Hours before vigils, Waterloo PD issues new press release on why it's not pursuing hate crime charges in death of Marcellus Andrews; no specifics cited

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It looks like Lt. Mike McNamee is no longer the go-to guy for police outsiders in this matter. After Waterloo police denied that any witnesses told any of its investigators anything about the homophobic slurs and taunts which those same witnesses later told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier preceded Andrews' beating death, the department now says:

Although offensive and disparaging words were being used during this incident, it does not rise to the threshold required by Iowa code to indicate a bias-motivated crime.

The applicable Iowa statute is this:

729A.2 VIOLATION OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS -- HATE CRIME.
"Hate crime" means one of the following public offenses when committed against a person or a person's property because of the person's race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, sex, sexual orientation, age, or disability, or the person's association with a person of a certain race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, political affiliation, sex,
sexual orientation, age, or disability:
1. Assault in violation of individual rights under section 708.2C.
2. Violations of individual rights under section 712.9.
3. Criminal mischief in violation of individual rights under section 716.6A.
4. Trespass in violation of individual rights under section 716.8, subsections 3 and 4.

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Now a movement is afoot in California, spearheaded by GetEQUAL via change.org's website, to petition the F.B.I. field office in Omaha to investigate the matter as a federal hate crime.