May 26, 2012

Why did the UW frat Delta Upsilon get a 2-year suspension after 2 guys yelled at 2 trespassers?

Was it because the trespassers were black?
Delta Upsilon fraternity members said they'd had a problem with trespassers prior to an encounter...

According to an evidence packet released Friday morning, two members said they'd found heroin syringes on the property, 644 N. Frances St., and a Bose speaker had been stolen that night....

According to a letter from one of the women, she and a friend decided to take a walk to the lake in the early morning of March 16 and unintentionally walked on the fraternity's property. The members told the women to get off their property.

At least one of the members asked them, "how did it feel to be peasants?" and "How did it feel to be poor," the letter said. The members also told the women that they were among the one percent of the rich and the women should leave....
A bottle was heard to break, but the committee that imposed the suspension did not determine that the bottle was thrown (or aimed at the women). Note that there were no racial epithets: It was social-class taunting.
Originally the university said the fraternity members used racial slurs in addressing the women, but the committee said it could not corroborate that allegation.
Why did the university make it racial? (And why did the women even report this incident? If I were walking on someone's private property and they told me to get off, I'd quickly say "I'm sorry" and leave, and feel embarrassed.)

69 comments:

traditionalguy said...

The occupy generation has never heard of private property...the real private property that intrudes on the common. And they apparently cannot be educated about it either,

The Drill SGT said...

Why did the university make it racial?

Because they could...

Chase said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wince said...

"Why did the UW frat Delta Upsilon get a 2-year suspension after 2 guys yelled at 2 trespassers?"

There is a little-known codicil in the UW constitution which gives the dean unlimited power to preserve order in time of campus emergency.

Chase said...

Was it because the trespassers were black?

YES> YES IT WAS>

And I can say that without having even read beyond that sentence.

Back after i have read the rest of the post . . .

David said...

Did the shouters call the trespassers "water buffalos?" That was enough to bring race into the matter in an east coast incident several years ago.

In that case the issue turned on how the trespassing women felt about the comment. Because they felt racially disrespected, it was a hate comment and some guy got suspended.

Seems to me that the subjective reaction of the women may be operative here also.

I've had enough of Althouse today. Today's theme is "depressing small incidents." It's bumming me out.

Chase said...

Oh David . . . how do you ever make it in life?

KCFleming said...

Why did they report it?

Ha ha ha.

Same reason why Trayvon is viewed as a victim.

Obama solidified the notion that the rules do not apply to American blacks.

Drudge has had numerous posts on this phenomenon. For example, some white girl in Detroit got beat up at a fast food drive thru for daring to signal upset with a car in front of her for throwing their trash on the ground. The entire car of blacks got out to beat her.

Even waterparks won't correct blacks for age or height violations; only whites.

University affirmative action and diversity and their Evil White Man indoctrination has come to this point. Blacks are never wrong. Whites are always wrong.

Show me otherwise, but I don't think anyone can demonstrate how this is not true.

I'm Full of Soup said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_buffalo_incident

Here Althouse is the incident David remembered. Some things never change in the librul world.

campy said...

Look for a 50% budget increase for the Af-Am Studies dept. next year.

David said...

Apology to Leslie Brooks: Mr. Brooks, notwithstanding my careless words, I do not view your murder as a "small incident."

madAsHell said...

Greek Row at the nearby University is swathed in security cameras, and electronic locks.

When I was there, no one knew how to lock the front door.

chickelit said...

Delta Upsilon fraternity members said they'd had a problem with trespassers prior to an encounter...

No doubt. Google that street address and get a visual of the street view and the situation. The house sits at one end of a dead end street on the lake front. I've been there myself. I recall it was hard not to trespass (or it was 30 years ago) if you wanted to get down to the lake shore. Also, the insults hurled by the frat boys sound typical for 30 years ago unless things have changed.

Out here in SoCal there is guaranteed public access to the shore. Of course, beach access is intrinsically more desirable out here.

David said...

Don't know, Chase. I've stumbled through almost 70 years. Still stumbling.

The Crack Emcee said...

Why did the university make it racial? (And why did the women even report this incident? If I were walking on someone's private property and they told me to get off, I'd quickly say "I'm sorry" and leave, and feel embarrassed.)

It all comes down to one word:

Entitlement.

The women feel entitled to walk where they want, the frat boys feel entitled to harm who they like, and the university feels entitled to do what it wants.

They'll all figure out the "why" afterwards.

Stupidity is the dark underbelly of freedom.

BTW - to prove I'm not a robot, I'm being asked to put in characters from a foreign language. Very strange.

Ann Althouse said...

"Also, the insults hurled by the frat boys sound typical for 30 years ago unless things have changed."

The committee's report speculates that the "class" business was inspired by recent political doings. Think "Occupy."

Chase said...

I have finished reading the rest of the post and the referenced article.

My answer above still stands.

See! Understanding the brains of the politcally frightened and the affirmative action racial spoils bullies is easy!

GMay said...

"Why did the university make it racial?"

That was a rhetorical question, right?

Chase said...

David,

I applaud your response and pray I do as well in my later years.

Chip S. said...

No Gran Torino reference?

rhhardin said...

Everything runs by narrative on the left.

Bruce Hayden said...

I should also note that the fraternity system is notoriously disliked by liberal college administrators. My theory is that they tended to be the people who were not asked to pledge when they were in college, and are getting even.

I think that you see this most at small liberal arts schools and liberal northern universities, and UW Madison would fit right in there. I am just guessing, but doing so from what I saw at CU Boulder, which is about as hard left as Madison.

And, I watched it at my alma mater, a small liberal arts college. A president comes in avowing to destroy the Greek system, and pretty much does, before being run off. Why was it so hard for her to do? Because the Greeks are almost always the biggest donors to the schools, per capita, often by a big margin. And, at a lot of schools control student government, as well as provide the bulk of the community service and charitable efforts.

I am not saying that the Greek system doesn't have issues, because it does. Brother the other night mentioned that his house had been thrown off campus for a couple of years after a co-ed (don't you love that term?) died on her way home from a party (DUI). And, a couple years ago, there was a rash of deaths here in CO from fraternity related alcohol poisoning (but, alcohol poisoning seems to have become ubiquitous on many campuses in recent years, with little if any connection to the Greek system).

And, yes, as is probably obvious from this, I belonged to a fraternity when I was in college - was the house president and I still keep in touch with a lot of the bro.

David said...

I read the "evidence" in this case. An incredible (literally) mishmash of hearsay, anonymous information, speculation, predisposition, prejudice and lack of curiosity. The most telling is that, in an early meeting with the fraternity president, the administrators kept telling the president that it "would be in his best interest" to do certain things. Translation: "Bring us a sacrificial lamb or two or you are really screwed."

The worst part is that the investigators, prosecutors and judges are the same people.

Not even a pretense of due process and fundamental fairness. Truly shameful.

DADvocate said...

It's really gender based and the university is using race to cover up its gender bias. Women get away with all sorts for crimes because they're women, speeding, killing sleeping husbands and the like. How dare these men to confront and challenge a woman during the commission of a crime!! The women should have accused them of rape.

Chip S. said...

Dean Wormer would probably resent being called a liberal.

virgil xenophon said...

To be added to all of this by way of explanatory power is the absolute loathing most present-day college faculty and administrations have for fraternities as bastions of "hegemonic" "hetero-normative" white male privilege. Thus, ANY excuse to de-legitimize the fraternity system will do, no matter how spurious.

the co-owner said...

Since when is it a police officer's job to provide testimony that the entire chapter membership needs to be purged? Or are they now empowered to create and pursue thought criminals?

Lyle said...

Progressives love to moralize over and on fraternities.

... and Secret societies are anathema to a commune.

They should get a lawyer and sue.

edutcher said...

2 years, 2 guys, 2 trespassers?

Sounds like the Herman Cain rule.

David said...

Did the shouters call the trespassers "water buffalos?" That was enough to bring race into the matter in an east coast incident several years ago.

But that was at Penn.

(you remember that?)

In that case the issue turned on how the trespassing women felt about the comment. Because they felt racially disrespected, it was a hate comment and some guy got suspended.

The guy was also a furriner.

Pogo said...

Why did they report it?

Ha ha ha.

Same reason why Trayvon is viewed as a victim.

Obama solidified the notion that the rules do not apply to American blacks.


Only as long as he is Messiah and Holder is AG.

ndspinelli said...

The fraternity just needs to have a couple token black rappers. Then they can call them "ho's" and "bitch cunts" w/ impunity

David said...

Without doubt I have paid more of my hard won earnings over the decades for education than anything other than taxes. (Come to think of it, a lot of the taxes go to education also--just not of people I have ever met.)

I suppose this is one of the reasons that it infuriates me so that small minded people like these administrators can conduct themselves with such unfairness and bias. Maybe there was an event warranting suspension that occurred that night, but you could not determine that from their investigation. In one sense this may be good, because the fraternity members get a strong lesson in the value of distrust of authority.

The girls in question do not get a good lesson. They apparently exaggerated (lied?) about some of the comments, but they get their pound of flesh and no consequence for their exaggeration. This will not be good for them in the long run.

Shame on you, UW. And shame on your petty dictatorial little administrators.

David said...

And Crack was right about senses of entitlement. It was not a night of glory for the fraternity members either. I give the brothers and the girls a bit of a pass, because they are young and influenced by the atmosphere in which they live. But thanks to the administrators, neither group learned anything that will enable them to perform with more maturity the next time. That they must figure out on their own.

Original Mike said...

"Why did the university make it racial?"

Because the administration is racist.

James Pawlak said...

Did the "frat" ask for "Disorderly Conduct" (Trespassing)" charges against the offenders? If so, what response came from the police/City Attorney/DA?

Was the frat entitled to a "due process hearing" before the probably "arbitrary" UW action? Is failure to grant such a hearing an (Actionable) "violation of civil rights under color of law"?

Does the "castle doctrine law" apply to privately owned frat houses and their residents?

Original Mike said...

They see everything through the prism of race.

sane_voter said...

Another ordinary day in Black-Run America.

n.n said...

It's the Harvard syndrome. The perpetuation of Affirmative Action and other forms of institutional discrimination have served to denigrate individual dignity. It is prejudice for profit. Not unlike what it was ostensibly designed to mitigate.

Synova said...

I hate to be a racist and say so, Althouse, but for some absurd reason there has been a picture painted of How White People Are Treated. And while you and I know that trespassing would make us embarrassed and sorry and we'd apologize and scurry away, people who don't know what it's really like to be white, have been indoctrinated to such an extent that it's always always *different* for them, and they're only scolded (or ignored by a clerk in a shop, or asked to pay first) because they are black and a white person would never be treated that way. But of course they are.

Think of how very very many people didn't think that it was suspicious At All that Travon Martin was wandering about on people's property? White girls scurry off and are *sorry*. But only a racist would suggest that maybe private property is not where a black girl (or young man) should go walking.

KCFleming said...

Exactly, Synova.

The hard bigotry of no expectations.

David said...

"Was the frat entitled to a "due process hearing" before the probably "arbitrary" UW action? Is failure to grant such a hearing an (Actionable) "violation of civil rights under color of law"?"

Read the evidence. They were put on a form of probation as soon as the complaint was made. Then came the so called investigation.

They interviewed the students. Their stories were similar. The interviewer concluded that they must have colluded if they all gave the same version. No consideration of the possibility that the accounts may have been the same because they were accurate.

Are the administrators required to make any findings of fact or in any set forth a reasoned appreciation of the evidence? Since the investigators were also the fact finders and clearly in prosecution (actually persecution) mode, were the students or the fraternity entitled to any representation?

Luke Lea said...

Why? Because we wear the mind-forged shackles of crime speak. Let's throw them off and let the chips fall where they may.

DADvocate said...

people who don't know what it's really like to be white,

A point I've tried to make many times. Oftne on radio and TV, I hear some black person complain, "You don't know what it's like to be black." Guess what. You don't know what it's like to be white. You think you do. But, all you have is some fairy tale some hater told you and you swallowed it because it relieves you of responsibility for your life.

Andy said...

people who don't know what it's really like to be white, have been indoctrinated to such an extent that it's always always *different* for them, and they're only scolded (or ignored by a clerk in a shop, or asked to pay first) because they are black and a white person would never be treated that way. But of course they are.

Yeah, non-white people don't get treated systematically different than white people in this country. Ask John Derbyshire.

Palladian said...

Andy R. is down with the street.

mtrobertsattorney said...

Chip S. is on to something. To ward off future problems, Delta Upsilon should consider planting around its property posters of Clint Eastwood waving his M1 Garand around telling trespassers to "GET OFF MY LAWN".

virgil xenophon said...

Another irony here is that DU is one of the most "transparent" fraternities going. Their meetings are not secret, anyone may (in theory) attend. All their "rituals" are "non-secret" and quite open, i.e., the fraternity least like the stereotypical image of fraternities that all lefties love to hate.

Automatic_Wing said...

Ah, the blessings of diversity.

Michael said...

What Synova said.

In my part of the world black people drive like bats out of hell daring to be ticketed for driving while black. Quite amazing how few of them wreck or killed in accidents. Equally amazing there arent more black race car drivers They appear to be good at it.

Paco Wové said...

a picture painted of How White People Are Treated

ndspinelli said...

If we can stipulate these frat boys are assholes, I can tell you their entitled attitude is not limited to black people. I've run into these born on second base jerks in Vegas. They treat dealers and cocktail waitresses like they're better than them. And, it's usually women who get their scorn, but not always. When they're busting a dealers balls I bust them 5 times harder. And, like most bullies, they just back down. This is about class, not race. But, the university doesn't have rules on class. They certainly do about race.

Amartel said...

Paco Wove beat me to it. Eddie Murphy's undercover white guy skit.

Strelnikov said...

I assume your final question was rhetorical.

LoafingOaf said...

Althouse: And why did the women even report this incident? If I were walking on someone's private property and they told me to get off, I'd quickly say "I'm sorry" and leave, and feel embarrassed.

The women reported that as they were leaving a bottle was thrown at them, on top of the verbal taunts. Although it wasn't proven whether or not the bottle was thrown (there were contradictory accounts of the incident), why are you telling the women what they should have done when you weren't there and you don't whether that happened or not?

If the female students' version of events is true, if I had been them I certainly would not say "I'm sorry" or feel embarrassed when some jerks are verbally abusing me and throwing bottles at me. I'll leave someone's property if I find I accidentally trespassed, but apologize to assholes who are attacking you?

LoafingOaf said...

Synova: Think of how very very many people didn't think that it was suspicious At All that Travon Martin was wandering about on people's property?

I haven't seen any allegation that Trayvon was trespassing on peoples' property. All reports I've seen say he was walking on a pubic road back to where his father was, to watch the second half of the NBA All Star Game.

Why do you make shit up to "prove" your racist BS?

Right is right! said...

I would have put some caps in those sisters asses if they tresspassed on my property. Let them cry "racism" then.

Amartel said...

Loafing Oaf, the Trayvon Martin incident happened in a gated community, on private property. His father lived there but Trayvon did not. There had been a rash of thefts in the community and non-residents wandering around were questioned. If Trayvon Martin had been more respectful of Zimmerman he'd still be alive today.

Right is right! said...

It is too bad he got himself killed but I bet there are a bunch of hoods who are walking around more carefully because of it. Major Darwin Award winner.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

Andy R.,

Yeah, non-white people don't get treated systematically different than white people in this country. Ask John Derbyshire.

And make sure you also ask his Chinese-born wife while you're at it.

Rosalyn C. said...

The frat boys have been taught a lesson they won't soon forget: when you deal with lower class people keep your mouth shut because they will always find a way to pay you back X2. Does the offending "victim/entitled/creep/thug" ever apologize for doing something wrong like a normal moral person would? Ha ha ha, no way, they aren't called thugs for nothing.

The fact that the University has chosen to reinforce this life lesson, inadvertently, priceless.

Paco Wové said...

If Dave were here, he'd say you all were racist.

bagoh20 said...

What happens if you mess up and fire off a racial epithet that's is just badly aimed? Like if you called some hispanics "niggers" or christians "kikes"?

Is that still a hate crime?

What if the "victim" is deaf and so never heard the insult, but it got recorded or reported by someone else?

Synova said...

"Yeah, non-white people don't get treated systematically different than white people in this country. Ask John Derbyshire."

What does supposed systematic racism have to do with a particular, individual, event?

There is systematic racism, therefore black people can't be yelled at for trespassing? Different rules for different folks?

Well, then, you more or less repeated my own argument, didn't you. The difference being that I think it's wrong and you imply it's justified.

Freeman Hunt said...

Better to yell, "I hate you!" as that's not hate speech.

Freeman Hunt said...

Maybe better to be more careful and yell something like, "I hate you personally and individually and not due to any affiliations you may have with any identity groups! I hate you most specifically!"

Then no one can accuse you of hate speech.

wyo sis said...

From the report it seems that they're all entitled thugs. Some of them are rich white boys and some are black girls with an attitude. If I ran across either group I'd leave the area as quickly and silently as possible.

WV rrencHo strange

I'm becoming more and more certain word verification knows what I'm typing.

ignatzk said...

Forget it, Jake. It's Madison.

wondertrev said...

Why I have the Derbyshire piece in my office for when my daughter goes to college.

LoafingOaf said...

Amartel: Loafing Oaf, the Trayvon Martin incident happened in a gated community

He was not trespassing! That's a documented fact. Look, this thread is dead, but the fact is that once again the racists and the liars are never challenged around here. This is the commenter community Althouse has chosen to assemble the last couple years. Who gives a fuck about this blog anymore? I dip in here now and again for old time's sake and it's just worse and worse.

The dude I replied to was calling Trayvon a trespasser and that was wrong. Why don't you ask that racist Synova why he can't get his fucking facts straight? (And Synova called HIMSELF a racist upthread btw -- so I ain't even calling him something he doesn't call himself).

James Pawlak said...

Please see your psychiatrist and have hour anti-psychotic medications adjusted.