Posted on 10/11/2007 10:57:59 AM PDT by SmithL
NEW YORK, (AP) -- Columbia University has refused to turn over security videotape that could help identify who hung a noose on a black professor's office door, police said Thursday.
Investigators began asking on Wednesday for tapes from cameras in the building, but have been rebuffed by administrators, said Paul Browne, the New York Police Department's top spokesman.
He said police will have to get a court order to force the school to provide video they believe could crack the case.
"It's unfortunate because it adds a time-consuming step to the investigation," Browne said.
A Columbia spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment.
Authorities were testing the 4-foot-long twine noose for DNA evidence, but had no suspects as of Thursday morning.
On Wednesday, the professor who was the target of the attack, Madonna Constantine, told hundreds of faculty and students at a rally on the Ivy League campus that the incident was a "blatant act of racism" that "reeks of cowardice and fear."
"I'm upset that our community has been exposed to such an unbelievably vile incident," she said.
Police believe the noose was placed on the doorknob of Constantine's office at Teachers College — Columbia's graduate school of education — Tuesday morning, when a colleague spotted it and notified authorities.
Police declined to discuss possible motives or suspects.
Constantine, 44, told police there was "ill will" between her and another professor who had replaced her while she was on an extended leave, a police official said.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Dollars to doughnuts, the tape probably shows the “offended” perfesser tying the hang rope himself.
You don’t suppose that the person on tape is in a protected class with tenure, do you?
hmmmmmmm
That is the rumor.
Betcha dollars to dimes it a non-white individual.
If it was a white person they be doing life at Alcatraz.
Didn’t this happen within the last few years - it turned out that the “victim” did the damage herself, to her car, I believe.
Anyway, as the above posters surmise, it’s got to be someone of the protected victim class, otherwise it would be all over page 1 of the NYT by now.
It has happened a lot. I think one dumbass wrote the epithet backwards on her own head ... while looking in a mirror. LOL!
I find myself in the odd position of supporting Columbia’s position in one respect: What is wrong with waiting to comply until after a warrant is issued? That is the legal way for the police to obtain this.
I see no problem in obtaining a warrant. That’s how it should be done.
If Columbia is sitting on the tape, you can bet your bottom dollar that it shows this staged outrage was a racial put-up job. Look for them to do almost anything to keep from admitting this.
Columbia is going to find themselves a laughingstock if they keep this sort of thing up.
Columbia’s had a pretty crappy track record this past month.
I bet whomever hung the rope was either a minority or female, or a member of some other protected group. If it was a white male who did it they’d have handed it over in a heartbeat.
BINGO
If the tape showed a non-minority hanging this noose, the police would not need a warrant because they could just tape it off the 6:00 news. The fact that it has not been leaked speaks volumes.
Sounds like another cause the good Reverend Sharpton should be jumping into!! Not even a video tape of the professor putting up the noose herself would deter him!
You’re both wrong.
Because if it was a white male the tape would have found its way to a news desk by now.
That’s what I am thinking. The professor did it himself; so Columbia has to doctor the tape.
Huh? Columbia is not be investigated and they have absolutely no legitimate reason for not promptly turning over evidence that could help solve a "crime" in which they are the complainant and not the perpetrator.
What you suggest would be the same as demanding the police obtain a warrant to enter your house and take fingerprints after a burglary when you are the one who called the police to report the burglary.
I think something smells very fishy here. It's as if Columbia already looked at the tape and discovered that they don't really want the perp to be identified and regret calling the police in the first place.
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