Another Week, Another Bathroom Incident
Hot off last week’s swastika-in-Butler fiasco, it seems a rogue vandal or two continue to try to cram in as much vitriolic graffiti as they can before graduation.
A tipster reports that there might have been another hate crime in the 3rd floor men’s bathroom in Lerner. Says the tipster, “Yesterday afternoon there were 4-5 policemen and public safety there, and for the rest of the night a guard was stationed outside not letting anyone in. Today, there’s an ‘out of order’ sign on the door and maintenance guys frantically repainting two stalls. When they went on break I went in but couldn’t find anything.”
Tags: bathroom reading, hate crimes
14 May 2008 @ 11:40 AM · 19 comments
on 
The truth is that they should have placed out of order signs on all of the Lerner bathrooms a long time ago, given how despicably dirty they are.
only on the first floor. 3rd and 4th floor bathrooms are pretty clean.
really, do we have to classify every instance of bathroom graffiti as a “hate crime”? petty vandalism like this is offensive and despicable, to be sure, but i think that crying “hate crime” every time it occurs devalues the term. our attention might better be focused on more serious incidents, whether they occur at columbia or elsewhere.
just my two cents.
is a legal term. You and everyone else may feel that this is “petty vandalism,” but technically and legally it’s a hate crime. So it’s not a devaluation of the term, it’s a proper application.
*be better focused
at this rate, we will soon have nowhere left to shit on campus except holes in south lawn.
…have an advantage in this regard
protect the golden trowel from vandalism of this nature! stop the trowel swastakiing!
There’s been a giant swastika in the 3rd floor men’s bathroom in lerner as long as I can remember. The stalls are literally falling apart. It’s like pooping in some mad max dystopian wasteland
so check it out. there’s a lot to hate about the administration at this school. but lets be honest, their behavior in this situation is to be commended.
if some asshole scrawls some ridiculous bullshit on a bathroom wall. you don’t make a big deal out of it and publicize it. you fucking call maintenance, paint over it, and don’t give the assholes the attention they so desperately crave.
clearly the vandal knew it would create shock but that doesn’t mean the primary intent was to scare the jewish kids. perhaps he/she was a devout jain mocking Columbia’s obsession with using “hate crime” vocabulary (see Varsity Show). even if I’m giving the vandal (who’s probably a skinhead) too much credit, a swastika marking in itself is not a symbol of hate without clear motivation for its depiction. rather, it’s a historically misused symbol that’s malevolent significance is continuously renewed by “hate crime” paranoia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Swastik4.svg
I was taking a dump in the third floor lerner bathroom a few weeks ago, there was a giant swastika drawn on the stall. I was incredibly offended.
was so offended, i literally crapped my pants. Good thing my pants were off, though.
then you didn’t literally crap your pants.
If whining produced energy, each incident of bathroom graffiti on this campus could power a small country. People need to get real.
chill out, columbia. if you didn’t overreact like this, people would be much less tempted to do it in the first place.
it’s not funny now, but the rule is that after the seventh time, it’ll be hilarious.
this title means something different for me.
unless, of course, you have bad aim