The Indiana Daily Student wrote and published the article “Friends, mother of Bickford say attack was uncharacteristic” Nov. 3 focusing on an assailant who was involved in a recent hate crime in Bloomington.
The assailant, Triceton Bickford, was arrested for attempting to strangle a Muslim woman with her head scarf while shouting “white power” and “kill them all.” Luckily for the woman, an IU student restrained Bickford before serious damage was done.
In their article, the IDS talks to Bickford’s mother and friends. They made such glowing comments about Bickford, including those saying “there’s no air of pretentiousness” about him, he’s “dated a black girl and a Filipino girl,” and he’s had a rough childhood for various reasons.
The IDS should be ashamed and embarrassed for running this article.
The article, which was roughly 25 percent longer than a similar one ran about the victim of the attack, is nothing but providing a sympathetic viewpoint for readers. It doesn’t offer much of anything in terms of substance. It is simply a piece of writing designed to stir the pot, bring issues back to the surface and add some controversy to the mix.
I’m writing into the IDS to let them know that I, along with undoubtedly many more students and community members, don’t care.
We don’t care that he was under the influence of alcohol. Or that he’s nice to his mother. Or that’s he’s a liberal or wants to be a psychologist or that he’s dated people of different races.
If he had been successful in seriously or fatally harming this woman, we would not be squabbling about how alcohol caused him to snap or that he gave his mother a ring for Mother’s Day. He would not have been released on $705 bail. We would not be accepting this attack as anything less than a deliberate, hateful action by a disturbed individual.
I hope that Bickford gets the help and rehabilitation he needs. However, I and numerous other students here at IU are not yet comfortable with him returning to campus. We as a community must stand firm.
Andrew Guenther
IU Student
