Missouri Professor Resigns After Not Canceling Exam
The racial saga at Mizzou has not been solved with the ouster of the president and chancellor.
A white professor at the University of Missouri has resigned after making national news for not canceling an exam amid social media threats to black students.
The Washington Post reported (“As death threats spread fear at Mizzou, professor asks students to defeat ‘bullies’ and attend class“) yesterday:
As members of the Missouri Legislative Black Caucus met with student activists at a closed meeting Monday morning, an anonymous caller phoned in a threat to MU’s Oldham Black Culture Center.
“There was a call made to the Black Culture Center today a little before noon,” MU Police Maj. Brian Weimer told the Columbia Missourian. “It was perceived as threatening, and we’re looking into it.”
[UM police arrest suspect in social media death threats]
As the day progressed, however, the threats turned to social media. Although their source and credibility were questionable, their ugliness was not, and they stoked fears of a school shooting and drove students — particularly minorities — from campus dorms.
[…]
On Wednesday morning, campus police said an arrest had been made.
“University of Missouri Police have apprehended the suspect who posted threats to campus on YikYak and other social media,” the department announced on its Web site. “The suspect is in MUPD custody and was not located on or near the MU campus at the time of the threat.”
[…]
Although concrete information was hard to come by Tuesday night, many students described real fear at the threat of an incident on campus Wednesday. Some vowed to stay home.
A white professor, however, challenged his students to come to class, to prevent the “bullies” from winning:
“If you don’t feel safe coming to class, then don’t come to class,” Dale Brigham wrote in an e-mail to his Nutritional Science 1034 class. “I will be there, and there will be an exam administered in our class.
“If you give into bullies, they win. The only way bullies are defeated is by standing up to them. If we cancel the exam, they win; if we go through with it, they lose.
“I know which side I am on,” Brigham said in the e-mail. “You make your own choice.”
[…]
Brigham confirmed to The Washington Post that he had sent the e-mail.
“Students can come to class and take the exam tomorrow if they wish. My duty is to hold the class. If they choose otherwise, they can take a make up exam,” he said in an e-mail. “By the way, the university has not cancelled classes or put out any other official statement regarding these rumors. If they confirm any of these threats, I will follow through appropriately.”
By yesterday afternoon, Brigham has resigned his post, apparently under pressure from the administration. Campus Reform:
Dr. Brigham was sharply criticized in the media for requiring his students to attend class and take their exam. Salon ran a story with the headline “White Missouri professor shames black students for heeding violent threats.”The Washington Post featured similar coverage of “a white professor” who “challenged his students to come to class.”
Those upset with Dr. Brigham’s decision to hold class took to Twitter calling for Brigham to be firedand calling him “a failure as a human being.”
[…]
Under intense pressure, Dr. Brigham has both cancelled the exam and resigned from the university, according to screenshots posted online of an email from Dr. Brigham to his students.
“The exam is cancelled. Our students will be able to take the exam at an alternate date with no loss of points,” Dr. Brigham told students. “No one will have to come to class today. And, I am resigning my position.”
[…]
One University of Missouri student told Campus Reform that Dr. Brigham, who he called “one of the most beloved professors at Mizzou,” was forced to resign.
“His class was one of the most popular at Mizzou and he was the friendliest teacher I’ve ever had. It’s a shame that he’s leaving while Melissa Click stays,” the student continued. The student also told Campus Reform that campus was open and classes were being held, but “false KKK threats” caused a “panic” among students.
[…]
Dr. Brigham confirmed his resignation to KOMU stating “I am just trying to do what I think is best for our students and the university as an institution. If my leaders think that my leaving would help, I am all for it. I made a mistake, and I do not want to cause further harm.”
KOMU now reports that the university won’t accept Brigham’s resignation.
A University of Missouri spokesperson said the resignation was not accepted from a professor who came under fire for an email he sent to a student after threats against the university surfaced on social media.
A bizarre situation all around.
Certainly, in the wake of the firestorm over racial incidents that led to the ouster of the university’s president and chancellor and the ensuing threats being propagated over social media, one could understand black students being afraid to come to class. Indeed, given that the administration had been forced to resign over their insensitivity to the previous iterations of the crisis, it’s rather shocking that they didn’t take the preemptive move of canceling classes until safety was assured.
Were I in Brigham’s place, I’d have skipped the note about standing up to bullies even though I share his philosophy on the matter. Absent a decision from the university otherwise, I’d have held class, seeing it as my place of duty. And I’d probably have postponed the exam unless the academic calendar required getting grades in. (As best I can tell, it doesn’t.) Still, Brigham’s actions here are perfectly defensible in light of a lack of leadership from the administration.
The closest I’ve been to a similar situation was during the reign of the DC snipers, from 2-24 October 2002. I had just moved to the national capitol region two months earlier and was living and working within the targeted area, having frequented at least one location where someone had been randomly murdered. So far as I know, no serious thought was given to closing the publishing house where I was working at the time and I reported in to work every day. And I continued to shop, refuel the car, and other activities that elevated my risk. While that was all partly motivated by sharing Brigham’s view on letting the bad guys win, it was also simply a function of life having to go on.
I suggest all teachers, administrators, and staff employed by the university immediately resign. The students want anarchy…let them have it.
I recall seeing the large amount of tweets about some KKK rally or presence on the campus Tuesday night after the Republican debate and looking for confirming evidence. Everyone has a cellphone: if something was happening, someone would’ve recorded it. In the end, there was video of one racist douchebag ranting loudly in the night, video of a police SUV on the street, and lots of reports about a blue truck. Not enough to cancel a class over; hell, the university’s own online alert site told people to stop spreading rumors greater than what had been confirmed.
But you can’t stop panic. I don’t think he handled the response correctly. No one should dare their students to stand up to bullet-flinging “bullies” (unless this is a kung fu legend and thus fictional). Still, that’s a matter of tone versus substance. He could’ve insisted on attendance without seeming insensitive about it.
The “standing up to bullies” line was too much. First, after months of feces-swastikas, shouted racial slurs on campus, and university officials treating those incidents as “silly black students having their fee-fees hurt”, one cannot be faulted for assuming that the threat of random shootings at black students was real, and that the university would not mount a vigorous response.
Second, “bullies” is not an accurate term when one is threatening to shoot other people. That term is “murderer” (or maybe murderer-to-be).
So in that light, the professor’s email was pretty dense, even if I agree the professors motives were coming from the right place:
““If you give into murderers, they win. The only way murderers are defeated is by standing up to them. If we cancel the exam, they win; if we go through with it, they lose.”
Then factor in that this professor, being white, was in no way being targeted. He was essentially saying “Even though I am in no danger whatsoever, I think I’m being brave by having class. All of you students who ARE being targeted for murder, you should also be brave and come. Just like me.”
That said, the professor’s response when called out was strong. He apologized forthrightly and went a long way–probably too far–to make amends.
And the university did the right thing in not accepting his resignation.
@Neil Hudelson: Fair take all around. I do think the note was tone-deaf, if certainly well within his rights under academic freedom. Regardless, resignation was an over-the-top response—especially given the state of the academic job market—and the university rightly rejected the offer.
@Neil Hudelson:
You have your facts wrong. There is no proof that poop swastika ever occurred. No pictures. No swabs. Nothing but a vague police report. The racial slurs occurred off campus.
No one can say why the president resigned. What factual based information led to his ouster?
NO ONE was ever targeted for murder except in their own mind.
This has become a self licking ice cream cone. It’s a racist and dangerous environment only because the students say it’s a racist and dangerous environment. And out of fear of this supposed racist and dangerous environment, students see racism and danger around every corner.
Although the red scare was before my time it was a much discussed issue throughout my formative years. And this whole thing is beginning to remind me of it. Especially the fact that if someone dares to disagree or even simply suggests that other viewpoints should be allowed for discussion, there is an instant and over the top call for that person to be ousted and blacklisted. And that once the thought police have collectively passed judgement, the offender can be abused and slandered since they no longer need to be treated with any respect whatsoever.
One of the red-scare lessons it took me a while to understand was the damage that the mob mentality did. For decades afterward any mention of communist infiltration was met with universal derision. Anyone who expressed any concern was shoved into the “McCarthyism” category. But in fact the Soviet Union did have real spies and were trying to real harm. McCarthy and his ilk destroyed tens of thousands of lives and probably didn’t get a single real spy. But that didn’t mean they weren’t there.
@Jack:
I gave you a thumbs up on this because you’re mostly right and it’s an important perspective. But, of course, there actually is pretty substantial racism and danger out there if you’re a black person of college age. The campus isn’t that far from Ferguson, which makes that incident and others that have followed particularly salient for these students. Further, while I’m actually sympathetic to the university president for thinking there was very little evidence for any of the individual incidents being cited, he exhibited a horrible failure of leadership in not addressing the perception that there was a serious racial crisis ongoing. This is a case where perception creates its own reality and leadership has to get out in front in these situations.
@MarkedMan:
I agree with you to a degree. This is becoming a sort of vague, generalized hysteria with distinct elements of witch-hunting.
Unfortunately, in this country, in the land of the NRA and the gun cult, students on campus have every reason to be genuinely afraid. Virginia Tech comes to mind. As does the Charleston church shooting.
We don’t live in a country where courage is much use, we live in a country under the constant shadow of the gun. And the question of Courage vs. Guns was pretty well settled in 1914, if not earlier in, say, 1864.
@James Joyner: This is a case where perception creates its own reality and leadership has to get out in front in these situations.
@Jack: “You have your facts wrong. There is no proof that poop swastika ever occurred. ”
Except the police report from the University of Missouri police department. Or is that police report fake too?
Anyway, for the professor, you should never go rogue doing your job. If you have no direction from the clueless administration, as frustrating as that is, you don’t do what he did. You go up to your superiors and ask for direction on how the situation should be handled if there is any grey area, he did not do that, and it ended up costing him his job. This happens everyday off campus in the corporate world as well. I understand his frustration though.
@michael reynolds:
Is there nothing that can’t be blamed on climate change and the NRA??
A student claimed on Twitter that KKK members were on campus and throwing bricks through the windows. It never happened! Are you telling me the NRA caused that?
@James Joyner:
The now-resigned president was a guy from the tech business community. Those who think we need a CEO type as POTUS might want to consider the implications. This was an essentially political issue made far worse by this clueless Business Savior.
@Jack:
I’m telling you that thanks to people like you, Jack, everyone in this country has to worry about being shot. That’s a constant fear we deal with that the civilized world does not, or does to a far lesser extent. Your gun obsession creates a climate of genuine fear.
In that climate of fear, in a world where school shootings are routine, the students had every reason to be afraid.
If you can challenge the logic of that, go right ahead. Random ranting about climate change is just noise.
@michael reynolds:
I suppose he should have just said it was the fault of some obscure video…like the real politicians do.
I’d start by requiring every one who states they had a racial incident file a police report. If it turns out the claim was false these people should be expelled and charged with filing a false report.
There are no pictures of the infamous “swastika” How is that possible nowadays? No one in the dorm had a phone with them? Really? I’d like to see a police investigation that interviews the staff that reported this, the janitor for the dorm and everyone else that was involved. If it turns out to be a hoax then firings, expulsion and charges should be brought.
I’m sure black students have experienced blatant racism. Unfortunately making up stories will make it much harder to address real incidents. The boy who cried wolf once too often comes to mind.
@michael reynolds:
Exaggerate much? Maybe you should limit your movements to gun free zones…that will help. Or maybe you should never leave the house. The world will not miss you.
@Jack: Funny how it’s the “conservatives” among us who are always the first to suggest that anyone who doesn’t immediately bow down to any authority is an anarchist.
Oh, wait — it’s any minority who doesn’t immediately bow down to white authority. I guess that does make sense. Carry on, Jack.
@Jc:
In this day a pic or video would have been the first thing that occurred…alas, there is no such pic or video. The only swastika image anyone was able to find related to activists’ claims was traced back to a Reddit thread from November 2014 – over one year prior to the alleged UM incident.
Also, you mean we should trust the same University of Missouri Police Department that sent an email to students asking them to report “hateful and hurtful” speech to the police.
This is a hoax, plain and simple. But I’m sure you trust everything those keystone cops say is true.
@WR: I never claimed anyone should bow down to anyone. I simply pointed out that all of this hoopla can be traced back to false flags. You don’t have to like the truth, but you do have to accept it.
This is from a piece in the Atlantic by a Yale student:
The first time I saw a friend wearing blackface I was a freshman in college. I was stunned. I was hurt. I was enraged. But more than anything, I was confused. He thought it was funny, albeit controversial. But to me it wasn’t a joke; it was pointed mockery. I imagined him laughing and joking as his friends painted his skin. I couldn’t understand why he would so callously and easily disrespect me and those like me, for fun.
People going on about black students being hysterical should really explain how they would deal, if they were black, with a ‘friend’ doing this. And not only the ‘friend’ in question. We’re talking about what kind of world comes out of a person doing this? How is this Yale student, who is black, supposed to imagine the largely-white world of the elite where dressing up in blackface isn’t a joke and not racist? How is this student possibly expected to imagine that she’s an equal in this world?
Outside of an ethical imperative to rise above the racism and the offense involved, I’m hearing nothing except business-speak that treats people like employees who need to manage differences in order to work together.
And this is a benign example, relative to death threats or catastrophic stupidity. The ‘friend’ in question at least got it was controversial and potentially hurtful.
@Jack: “This has become a self licking ice cream cone. It’s a racist and dangerous environment only because the students say it’s a racist and dangerous environment. And out of fear of this supposed racist and dangerous environment, students see racism and danger around every corner.”
This is lovely coming from a “man” who supports laws like Florida’s which make it legal to murder someone as long as you claim you were scared.
@Modulo Myself: Dressing in blackface…like Terry Rambler–the chairman of the San Carlos Apache Tribe and vocal critic of the Washington Redskins. Who, dressed as Bob Marley for Halloween complete with black face and dreadlocks.
Yeah, you would think people would know better.
http://nypost.com/2015/11/04/native-american-offended-by-redskins-wore-blackface-on-halloween/?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_source=NYPTwitter&utm_medium=SocialFlow
@Jack: “You don’t have to like the truth, but you do have to accept it.”
If you ever come within a hundred miles of the truth, I’ll be sure to acknowledge that.
@WR:
Florida’s laws don’t allow you to simply “clam you were scared”.
Many states have enacted so-called stand your ground laws that remove the duty to retreat before using force in self-defense. Florida passed the first such law in 2005, generally allowing people to stand their ground instead of retreating if they reasonably believe doing so will “prevent death or great bodily harm.”
If you don’t understand English, then I can’t help you.
@Jack:
Jack, outside of fear and anger, you have no identifiable human characteristics. No one is asking you to imagine what it might be like to be a young black woman. Least of all the young black woman.
I just googled “school closed threat” and just looking at the list (without actually reading the search results) …. it looks like there have been a fair number of incidents lately where schools have closed or gone on lockdown because of some kind of threat — it looks like bombs more than anything but it’s a mix. This seems to be a growing problem. I live in Los Angeles and schools around here have closed over threats a few times this year. It’s becoming a part of life for students that I suspect most of the commenters here didn’t have to deal with when they were in school.
I would separate the racial bullying/climate from the recent threats. They’re just different. But it looks like the prof wanted to take a stand against the racial bullying, but decided to do it in response to the threat. Then he tried to resign? The guy seems to like drama or drawing attention to himself.
@Steve V: A school went into lockdown because a student asked for a piece of GUM.
There was a feces swastika. Campus police report is fairly clear and not at all vague on it. The university spokesman is the one who provided the campus police report to the media which would be a ludicrous move if it didn’t exist. The KKK “rally,” shots being fired, and the brick through a Greek house’s window are unsubstantiated.
It’s definitely a meme on our conservative news sites (Federalist, Daily Caller, etc.) that everything is made up, so keep that in mind when evaluating the situation. Their position is based less of facts and more on an agenda to minimize any possible racial animus in our society, as has been the case for several years now.
Based on what I saw on Twitter on Tuesday night, it isn’t at all incorrect to state student reaction to a possible threat, or whatever the hell was going on, was hysterical and overblown. It is incorrect to state they had no reason whatsoever for it.
@Jack:
Another right-wing lie perpetrated by the conservative-entertainment complex, there’s a police report where the officer specifically states that he saw it:
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/11/11/the_federalist_and_sean_davis_say_the_feces_swastika_at_mizzou_was_a_hoax.html
@Tillman: Thanks for the link.
Jack should be along to
apologizechange the subject any minute now…@James Joyner: James, it’s 116 miles between Ferguson and Columbia. Not exactly around the corner.
@michael reynolds : Michael, do you really walk around in “constant fear” of being shot? If so, you might want to consider therapy, because that’s no way to live your life.
@SKI: I stated there was a police report. The story cited does not change my opinion.
Tawana Brawley was covered in feces and racial slurs covering her body…yet she was not raped by 6 white men.
False flags have been a weapon of the left for years.
@Jack: You stated that there is no proof that it ever existed and that it was a hoax. The police report states that the officer actually saw the swastika with their own eyes. Are you now claiming (a) that the officer was in on the hoax or (b) that the officer recording what they saw with their own eyes is not evidence that the object they observed and documented actually existed?
I guess I’m sorry for giving you too much credit. I didn’t think you would be so brazen and/or dumb to take this path.
@Moderate Mom: Sure. But presumably some percentage of the student body of the flagship state university are from there or close to there. And it happening in the state makes racial tensions more salient than watching on the news from, say, DC. I mean, my mom lives three hours from Tuscaloosa but news from there is much more impactful to her than it would be to someone in Atlanta or Memphis.
@Jack: So let’s get this straightened out. You distrust police departments (long established, and I agree with you to an extent). You’re claiming a report from a campus police department (a different, lesser animal than normal law enforcement) is a hoax, a leftist conspiracy to promote a narrative of racial animus and provide the means for…what?
A good conspiracy theory has to have an endgame, Jack. There has to be a reason for things to be worth the trouble of false-flagging. It isn’t enough that it challenges your assumptions about the world for it to be a conspiracy, it has to achieve something material and meaningful. What does “the left” get out of this? There’s no payoff.
@SKI: I stated above
A police report does not mean anything occurred. A police report is not evidence. It is a record of an incident. It means someone else swears that something occurred. The police officer simply takes the report. A University Police Officer , who many consider little more than Barney Fife, who’s documentation fails to prove anything.
@Tillman:
The same payoff as the Occupy retards. They get to be the story. This is an extension of the BLM movement and it will continue at each and every college/university less Spelman, Howard, Hampton, Morehouse, etc., until every administrator and teacher bends to their will–or doesn’t and they have to take down their encampment because administrators have taken all they are going to take and they turn the forces of the state against them.
@Jack: And the right. See Ashley Todd. Seems to me that pretty often when attacks are faked the truth comes out. I don’t see any reason to doubt the police report, but hey, maybe you’re right.
@Jack:
No, not remotely true. You would be laughed out of court for making that claim. A police report is very much evidence – in fact it is exactly why they actually create reports – for their evidentiary purpose.
It can be evidence of two separate things – and frequently both: (a) what third parties told the police officer and (b) what the officer observed with their own eyes. In this case, it included both.
So, which is it Jack: Was the officer fabricating their report and lying about what they saw with their own eyes? Or are you going to stop digging sand retract your claim that there was no evidence about the swastika existing?
@Jack:
You do realize there was a specific threat posted on yikyak that a student was planning on shooting any black person he saw. The threat was specific enough–including timing and location–that the FBI got involved and arrested the perpetrator.
What does a fake threat of the KKK have anything to do with the issue at hand?
Or do you think that because one incident was just a rumor, all incidents–including, apparently, ones documented by a police report–must be a rumor?
Tell me again how the students are stupid for living in a reality created by their own mind.
@Moderate Mom: Columbia is closer to Ferguson than the college I went to was to my hometown. Similar to my experience, the two are connected by an interstate highway. Gas is cheaper now than when I was in college.
When Brown was shot in Ferguson, he was college-bound. That was little more than a year ago. The students at Columbia might not have been friends or associates of his, but they’re in the same age cohort.
The distance isn’t really that great. You’re right that it’s not a trip to the corner grocer, but we concern ourselves with plenty of things outside physical proximity.
I’m starting to think Jack is displaying some irrational prejudice here…
@Jack:
To do what?
@Steve V:
Except that Jack isn’t just “doubting” the police report, he is claiming it doesn’t say what it says and isn’t evidence.
There can be evidence for something and it could still be false.
It is even possible that the police officer only saw what they saw because some student looking for attention created it and called the cops themselves as a false-flag operation. There is zero evidence that that is what happened but it is theoretically possible.
But Jack can’t bring himself to acknowledge that when he regurgitated conservative talking points earlier in this thread, he was wrong and that there is in fact evidence, beyond a student’s claims, that the swastika did exist.
@Jack:
So let me get this straight.
You are looking at the same situation as everyone here. You have access to the same police reports, the same news outlets, etc.
When faced with all this information, most people have come the the following conclusion. That some racial incidents–including a specific threat of murder, and a feces swastika–did occur, and is backed up by police evidence. Other incidents are hearsay. Regardless, the campus is experiencing turmoil. Some officials have done the right thing, some the wrong. Same with students. It’s a complicated situation that is at once both hyperbolic and yet understated when considering the racial violence of the last 18 months.
On the other hand…
It is your contention that no racial incidents occurred. That what proof there is that these incidents occurred are because of a student led conspiracy to plant false flags, combined with finding a specifically dumb officer who will either report everything these student-conspirators tell him as straight fact, or would be so stupid as to see a schmear of feces and think “swastika.” From there, after finding this duped officer and having him file his false reports, they will make up multiple more stories, even finding a white male patsy to be arrested for threatening violence.
They do this not because of true grievances, but because somehow–SOMEHOW–fake feces swastikas will be the start of instituting black AND ONLY BLACK administrators on EVERY CAMPUS IN THE U.S.
And that you, Jack, you digital Dupin, are the only one smart enough to see through the false police report, to see through the false arrest, and to realize the true nefarious endgame of getting on television and UNLEASHING THE HOARDES OF UPWARDLY MOBILE PROFESSIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS! AAHH!
Have I got that right?
To go back to the actual topic of James’s post:
I have a hard time believing that a 100-level nutritional science class would not have some sort of online presence. The professor could have administered an online exam or shifted the exam back a day and provided students with an alternative assignment.
I realize that every college is different, by at my school we are required to use a learning management system and most courses that are not writing or lab courses also have some sort of publisher’s website that can be used for creating assignments and exams.
Per our SACS accreditation standards, we are actually required to have sufficient assignments available online to replace 3 contact hours (1 week of a 16 week course) of classroom time on an as needed basis due to campus closures, personal emergency, or illness.
Missouri has a different regional accreditor (the Higher Learning Commission) but I would be fairly surprised if they did not have something similar.
@SKI: There simply is no evidence, short of this report, that the poop swastika ever occurred. Period.
@Moderate Mom:
Wrong. The “University of MIssouri” encompasses four (4) different campuses. Yes, the one in Columbia is 116 miles from Ferguson.
But the UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI – St. Louis Campus, is 2.5 miles from the center of Ferguson.
It’s the same UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI. The President and Chancellor who resigned, oversaw ALL the campuses.
So Dr. Joyner was correct. The University of Missouri is VERY closet to Ferguson.
@Jack:
Yes, outside of the written testimony of law enforcement, there is no evidence this occurred.
I mean…that’s true for, like, half of the crimes in the U.S.
But yeah, this one is definitely a conspiracy.
@Moderate Mom: Alas, in the Puget Sound region now, some people have commutes nearly that long. Rich people who don’t want to live in the confines of the city, granted, but still in all.
@Jack: You remind me of the guys that I see playing on line Texas Hold-em who go “all in” on a high card 7 with a possible full house showing in hopes that they can steal the pot. Know what? It never works.
@SKI:
I never claimed the police report doesn’t say what it says. I never even said that the University police officer didn’t see what he believed to be a swastika from poop. I said that it doesn’t prove there was a poop swastika. Where are the pictures? Where is the test from the swab showing it was indeed excrement? Where is there anything that proves it existed?
I can have a police officer come to my house for shattered glass outside my front window. He can document there was in fact broken glass and a hole where a window used to be. But that police report does not back up a broken window, nor a claim of a possible break in, attempted theft, malicious wounding, or any other connived claim someone wants to make.
For this to be believed, there should be a picture or video of something that looks like a swastika, and forensic evidence that it was indeed excrement. Then and only then can a claim of a poop swastika be claimed.
This has not even touched on the claims that the poop swastika was put there to intimidate and threaten…just like the Columbia University professor claimed a noose was hung from her door to intimidate and threaten when the professor herself put it there to overshadow an investigation of her plagiarism.
@Jack:
A standard required in no criminal trials ever…
@SKI:
A defense attorney would have a field day with any charges based upon this report and the officer’s testimony alone.
Attorney: Officer, what is a swastika?
Attorney: How did you know it was a swastika and not a Hindu symbol?
Attorney: How do you know it was poop? Did you smell it? Did you test it and send it to a lab? Was it brown and chunky, tar like, or liquid?
Attorney: Do you own a cell phone? Did you think to maybe SOMEHOW document the existence of this “poop swastika”
Attorney: Did you graduate high school? Do you know what the chain of evidence is?
@SKI: Like your intelligence, you cannot claim something without any evidence of that something.
@SKI:
This is getting pretty insane. Jack’s argument essentially comes down to The Black Knight defense.
“There’s a poop swastika.”
“Show me an authority who says so!”
“Here’s a police report.”
“Police reports only report what was said to them.”
“Here’s the actual report, including what the officer himself saw.”
“There’s no chemical analysis to show it was poop!”
At this point I think we could give him the results from a lab analyses, and he would claim that there is no proof someone didn’t bring in the poop from somewhere else as a black flag.
And if we showed him a video of a skinhead with a swastika tattoo sh*tting into his hand, then using it to draw a swastika, all the while yelling that he’s specifically doing it to intimidate minorities, Jack would claim that you can’t prove the fella wasn’t a paid actor.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKhEw7nD9C4
@Neil Hudelson: As I stated above…
@Jack: Or, you know, you could just trust an adult person knows what shit smells like.
You are the most prominent example I’ve come across in many years of the adage “it’s impossible to reason a man out of an opinion he didn’t reason himself into.”
Will some students start demanding the resignations of any professor who has written, commennted, or offered views that some people may find a differ of opinion with, or in some way offensive ? This could be something recent or some statement from years ago in some undergraduate term paper. What sort of demands and changes do these people seek ?
Stopping civil rights violations and violence is one thing. Stopping free speech is another.
@Tyrell:
Free speech the left doesn’t like is a civil rights violation…in their opinion.
@Jack:
Right…you demanded forensic examination of the swastika, unbelieving that an officer would be unable to determine feces based on look and smell alone. Hence my reply…
Are there any other stupid things you’ve said that you’d like to repeat for the pleasure of the readers? The part about police reports only being, essentially, stenography of witnesses was pretty good.
@Neil Hudelson: In this modern era, when college kids take photos of everything, when video emerges of virtually everything that takes place on campus, how is that there is no eye witness who can say that a poopswastika ever even existed?
I’m not buying it. This cop would be laughed out of court if he tried to testify to what he wrote on that report.
@Moderate Mom: I’m just wondering how long it will take people in “Stand Your Ground” states that you can pretty much shoot an open carrier any time you like.
@Neil Hudelson: “When a person has been arrested and accused of a crime, a police report can be a significant source of information about the circumstances surrounding the arrest. But by definition, police reports are hearsay: an out-of-court statement, used to prove the truth of the matter asserted (i.e., to prove the truth of what’s stated in the report).
http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/2014/10/can-police-reports-be-used-as-evidence.html
@MarkedMan: Yeah, that didn’t work out so well for the guy who tackled a concealed carrier when his gun became exposed.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/man-shopping-for-coffee-creamer-at-walmart-attacked-by-vigilante-for/2214432
I would expect anyone claiming self defense for shooting at someone with a holstered pistol will likely be charged with attempted murder.
@Jack:
So you are saying you were wrong about it being stenography? Cool. Thanks. I didn’t expect an admission, but it’s mighty big of you.
@Jack:
Yes there is: Mizzou Poop Swastika Police Report
But don’t let little things like facts get in the way of another RWNJ meltdown.
@Jack: send in the military and end this bullshit ,…seriously , lets see if they still ant this fight and then sue them for the money they have cost the state and university . seize their assets. this has taken on Middle East terrorism tactics
@James Joyner:
James, would you agree that the administration response throughout has been comically inept? While it seems that a lot of the organization and hearsay have been through social media, I haven’t seen any official response from the Mizzou admin since Wolfe’s resignation. Am I missing anything or did they simply fail to get in front of the story because most of the drama happened over the weekend, and Wolfe’s resignation on Monday left a void?
@Jack: You’re simply wrong here. The ACTUAL REPORT is easily available online. The officer took the report from the student and then actually went to the bathroom and witnessed the poop swastika and additional poop on the floor.
@Lit3Bolt: Yeah, it’s been amazingly bad. I think a lot of the incidents themselves are pretty much in the “Much ado about nothing” camp. But it’s simply a fact that there is a mass movement among the black student population that demonstrates genuine fear of the climate on campus. Leadership simply HAS to acknowledge the fear, regardless of the veracity of the incidents themselves.
What this situation has done, more than anything, is shown major college athletes at big money programs (think Duke Basketball, Texas/Oklahoma/Lousiana/everywhere Football) that they can leverage their football programs for social or school good.
If LSU football players threatened to forfeit a game for whatever reason, it would resonate all over the state of Louisiana. Same with OU, Michigan, Ohio State, Georgia, Florida (St), etc.
Next time administrators act like they don’t give a sh*t, football players are going to use this newfound leverage.
@James Joyner: You don’t understand, James. Without a detailed forensic analysis, we don’t KNOW it was poop. All we have is the word of a student who could have been in on the conspiracy and an incompetent, bumbling Barney Fife of a second-class university cop.
For all we know, the stuff on the wall was made with a candy bar, like the “floater” in Caddyshack. Or maybe Bill Cosby showed up and smeared it with Jell-O pudding.
@MarkedMan: Years ago, the building principal of the high school that I was working at assisted me in understanding how I needed to approach the “zero tolerance policy on drugs” as it related to events in my classroom. He noted:
I get the same vibe about “stand your ground,” but maybe I’m too cynical.
@Moderate Mom:
Short foray into Jack’s Logic
A. The swastika didn’t happen.
B. Proof for that is the fact it was not documented in pictures and videos.
C. Someone points that a police officer saw the swastika.
D. Then it must have been planted by left wingers to create a media storm.
Can someone explain how B and D exist on the same time-space continuum?
@Moderate Mom:
Short foray into Jack’s Logic
A. The swastika didn’t happen.
B. Proof for that is the fact it was not documented in pictures and videos.
C. And if it exists, then it must have been planted by left wingers to create a media storm.
Can someone explain how B and C exist on the same time-space continuum?
Hmm. It’s actually possible that Jack is denser than Jenos. And that, my friends, is a high bar to clear…
@anjin-san: it’s obvious that Jack is someone who has never changed a baby’s diaper or cleaned out a cat’s litter pan or walked a dog in his life.
Shit don’t need a DNA analysis. The only thing you gotta use is your NOSE.