A Jew man was the victim of a severe attack in Oklahoma by a man who called him a "dirty Jew." The victim was taken to the hospital suffering from bruises and a cerebral hemorrhage.
The apparent antisemitic incident happened in Norman, Oklahoma when Harrison Hipp and his girlfriend passed by a pizza shop. A stranger approached Hipp and askedif he could try on his cowboy hat for a moment. “I said, ‘No, this is my hat, you know, sorry,’ and I was polite about it," Hipp told local media. According to him, at this point the man and his friends became aggressive.
“I take off the hat and yarmulke and I start running and then he chases me and he says, ‘I’m going to get you, you dirty Jew.’ and I’m like panicking at this point because I know I’m going to get jumped,” said Hipp.
He added that the attackers stole his hat and kippa and slammed his head against the concrete multiple times.
The woman who was with him tried to prevent the attack. “I start trying to pull the original guy off of him and then I get thrown off of him and then a guy, grabs my arms and is like holding my arms, so I can’t do anything,” said Emily Rodriguez, Hipp’s girlfriend.
Hipp said the attackers left him bleeding in the street. According to him, his next memory was when he woke up in the hospital. He now has a long road to recovery, having been diagnosed with a concussion and brain bleed.
“I’m real messed up, I can’t go to work, I can’t function and for what? You know, I don’t know, just because I’m Jewish? It’s ridiculous,” said Hipp.
The victim believes that this is a hate crime and that he was attacked because he is Jewish. "Everybody that attacked me called me a dirty Jew, so I would like them all to be charged with hate crime,” said Hipp.
Officers from the Norman Police Department met Hipp at the hospital. The police said that so far no arrests have been made, though a possible suspect has been identified and all facts including allegations of a possible hate crime are part of the ongoing investigation.