Milwaukee Women Charged With Hate Crime for Attack on Women in Hijab at Park

Two Milwaukee women are facing hate crime charges after cellphone video provided to CBS 58 showed two women grabbing and punching a different group of women. Those victims told CBS 58 they believed they were targeted because of their appearance.

According to a criminal complaint, on July 30, the female victims — who are Muslim — were sitting at a picnic table at Cathedral Square Park and wearing hijabs, a head covering worn in public by Muslim women.

The complaint says two other women, accompanied by approximately 10 children, were also in the park at a nearby picnic table.

One victim told investigators she heard one of the women say, “We’re Black aggressive women, and we’re going to defend our own kind.”

The victims said, at that point, the two women approached their picnic table and asked if they had a problem.

“I said, ‘there is no problem between us, what is the problem?’ Like, I truly don’t know, you know?” one of the victims said. “And she goes, ‘where are you from?’ And I told her it was none of her business because she clearly wasn’t trying to have a conversation about where I’m truly from.”

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Cellphone video captured the attack and it was obtained by CBS 58. In it, two women are seen attacking the women in hijab. The clip showed one of the aggressors throwing multiple punches; one of those punches appeared to land cleanly on a victim’s head.

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