Destinie Mogg-Barkalow is a student at Bridgewater State University in Massachusetts, roughly midway between Boston and Providence. She contributes regularly to BSU's campus newspaper, The Comment, which on Wednesday published a brief screed of Destinie's celebrating the demise of Prop 8 in California. In response, it seems, two Comment readers attacked Destinie in a parking lot on Thursday night.
According to The Comment's coverage:
Destinie Mogg-Barkalow told police she was walking in the Chapel Lot at approximately 6 p.m. Thursday when she was approached by a tall male and a red-headed female. Mogg-Barkalow, who writes regularly for the paper and is the editorial page assistant editor, was wearing a Comment sweatshirt. The couple, who were presumably students, asked if she had written the article advocating gay marriage that appeared in this week's paper.
When Mogg-Barkalow, who is gay, confirmed that she was the author, the female punched her. Mogg-Barkalow told police her assailants headed in the direction of East Campus after they hit her, while she went to the Comment offices where other staff members were meeting.
Once Destinie related her story to a very shaken editorial staff, one of her colleagues called the police. A couple matching Destinie's description was soon apprehended in the vicinity of the attack, but Destinie insisted they weren't her assailants. Police went to work on a composite sketch of the alleged perps, which they so far have declined to release.
A BSU student who's also part of Occupy Boston has planned a rally for Destinie and her supporters for this Tuesday. "This kind of hate crime will not be accepted by Bridgewater State University students, or by the 99% as a whole," she wrote, which I hope doesn't mean that the beating of writers is objectionable only when it seems likely to elicit the anger of an unspecified 99% of the public. 1% ought to do it, or even no % at all.
