of his or her life. … Whether or not it was premeditated, whether or not this was a year-long dispute as the police have said it was, there should not have been comments like that made.”

Tim and Lisa Hughes, a Cedar Rapids couple that will celebrate their 30th year of marriage next week, said they were shocked to learn of such a violent thing happening in nearby Waterloo and they were shocked to know police weren’t considering prosecuting the event as a hate crime.

“Based on what we’ve heard that was said and done, it was really shocking to know this wasn’t being looked at as a hate crime,” Lisa Hughes said. “Anytime you kill someone there is hate involved.”

The couple said they wanted to come and attend the vigil because “it is important to show tolerance and acceptance of all others regardless of their race, their color, their gender or their sexual orientation.”

“We are all people,” said Lisa, who added while motioning to those around her on the 1st Avenue Bride, “And these are all good people.”

The world we live in, said Tim, has enough war and hate. “We should celebrate love and life every chance we get.”

Several families brought their children to the observance. 

Maureen Hill, faculty adviser for the City High Gay-Straight Alliance in Iowa City brought a handful of students to the vigil after the organization’s co-president, Ruth Anne Riedl, called attention to Andrews’ death and the witness accounts. For some time the GSA has been working to raise awareness of gender-based bullying and to show young people how powerful it can be to stand up to such adversity. Before the national “It Gets Better” campaign was underway, the Iowa City students had developed T-shirts that called attention to suicide.

“I personally thought it was really powerful to come out tonight, given how much time the group has spent on the T-shirts and trying to raise awareness about how important it is to stand together and be safe,” she said. “That something like this happened in Iowa — we simply needed to come out and be here.”

Riedl, a student at City High, said she became furious when she read the reports about what happened to Andrews.

“We live in 2011,” she said. “There is no reason something like this should happen.

“It doesn’t really matter what a person’s sexual orientation is, or even if the bullying and taunting is related to sexual orientation — it’s not OK for people to make remarks against others like that. I just thought it was important to come out and stand together and send that message: It is not OK for things like this to happen. There is no reason this should have happened, and it should never happen again.”

Rev. Martha Rogers, rector for Christ Episcopal Church in Cedar Rapids, offered a prayer at the vigil and stood as a member of faith in the candlelight observance the followed on the bridge.

“As a member of the clergy, it is my honor and obligation to say that God creates us all, and we should all be treated with dignity and respect,” she said.

“A brutal death is not the way to change the world.”

While speakers made brief remarks, some closed their eyes and others wiped away tears. 

The Cedar Rapids vigil was one of several held throughout the state in memory of Andrews and as reminders for tolerance for others. Those who were unable to attend a vigil were asked to leave their porch light on Thursday night, and individuals from California to Texas and New York left notes on that event’s Facebook page that their light was glowing.

Participants in Cedar Rapids collected $300 in donations, which will be given to the Union Missionary Baptist Church Drill Squad, the Crusaders, that Andrews helped train as a captain.

Formal services for Andrews will be held this weekend.

Following public remarks, participants lined both sides of the 1st Ave Bridge. 

The memorial continued until late in the night. 

Marcellus Richard Andrews (Photo: Facebook)

Marcellus Andrews, of Waterloo, was taken off life support Saturday and officially pronounced dead on Sunday. In the early morning hours of Friday, he was part of a violent brawl that witnesses described as beginning with anti-gay slurs. Police do not anticipate the incident will be prosecuted as a hate crime, and cite an ongoing feud between the parties involved.

Nonetheless, Iowans will take to the streets tonight to remember the young man, who was slated to begin classes at Hawkeye Community College, and to speak out against bullying an intolerance. Information on some of the various vigils is included below. All will be held Thursday evening.

Cedar Falls — 8:30 to 11:30 p.m., Campanile, on the UNI Central Campus. The vigil is being organized by UNI Proud and participants are asked not to bring real candles, which are prohibited on campus.

Cedar Rapids — 8 to 10 p.m., Tree of the Five Seasons (near the 1st Avenue Bridge in downtown). This will be a candlelight vigil and there will be a few public remarks.

Council Bluffs — 7 to 7:30 p.m., Bayliss Park, at the Veterans Memorial Wall. The vigil is being organized by Council Bluffs Community Alliance.

Davenport — 9 p.m. to midnight, Mary’s on 2nd (832 W. 2nd St.). The vigil is being organized, in part, by QC Pride and participants are asked to bring their own candles.

Des Moines — 8 to 10 p.m., meet in front of The Blazing Saddle and walk to the steps of the Iowa Capitol, where there will be speakers. This will be a candlelight vigil.

Dubuque — 8:30 to 10 p.m., Dubuque Town Clock Plaza. The candlelight vigil is being organized by the Midwest Given ‘Em Hope Project. Participants are asked to bring their own candles.

Waterloo — 8 to 10 p.m., 200 block of Cottage St. This vigil, organized by family and friends, is being held in the residential area where the incident took place early last Friday.

Statewide — 9 p.m. to dawn. Those who cannot attend an organized vigil, but who would still like to do something to observe the moment, are being asked to leave their porch lights on in remembrance and for tolerance.

The Iowa Pride Network’s leadership team, comprised of high school and college students from across the state, issued the following statement Thursday:

This Sunday, many of us were getting ready for our first day of classes. However, as we all now know, one person was not. Upon hearing the story of Marcellus Richard Andrews, we were deeply disturbed that such violence and persecution happened here in the state of Iowa; however we were not entirely surprised that this sort of incident happened. We know firsthand that discrimination and bigotry both exist here, as in other places in the nation, despite our outward progressive appearance.

Let us not as citizens become so naïve as to think occurrences such as these are confined to places that are always elsewhere and never “here,” ever close to home. This has served as a reminder that the fight for equality is not over. We as youth need to vocalize what is happening in our schools and communities to better ensure the safety of all. We need to report every incident, every time so that issues such as these do not go unnoticed. By bringing these issues to the forefront people can become educated and help eliminate tragic events like this one. It is our hope that one day all youth will feel safe to live out in the open, as who they truly are.

The statement was signed by the leadership team members, who are as follows:

• Benjamin Alley, University of Iowa
• Holly Wilson, Southeast Polk High School
• Sean Hernandez, University of Iowa
• Dane Buchholz, Iowa State University
• Rachel Anderson, Grinnell College
• Alan Toussaint, University of Iowa
• Joy Dannelly, Roosevelt High School
• Mike Covington, IWCC
• Nicholas Muntz, University of Iowa
• Brittany Banks, Waldorf College
• Stephen Boatwright, DMACC
• Sara Puffer, University of Iowa

Ben Stone, executive director of the ACLU of Iowa, said, “The brutal beating death of Marcellus Andrews is further evidence of the existence of hatred and bigotry in our state. Whether the ultimate charges brought include an allegation of a hate crime, it appears from information reported in the media that the violence of that night was accompanied by anti-gay hatred and prejudice. The ACLU of Iowa remains steadfast in its decades-long commitment to human dignity and equality for all people, including young Iowans like Mr. Andrews.”

One Iowa Executive Director Troy Price released the following statement earlier this week: “We are deeply saddened by the brutal and tragic death of Marcellus. This is just not something that happens in Iowa and we are appalled at this level of extreme violence and intolerance. Tragedies like this underscore the incredible need to talk about issues affecting gay and lesbian Iowans and to fight for equality in our communities. When community, state, and national leaders ridicule and deride gay and lesbians, it creates a hurtful environment and gives license to this sort of attack. Most importantly, it harms lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) young people by sending the message that they are not equal. We can and must do better, because we can never, ever allow an attack like this to take place in Iowa again.”

A memorial for Andrews has been set for Friday at Union Missionary Baptist Church in Waterloo. Funeral services are scheduled for Saturday morning.

“These were individuals who were known to each other, and there had been previous incidents,” Lieutenant Michael McNamee of the Waterloo Police Department told The Iowa Independent by phone early Wednesday. “It is possible that there was anti-gay shouts made at the time of the incident early Friday, but the attack did not stem from that. We don’t believe sexual orientation was a reason why Andrews was attacked or targeted — the history between the individuals involved goes back for some time.”

As The Iowa Independent previously reported, Marcellus Andrews is believed to have been sitting on an enclosed porch in the 200 block of Cottage St. in Waterloo at roughly 12:45 a.m. on Friday. Two friends had gone walking, but report only being a block away when they heard shouting and returned to the residence where they had left Andrews.

The shouting escalated and a fight with multiple participants began. Andrews, who was reportedly kicked in the face, was transported to University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. He was pronounced dead on Sunday after being removed from life-support by his family on Saturday.

According to autopsy results released by the Waterloo Police Department, Andrews died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head.

McNamee said law enforcement is continuing to investigate the incident, and that no arrests have yet been made.

Too bad CNN just rejected the ad.

The immigrant advocacy group America’s Voice last week harshly criticized CNN for not mentioning that Dobbs is “one of the biggest menaces facing Latinos in America” because of his relentless focus on illegal immigration, largely from Latin America, as the source of many of America’s ills.

In response, it created this TV ad, with Media Matters, under the headline “CNN: Drop the Hate, Drop Dobbs,” that ends with a plea to viewers to sign the “Drop Dobbs” petition that’s been circulating online and on Twitter and Facebook.

Yesterday, the groups submitted the ad to CNN, asking the network to run it during the “Latinos in America” shows.

Not surprisingly, CNN today rejected the ad. The groups still hope to run the ad during the “Latinos” show on another network, if it can find a willing host.

At about 10 am on July 8th, in the District of Columbia Superior Court, Judge Anderson dismissed the case against Marcus Epstein, who had pled guilty to a class 6 felony hate crime; the prosecutor declined to continue sentencing. It was determined that Epstein, head of Pat Buchanan’s American Cause and executive director of Tom Tancredo’s Team America, had completed his sentence.

Much more about the case here.

Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) and Pat Buchanan (Getty Images)

On July 7, 2007, Marcus Epstein had too much to drink and stumbled onto Georgetown’s scenic, shop-lined M Street, walking in no particular direction. At 7:15 p.m., he bumped into a black woman, called her a “nigger,” and struck her in the head with an open hand. An off-duty Secret Service agent was watching. Epstein “jogged away,” according to the agent’s affidavit, and when Epstein was finally chased down, he “continued to flail his arms while being taken into custody.”

Image by: Matt Mahurin

After this, say Epstein’s friends, the then-24-year-old conservative activist radically changed his life. He swore off drinking and started attending meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. He started treating the bipolar depression that had gone undiagnosed until that run-in with the law. In January 2008 Epstein plea bargained to a charge of simple assault, as part of a settlement that included a letter of apology to his victim and a $1,000 donation to the United Negro College Fund. He will be in court again July 8, but because he met the terms of his settlement, Epstein’s employers expect the ordeal to end then and there. Epstein could not be reached for comment on Monday.

Epstein was, and still is, one of the utility players in the immigration restrictionist fringe of the conservative movement, the executive director of both Pat Buchanan’s American Cause and former Rep. Tom Tancredo’s (R-Colo.) Team America PAC. Before and after the 2007 incident, Epstein worked (in an unofficial capacity) with Tancredo on his immigration-focused presidential campaign. He organized policy debates between conservative writers and leaders, including one with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) that was broadcast on C-SPAN. Epstein built coalitions and hobnobbed at Washington parties without much trouble, despite a record of controversial race- and immigration-focused writings and awareness that something bad — the details weren’t clear — had happened in 2007 that convinced him to go on the wagon.

“In college you have this culture of drinking all the time, and he kicked it cold,” said Kevin DeAnna, a friend of Epstein and the founder of Youth for Western Civilization, a student group founded in 2008 of which Tancredo is the honorary chairman. “It’s unfortunate that he’s getting hit from this now, years after he stopped doing this kind of thing.”

Since May 19, when the watchdog group One People’s Project released the legal documents detailing Epstein’s arrest, the activist and his employers have come under fire. By late Monday, the University of Virginia Law School was telling reporters that Epstein would not be joining the class of 2012, even though he had planned to retire from his jobs at the end of June and “more or less suspend my political activities” to attend the school. But Epstein’s career up through yesterday was marked by controversial articles and speeches, happy feuds with politically correct organizations like the One People’s Project and the Southern Poverty Law Center, and no serious blowback from the mainstream conservative movement. (In 2008, Epstein contributed to the Southern Poverty Law Center in order to win a place on its “Wall of Tolerance” and to warn the group that it was “just one degree of separation away” from him.) Epstein’s past only became an issue after his patrons, Tancredo and Buchanan, spent a week bashing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor as a “racist” and an an “affirmative action” candidate.

“It’s a huge breakthrough,” said Darrell Jenkins, a co-founder of the nine-year-old One People’s Project. “This game that keeps being played on the right, the way that their leaders will say anything and claim that they’re not racist — that got knocked out the window. Now we have proof that someone of that stature is running around like an idiot in the streets. Why would a Tom Tancredo associate himself with a Marcus Epstein? If he’s going to go after Sotomayor for an out-of-context quote from 2001, he’s got to answer for this.” Jenkins added that he would “be in the courtroom” when Epstein is sentenced.

Marcus Epstein (left) at the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 1, 2007 (Photo by: Dave Weigel)

Epstein, who turned 26 in May, has spent his entire adult life courting controversy. In 2003, as the president of College Libertarians and the editor of the conservative newspaper at the College of William and Mary, he argued that conservatives erred by appropriating the rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr. instead of remembering his “philandering and plagiarism.” Before and after graduation Epstein carved out an online identity as an old-line, nativist conservative, contributing to the immigration restrictionist web site VDare.com. When he began working for American Cause, Epstein became a young and energetic proponent of ideas that were often attributed to angry, aging white men. “Pat graciously gave me an audio CD version of the book,” Epstein wrote in an article criticizing National Review for not reviewing Buchanan’s “State of Emergency,” an anti-immigration jeremiad. “The facts that he laid out in the book, made me so impassioned, upset, and often angry, that on more than one occasion, I literally had to pull over to a rest stop to compose myself for fear that I would get in a road rage incident.”

In 2006, Epstein co-founded a new paleoconservative group, the Robert Taft Club, with DeAnna; the leadership circle later expanded to include conservative writer Richard Spencer. The group easily drew in thinkers and activists from the mainstream and extreme right. Fox News pundit Jim Pinkerton and National Review writer John Derbyshire appeared, as did Belgian extremist politician Filip Dewinter and Jared Taylor, editor of American Renaissance, a race-conscious conservative magazine which invited British extremist politician Nick Griffin to its 2006 conference. None of this was secretive — the events were on the record and included panelists who vehemently disagreed with one another. None of it backfired on the attendees, despite SPLC reports and other exposes. (Note: The writer of this story attended several Robert Taft Club events as a journalist.) The club’s best-attended events were organized after Epstein’s 2007 arrest, the details of which did not become known until this week. Now, some of the people Epstein had brought out for public debates worry about the effects of the One People’s Project’s revelations and the increased scrutiny that has come with Tancredo and Buchanan’s Sotomayor statements.

“It’s the sort of thing the left typically does,” Taylor told TWI. “The One People’s Project published my home phone number and home address, more or less inviting somebody to pitch a brick through my window. The Southern Poverty Law Center will be crowing and whooping about this. It’s typical of the other side and it’s an ungentlemanly way to conduct politics.”

On Monday, Bay Buchanan — the co-chairman of Team America PAC and the president of American Cause — defended Epstein and castigated the One People’s Project for dredging up the arrest details. Buchanan managed Tancredo’s presidential campaign, and Epstein did some volunteer speechwriting for the campaign before and after the arrest. Buchanan said he has worked through his problems, making it all the more mysterious that he should be targeted for them now.

“This is something that happened two years ago that Marcus has paid a price for,” said Buchanan. “Are people allowed a second chance in this life when they realize their mistakes and their errors? I think so.”

Tancredo and Pat Buchanan have not commented on the news of Epstein’s 2007 arrest, but DeAnna’s Youth for Western Civilization got out ahead of the story with a May 29 statement that Epstein had no affiliation with the group apart from scheduling Tancredo’s speeches on college campuses. Pinkerton chose not to address the charges against Epstein, but he wondered what effect the rush by Tancredo and Buchanan to accuse Sotomayor of racism was having on the Supreme Court debate and on the conservative movement in particular.

“The ‘R’ word is a tough word,” said Pinkerton. “My immediate reaction to Sotomayor’s ‘wise Latina’ comment was ‘tell that to the people whose faces are on Mount Rushmore. They were pretty wise and they weren’t Latina females.’ That being the case, we all are blessed with the vocabularies to choose different words. In our culture, ‘racist’ is really up there in the Richter scale of words.”

Curt Levey, the executive director of the Committee of Justice, has been optimistic about the right’s fight against Sotomayor, but he admitted to TWI that he “underestimated the degree to which a few conservatives would say a few extreme things, and that would be characterized as what all conservatives think.”

For Epstein’s friends, this aspect of the Supreme Court debate has simply been surprising and sad. “I hope he can live it down,” said Taylor of American Renaissance. “I would have thought Dick Morris would never live down his $150 an hour hooker. I would never have thought Bill Clinton would live down what happened between him and Monica Lewinsky. In the end, those people were welcomed back into the fold. It’s just that liberals tend to be very unforgiving about things of this kind.”

[UPDATE: This article originally misstated the name of one of the Robert Taft Club's leaders. It was Richard Spencer, not Robert Spencer.]

Mr. Epstein is not currently enrolled at the University of Virginia School of Law, and I do not expect him to be an enrolled student in the future.

Trujillo told the same thing to Brian Beutler, who notices that the school’s application asks if applicants have “ever been convicted of any offense.” Epstein has been out of reach all day, but on his Facebook page he still claims to be a Class of 2012 UVA student.

“I have been very impressed at the courage he has shown in turning his life around,” said Buchanan. “He has acknowledged the many personal problems he was facing at the time, and he’s addressed them.”

Buchanan attributed the release of court documents to “some low-life” who was acting out of spite. “Marcus is going off to law school [at the University of Virginia] at the end of the month,” she said, pointing out he had planned to leave before this case became public. “Who cares? This is something that happened two years ago that Marcus has paid a price for.”

Marcus Epstein (left) at the Conservative Political Action Conference on March 1, 2007 (Photo by: Dave Weigel)

According to Buchanan, none of this should affect Team America’s criticisms of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor — whom Tancredo has called a racist. “Sonia Sotomayor has been nominated to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States and we’re going to talk about her judicial approach and her record. That’s unrelated to any 21-year-old’s life or any problems he’s had.”

Buchanan expected Epstein’s ordeal to be over after his July 8 court date, which follows his plea bargain and two years of good behavior. “Are people allowed a second chance in this life when they realize their mistakes and their errors? I think so.”

Update: The University of Virginia’s law school says Epstein is not going to be enrolling there anytime in the future.

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From the U.S. Attorney’s factual proffer:

On July 7, 2007, at approximately 7:15 p.m. at Jefferson and M Street, Northwest, in Washington, D.C., defendant was walking down the street making offensive remarks when he encountered the complainant, Ms. [REDACTED], who is African-American. The defendant uttered, “Nigger,” as he delivered a karate chop to Ms. [REDACTED]‘s head.

Epstein has pled guilty and will be sentenced on July 8, although he changed his plea to water down an admission of guilt into the belief that “the government could prove me guilty.” A spokesman for Team America PAC confirmed that Epstein is still at work until he leaves for law school in the fall, and an official statement is forthcoming.

Tancredo has taken a large public role in criticizing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, telling MSNBC that the judge “appears to be a racist.”

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Todd alleges that a mugger, upon spotting her McCain-Palin bumper sticker, assaulted her and carved a “B” — for “Barack” — into her cheek. Both campaigns have condemned the attack and expressed their sympathy for Todd.

But police have begun to question the validity of her story. According to Salon, various elements of her account of the attack don’t add up. For starters, she’s changed her story several times. The “B” on her face is backwards (as if she cut her own face using a mirror). And her story conflicts with evidence at the crime scene. Police administered a polygraph test this morning but have not released the results.

While it’s too early to pass judgment on Todd — who might truly be the victim of a terrible crime — the incident brings to mind a controversy at Princeton University in December, when a student claimed to have been attacked by liberals for his conservative views.

Ashley Todd (hotair.com)

As it turned out, Francisco Nava, a member of Princeton’s socially conservative Anscombe Society,  subsequently admitted to police that his injuries were self-inflicted and that he had fabricated hateful and threatening emails sent to fellow Anscombe members and to Professor Robert George, a conservative leader on campus.

The Princeton incident led some to wonder whether the collapsing popularity of President George W. Bush and the conservative movement was causing some conservatives, particularly on left-leaning campuses, to feel sufficiently threatened to invent stories of hate crimes perpetrated by liberals against them, in an effort to discredit the notion that liberals are tolerant.

If Todd’s claims turn out to be spurious, we can only hope that these incidents do not constitute the beginning of a trend.