Cornell Student Assaulted (Black on White "hate crime" at Ithaca Ludacris concert?)

Copyright © 2003 by The Cornell Daily Sun, Inc. ^ | TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 2003 | By SUN STAFF

[Behind Liberal Lines]

ITHACA--A white female student assaulted Sunday night leaving the Nappy Roots and Ludacris concert at Cornell's Barton Hall told The Sun that she was the victim of a hate-crime, which left her with a ruptured ear drum and thirteen stiches on her face.

The Cornell Police morning report noted that the police received a "complaint from a student that was physically assaulted by an unkown individual." The report indicated that the assault occurred at 11:47 p.m. and that the investigation is continuing.

The incident, as described by the victim, began when the student had a minor altercation with another girl who was at the concert while the performace was still going on.

"She said 'Get your white hair out of my face,'" the student said.

After the student put her hair up to get it out of the way, the alleged assailant proceeded to hit her, at which point the student and her friends moved to the back of the concert space.

When the concert was over, the student separated from her friends to get into her car and said she found herself surrounded by a group made up of five black females and one black male, who have yet to be identified.

"They said they were gonna f**k up my pretty white face," she said.

Allegedly, the incident turned physically violent when one of the girls slapped the student hard enough to rupture her eardrum, a blow which threw her off balance. The other five assailants proceeded to kick and punch her as she fell down.

"They pulled a ton of my hair out," the student said.

The six assailants stopped hitting the victim only when one of her male friends came out of the concert and stepped in.

"If it wasn't for [him], I don't know how long it would have gone on," she said.

The victim said doctors estimate it will take her eardrum a year and a half to heal.

"This was a hate crime, and it shouldn't happen to another person. The more people know the better," said the victim's mother.

The University is currently investigating the situation.

"We take any sort of hate crime very very seriously," said Linda Grace-Kobas, interim vice president for communications and media relations. "We will thoroughly investigate all aspects of the incident."

"I would encourage her to file a bias-related incident report," said Robert Harris, vice provost for diversity and faculty development. "We have a process and with a report we can begin putting that process to work."

Once an incident report is filed, a University employee is assigned the case to assist victims in pursuing their situation, according to Harris.

"It's really hard to live with this. I want people to know because I need to press charges. If anyone has any information, tell the police because [they] don't know anything right now," the student said.

[NativeNewYorker]

DA Dentes

[nicmarlo]

Disgusting.

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Did this issue of the Cornell Review get burned or confiscated as is tradition on the Big Red Campus?

[wolficatZ]

"..white female student assaulted Sunday night leaving the Nappy Roots and Ludacris concert ..."

 

If you lie down with dogs, you're gonna get fleas..

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Did this issue of the Cornell Review get burned or confiscated as is tradition on the Big Red Campus?

Not that I know of. However, the local chapter of the NAACP held an "emergency meeting" to protest the newspaper as "racist" and demand the University pull its funding:

During the meeting, participants planned a rally to take place today at 11:30 on Ho Plaza in reaction to the recent publications. In addition, a petition was passed around requesting that both newspapers be denied funding from the Student Assembly Finance Commission.

The meeting began with a presentation by Nathan Shinagawa '05, in which he discussed the articles. "[The Cornell Review] are trying to say that blacks are going to act violently against whites," said Shinagawa. He went on to discuss the manner in which the fight between the four black Ithaca residents and the white student was portrayed by the Review.

"There is a thin line between freedom of speech and being responsible. When you are stereotyping and putting people into groups that is a problem," said Sarah Elliot '06, president of the Cornell chapter of the NAACP.

"They're affirming their belief in racism, we should affirm our belief as well, not negate theirs," said Patrick McLeod '05.

"This is a larger thing they are doing, this is a coordinated assault on the civil rights movement and minorities," said Shinagawa

Ithaca is the City of Evil.

[Soaring Feather]

bump

[NativeNewYorker]

"There is a thin line between freedom of speech and being responsible. When you are stereotyping and putting people into groups that is a problem," said Sarah Elliot '06, president of the Cornell chapter of the NAACP.

So now the NAACP is officially in favor of scrapping the press freedoms of the First Amendment. I am SO glad that's clear now.

[drjimmy]

I meant to note this earlier, when the article on District Attorney George Dentes was posted. He does not in any way "pander to the town's base of leftover 1960s radicals and ivory-tower multiculturalists." I know him personally, and he is an honorable man and dedicated "law and order" public servant (and actually more conservative than I am!). He keeps getting re-elected because the majority of people throughout the county are happy that he does his best to put the bad guys away. Even some of the ivory tower folks, I am sure, quietly vote for him because they know he is the best choice to keep them safe in their Cayuga Heights mansions.

Dentes does the best he can within the framework of the legal system and the tools he has to work with. BTW, he will be seeking a retrial for the folks who got off on a hung jury for throwing their blood at the military recruiting station. He will certainly get a lot of sh*t from "the masses" around these parts, but he knows right from wrong and is never afraid to put his beliefs into practice.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

Good points on Dentes.

I think he dropped the ball a little on this case, but some of that might be the stonewalling that Cornell clearly engaged in.

In any event, he does deserve credit for trying those scumbags who threw blood on the American flag.

[FreedomPoster]

>>During the meeting, participants planned a rally to take place today at 11:30 on Ho Plaza in reaction to the recent publications.

Is Ho Plaza named after Ho Chi Minh?

;-P

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

In addition, a petition was passed around requesting that both newspapers be denied funding from the Student Assembly Finance Commission.

From their web page: "The Cornell Review was founded in 1984 as a response to the atmosphere of liberalism prevalent on the Cornell campus. The newspaper was incorporated in 1986 under the Ithaca Review, Inc., which publishes the Cornell Review to this day."

I'm confused. It doesn't appear that the Review is funded by the University Student Association. I don't believe the Sun is either. At least it wasn't when my mother was the women's editor. Is the Local Chapter of the National Organization for the Advancement of Certain People funded by student activity fees?

[stownsley]

I used to be a prosecutor. Dentes finessed this case. He could have handled things a lot differently, but he didn't. He's a political operator who sought to avoid scrutiny from the same people who were hysterical over Patricia Morris, the black woman who was assaulted by three whites in the summer of 2002. Who, by the way, Dentes charged with felonies and hate crimes, and went to prison for six months.

Just before I posted this column, I talked with a local lawyer who has known Dentes for eons. He said -- I quote this verbatim -- "George Dentes has the backbone of an overcooked piece of linguini." I felt a lot better posting it after that.

[drjimmy]

Here's what the local liberals have to say about Dentes:

"Dentes's reign at the Tompkins County DA's office has been controversial. He is rumored to be highly ambitious, eager for any kind of conviction (looks good on the resume) and prosecutes minor cases of all sorts which are dropped in other areas. Time to boot the guy out." (from the Indymedia website)

"Contrary to Mr. Dentes' belief that increasing the severity of punishment is the only sensible way to respond to violations of the law, solid research and years of practice have demonstrated that holding non-violent offenders accountable for their behavior and providing them with the tools and opportunities to become productive members of the community are more effective in deterring future crime than relying so heavily on jail."(from a newspaper op-ed by someone who works for the Justice Policy Institute)

"Meanwhile, District Attorney George Dentes continues to howl about the costs of any alternatives to his prosecuting people and locking them up in expensive prisons paid for by our state taxes." (from a website that calls itself "One Democrat's perspective...")

"In his guest column of April 11, Tompkins County District Attorney George Dentes flippantly dismisses as "nonsense" several of the major criticisms that reformers aim at the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Regarding racial discrimination, Mr. Dentes states that "the reason we have so many minority males in prison is that so many minority males are selling drugs.""(from the Tompkins County Interfaith Campaign to Reform the Rockefeller Drug Laws)

"Protesters gathered in front of the Tompkins County courthouse Friday to rally against District Attorney George Dentes' decision to pull out of a drug rehabilitation project. The program, drug court, offers those found guilty of non-violent offenses intense rehabilitation instead of jail time." (from the Cornell Daily Sun)

With enemies like these, Dentes must be doing something right.

[AmericanVictory]

Our bet is that Cornell will do nada.

[stownsley]

That's fine, but it all relates to non-violent offenses. The offense I am concerned with was one of unprovoked violence. Considering how similar the Ludacris beating was to the Morris beating, one cannot reasonably shrug off or explain away his asymmetrical handling of the two cases. In the absence of valid legal reasons, I conclude that the usual influence of human nature played a role. I've also heard that he's ambitious, and a political operator; that's exactly my point. I would suggest that racking up convictions, especially against minorities, is not the way to get ahead in Ithaca. Aware of this, it seems he allowed his estimation of the community reaction to unduly influence his judgment, unethically placing his political fortunes above seeing justice done.

[drjimmy]

I would suggest that racking up convictions, especially against minorities, is not the way to get ahead in Ithaca.
But he vigorously prosecutes drug cases, and those predominantly involved minority defendants (as noted in my previous post). There is no question that he is considered by many in the local community to be a racist because of this. And if he was pandering to the liberals, he certainly wouldn't be seeking a retrial for the scum who threw blood on the American flag.

When the Patricia Morris beating defendants were found not guilty of hate crimes, Dentes was criticized for not pursuing that aspect of the case vigorously enough. My belief is that in both the Morris case and the Ludacris case, he was applying New York State law and using the evidence available from the investigators. I think that Cornell did its best to underplay the Ludacris incident investigation, which hampered Dentes's ability to prosecute to the fullest. I guess you and I will continue to disagree, but the one thing that is certain is that Ithaca will continue to give Freepers new things to be outraged by!

[rfreedom4u]

Why is the university investigating it? I think the POLICE should be doing that.

Nevermind. If it were a white on black crime then the police would be involved. Of course Jesse (high)Jackson and Al (shakedown) Sharpton would be pushing it.

[Citizen Blade]

Why is the university investigating it? I think the POLICE should be doing that.

IIRC, Cornell has its own police force that investigates crimes on campus. It's an issue of jursidiction, but this isn't uncommon on a lot of campuses (and goes back to the Middle Ages in England, where the universities were treated like their own towns).

[rfreedom4u]

I’m a hyphenated American. I’m a European-American. Does that qualify me for protection?

[Citizen Blade]

I was offered a way into cornell.

Heh, no, one more reason i'm at Michigan Tech.

I don't know why you made the decision you did, but an Ivy League is almost always the better choice.