26 Comments
From The Guardian, Columbia University will not turn over surveillance video that could potentially aid the police with the case.
Currently, the police have no suspects, though they are looking into a Teacher’s College professor who holds “ill will” against Madonna Constantine. Yet, with only one possible lead, the police is also investigating any students who may carry vendettas.
UPDATE: Local CBS reports Columbia has agreed to hand over the tapes.
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26 Comments
@bigbrotheriswatching No word from the security department? Not word from the Police? Why haven’t they plastered the campus with the face(s) of the individual(s) involved? Surely they’ve had a chance to look at the tapes by now!
@bunny colvin is good police…despite hamsterdam.
@abundant press equals abundant copy-cats…just a though
@Anonymous Yes, I read the update about the tapes, but I still feel like it should be pointed out:
Isn’t the point of security footage to help in a situation like this?
@Lester Freamon No 4 is bad police
@what the fuck Why is it so hard for people to NOT write racist slurs and hang nooses on peoples doors? Seriously. Just don’t do it. keep the hate inside and then in 10 years spend a lot of money on therapy. Fuckin a.
@Alum Wouldn’t the tape be TC’s, not CU’s? I can understand off-campus media missing the distinction, but Bwog should know better.
@... prezbo just sent that? i haven’t gotten mine yet. needless to say, he’s definitely slacking off. then again, this is like the third blast email from him a week on a similar topic, so i guess it’s allowed.
@e-mail blasts e-mail blasts take time, so I believe they send it one group at a time. You try sending e-mail to thousands of peope at once and see if your system doesn’t fall over.
@Huh? Uh, no they don’t. Email is cheap between internal servers. And even so, that wouldn’t necessitate sending a bunch of different email bodies.
@cc student prez bo just sent out an email. his tone is almost amusing, because he sounds like a parent who has just had it up to here! with this.
Dear member of the Columbia community,
I am saddened to report that one of the bathrooms in Lewisohn Hall
was sullied with an anti-Semitic smear. It has been promptly
removed and is now being investigated.
I want to make two points. When words are the offender, as in this
incident, I am reluctant to draw attention to them and will
exercise restraint in doing so going forward. I do not want to
broadcast, in any way, the message they attempt to send or empower
those behind them. Despite the irrational, destructive hatred that
persists in our society and world, we do not accept this anywhere
at this University. No one among us should feel marginalized or
threatened by words of hatred. We are one community; and as one
community, we will overcome these hateful acts and hold each other
to the highest standards of respect for the dignity and diversity
of every individual.
In response to questions students have raised, I also want to
reassure you that we have utmost confidence in our Public Safety
officials and in the NYPD. Not only do they have well established
communications protocols in place when there is an immediate threat
of harm; they distinguish crimes that threaten our physical safety
from incidents like the one that occurred today.
Sincerely,
Lee C. Bollinger
@there has been anti-semitic graffiti in the past–like in ruggles a few years ago. from what I recall, the university called an “emergency meeting” for the blacks, hispanics, and native americans, but NOT the jews!
my guess is that the jewish students will be mature about this, condemn it in a few statements and roll their eyes otherwise. i think they’re hardened to this stuff here, given that we have professors at this school who say shit like this: “the way they [Jews] talk, walk, the way they greet each other, there is a vulgarity of character that is bone-deep and structural to the skeletal vertebrae of its culture.” – Dumbass Hamid Dabashi
@hmm Do we think there’s a single source of all this “hate”?
Or just a coincidence?
Copy cat?
@... also, i’m not really sure why it came as a gs blast email. aside from the lounge and the gs administrative offices, there’s a lot of other things that take place in that building, be it a language resource center, school of continuing ed offices, and a ton of classrooms.
shouldn’t this have gone out as a university blast? or are try trying to keep the pr down?
@gser I’m sure it will go out as a community blast later on, but we got it first because, like you said, our admin offices are in the building, so our deans probably heard about it sooner, the same way the noose blast went out to TC students first, because their admins found out about it sooner.
And to 11, god, I seriously hope it is just one sick individual behind the SIPA graffiti, the noose, and now this. I’d much rather assume it’s one sicko acting alone rather than an actual epidemic.
@... yeah. i just forwarded the gs blast to bwog, but it looks like it was posted here a few minutes ago.
does this mean that jts protests next?
@check out the update, columbia says it IS releasing the videos and cooperating with the investigation (gothamist)
@breaking news to
gnprem@cuvmc.ais.columbia.edu,
GS Students
date Oct 11, 2007 4:29 PM
subject **Vandalism in Lewisohn Hall
mailed-by cuvmc.ais.columbia.edu
To all GS students:
It is very distressing to report that anti-semitic graffiti was found in a bathroom stall in Lewisohn Hall. These kinds of hateful crimes directed against the Jewish community or any other individuals or groups will not be tolerated. I have been a member of the Columbia faculty for thirty years and know that we as a community stand for values that are completely antithetical to such vile and hate-filled images. Let us seize this occasion to renew our commitment to the values of inclusiveness, respect, and toleration that we all cherish. And let us make clear to one another that we will not allow such cowardly hate-mongering to divide our community. I can assure you that the Office of Public Safety and the New York Police Department are conducting a full investigation of this incident.
Peter J. Awn
Dean
@General Studies General Studies – do they get everything wrong?
@hahahah “These kinds of hateful crimes directed against the Jewish community or any other individuals or groups will not be tolerated. I have been a member of the Columbia faculty for thirty years and know that we as a community stand for values that are completely antithetical to such vile and hate-filled images.”
Clearly, Dean Awn has never heard of the MEALAC Department.
@dean awn yeah i suppose he probably knows nothing of MEALAC, especially considering he’s a professor of islamic religion in the religious studies department.
@Awn is a pawn Awn is a pawn.
Spawn of a faun
Wrong, wrong, wrong
@not to mention “the police is” is not proper grammar…
wtf is up with them not releasing the security video?
@what a unbelievably inappropriate title.
way to go, Bwog!
@Perhaps l Madonna Constantine v. Suniya Luthar
@Grammar people... “Yet, being only one possible lead, polices are…”
I’m not sure if this is what’s called a “dangling participle” or something else, but there should definitely be another word there: “THERE”
As in, “Yet, THERE being only one possible lead, police are…”
Otherwise, it sounds like the police ARE the one possible lead.