Three white men are facing charges for violently attacking a Black riverboat captain in Montgomery, Alabama.
Even though the melee played out along racial lines, officials say the attackers won’t be charged with a hate crime.
Damien Pickett, a Black co-captain of the Harriott II Riverboat, was blocked from docking his 227-passenger vessel in its designated and reserved spot along the Riverside Park waterfront by a group of white men who were parked in the spot.
At first, when asked to move, the men responded with rude gestures, bad words, and teasing.
“The co-captain, as he approached the dock and attempted to peacefully move the boat over, the owners of the boat confronted him in a hostile way,” Police Chief Darryl J. Albert said on Aug. 8, according to the Washington Post.
Pickett and a 16-year-old white male were assaulted.
Investigators checked to see if there was proof to charge anyone with a hate crime or for inciting a riot, but the actions didn’t match the rules for those charges in the city with a history of racism.
Authorities from the local Montgomery Police Department and the FBI said there is not enough evidence to support the charge. In addition to the FBI, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office are being consulted regarding the charges.
