baritonepats:

Police investigating bleach balloon attacks on UT students

brashblacknonbeliever:

AUSTIN — University of Texas students say they’re the target of racially-motivated hate crimes.

Nia Wesley is a freshman, but she has been a Longhorn since birth. Both her parents went to UT. So when her friends told her they’d been hit with balloons possibly filled with bleach, and that they had been thrown at them from balconies, she was appalled.

“It just, it really gets to me that this is happening,” she said. “It seems like they are trying to white wash because the only students that have reported it have been black or Mexican.”

So far four incidents have been reported to police. One was on 26th Street and Nueces, one on Guadeloupe and two on Pearl.

UT and Austin police received the reports late Monday night, but some incidents date as far back as June, and students on campus said several others have gone unreported.

The Austin Police Department is investigating whether balloons were pegged at students, whether they were filled with bleach, and whether it was a targeted hate crime.

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