Noose-Hanging at Columbia University

A Columbia University scholar was the target of a racial crime where a noose was found hanging on her office door.

The professor, Madonna G. Constantine, whose specialty is race, racial identity and multiculturalism, stood before protesters at midday and thanked her supporters.

“I am upset that the Teachers College community has been exposed to such an unbelievably vile incident,” she said, “and I would like us to stay strong in the face of such a blatant act of racism.”

At an afternoon news conference, Deputy Inspector Michael Osgood, commander of the New York Police Department’s Hate Crimes Task Force, said, “Right now we have no suspects, but we will go down all investigative pathways.” He ruled out any possibility that Professor Constantine had hung the rope herself.

University President Lee Bollinger faced tough criticism from an audience of student leaders dominated by representatives of campus cultural groups.

Bollinger faced a deeply frustrated and often angry audience, as students accused the administration of being unresponsive and disconnected. At several points, the University President found himself defending and justifying his record on issues such as diversifying the faculty and taking a proactive stance on racial issues.

As usual, the griping and complaining begins. It seems that at a separate meeting, 600 Teacher College students and faculty members got together to air their grievances before Susan H. Fuhrman, the president of Teachers College, and other adminstrators.

“I came here from Virginia,” said one black doctoral student, who did not identify herself. “I’ve been here since 2003 and there has been incident after incident. It’s not so different from the South.”

Now, is she implying that racism at Columbia is much worse than what the media is telling us. Could we see this "long" list of racial incidents at the University? It sounds to me that with all the media attention, everyone can start complaining that everything is not happy in the community.

It is amusing when you got student leaders praising Bollinger on inviting Ahmadinejad one week, then the next week, they are angry at him for not responding fast enough to this hate crime.

In any case, look at the high-profile events that have come to this institution. A speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, invitations to conservative writer David Horowitz, Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist, and others. It seems Columbia loves to get press on its polarizing events and incidents. However, should we look at Columbia University as representative of the whole entire college system? Probably not in a high degree.

In addition, there is a doubt on this possible hate crime. According to the NYPD, Columbia University has refused to turn over security tapes from the cameras in the building.

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.

Police are looking into possible leads. They believe it could have been a disgrunted colleague, or a student upset with his or her grades.

Why is the school dragging their heels on this? Why are they not cooperating with law enforcement officers? Could it be that the security tape is some sort of "smoking gun?" Maybe the tape has concrete evidence on a possible suspect or suspects that committed the crime?

You got the NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force to ready to help out. Columbia, what's the problem here? Do not delay. Give the tape. Stop giving us a reason to doubt that maybe this whole story is not 100% true.

Fox News report that the school has denied NYPD's statements that they refused to hand over the security video tape. Campus officials state there are no security cameras in professor Constantine's fourth-floor office or in the hallway, only in the lobby downstairs, and are in the process of giving those tapes to authorities.

C'mon here. Now we got NYPD and Columbia pointing fingers at each other. And of course, the Feds are jumping in by opening their own separate investigation into the incident. Maybe we should invite the United Nations too.

Daily News report that the school has agreed to give over 56 hours of tape. Yet, why stonewall the police for more than 24 hours? Why did Columbia suddenly asked the NYPD to get a court order, and by the time the police got it all set up, the university said they did not need to do that in the first place.

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Believe it or not. A second racial incident has occurred where anti-Semitic graffiti has been found in a bathroom stall (4th floor of the men's bathroom in Lewisohn Hall). A caricature of a male wearing a yarmulke above a swastika was found drawn in black ink on a bathroom stall door.

Of course, the police would have to analyze the ink to see if it was recently made or it has been there for quite some time, and someone "just discovered" it.

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NY Post says Columbia's stonewalling was all because of policy.

The newspaper gives the timeline:

* The noose was found hanging on the doorknob of Prof. Madonna Constantine's office at 9:15 a.m. Tuesday.

* By 11 a.m., cops from the 26th Precinct were on campus.

* They immediately called in the NYPD's hate-crimes unit.

* The unit swiftly identified seven security cameras as useful to the probe.

Then the stonewalling began.

* When the NYPD requested the relevant tapes, officers were told that the technician who had that responsibility wouldn't be in until the next day.

* By Wednesday afternoon, with no tech in sight, Deputy Inspector Michael Osgood, the hate-crimes squad chief, put in a call to the Teachers College general counsel, Janice Robinson, to expedite delivery. She told him he'd need a subpoena because of "privacy" concerns.

* A subpoena was issued at midnight Wednesday, to no immediate effect.

* At 3 p.m. yesterday, after the Associated Press first reported on the college's footdragging, and with the subpoena in effect, Teachers College announced sweetly that "in the spirit of cooperation, we are giving [the police] everything."