Kevyn Fowler, a 15-year Iraq military veteran, is the victim of hate crime. He lives in Jacksonville, Arkansas, a suburb of Little Rock, that doesn’t take too kindly to people of color having the means and the gall to move into their section of town.
Fowler moved to the area, which is approximately 20 miles northeast of Little Rock, in August 2017. A barn on his property was burned down last month after neighborhood residents graffitied racist slurs on it, demanding Fowler and his family “move” out of the predominantly white neighborhood. Since then, the city has claimed the burned barn violates the city code and has demanded that it be torn down. The city is threatening Fowler a daily fine for continuing to have the “eyesore” on his property – this barn has existed without complaint for years.
Fowler lives with his mother on the property and is concerned for his family’s safety in a neighborhood that seems not to care about him, his property, or his safety. Insisting that he will not pay the fines, Fowler has enlisted the services of Nationally renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump. The city has conveniently closed its investigation of the burning, an effort to sweep the incident under the rug.
