Student reportedly sexually abused in Tech

Your name

Sun Nov 15 2009 18:16

I don't think it is "racist" to mention a physical description of a the perpetrator. If this were a white male, this discussion would never have even happened; people would accept it as a lead or clue, albeit a very vague and limited one. Please don't misunderstand me, there have been some insensitive occurrences lately, but that should not make us quick to jump to conclusions of racism. Furthermore, I feel that this is still a very safe campus. I am confident that the victim did nothing wrong, and my greatest sympathies for her. But, an isolated incident such as this should not make all of us fearful. Instead, we need to be aware that this kind of thing can happen to anyone anywhere: at the nicest of department stores, a top-tier college campus or a "bad" neighborhood. The moral everyone needs to take from this event is to always be aware of your surroundings. Northwestern has a strong security presence, and they have definitely made their fair-share of mistakes/poor judgment calls, but this isn't a "Northwestern thing." Instead its a society thing, and we have to just be aware that its never wise to let your guard down.

Your name

Sun Nov 15 2009 01:23

AM,

That's a fair point. All I can say is that it would be pretty hard to identify a suspect based on ANY description given by police. For example, in this case, it was a black, 5'8'', 25 year old male wearing a white t-shirt and braided hair to the shoulders. I'd be willing to bet there are quite a few people in the Evanston area that fit this description. This is why it's very hard to catch the perpetrator after the act...unfortunately even the most specific descriptions are so very vague. But they've still got to give the description. So if all a victim could remember is the perpetrator's race and gender, what is the police to do? Not say that the perpetrator was black (or white, hispanic, etc.) even though they knew he was? That would be withholding information from the public about a crime. And where would that line be drawn? Let's say a aggressor was wearing a ski mask, so the victim couldn't tell the race, but only knew it was a male. Should the police not report that it was a male because that would stigmatize males? If they know certain characteristics of a suspect, they should report them.

With regard to your last point though I have to respectfully disagree; it is about what they intend to do. Their job is to report what happened. I agree, it does stigmatize black men, and that's too bad. But that's not the police's fault. Once fewer black men and more white men or females are reported as doing crimes the stigmatization will go away.

AM

Fri Nov 13 2009 03:26

To the last commenter, your argument is that it's "better than nothing". How does it help? If you're going to make a statement like that, then there has to be some tangible benefit for reporting the race of the suspected perpetrator. And if you say that it's impossible to identify someone solely by race alone, then how does listing it help in any way? The crucial information to the Northwestern community is that the incident occurred. Listing race, with no other attributes for identification purposes, is not crucial.
And it isn't about what the police intends to do with the email. It's about the impact of what they do. And the impact is that it further stigmatizes black men, who just so happen to be a highly selective group on this campus.

Your name

Thu Nov 12 2009 23:17

It's not an excellent point.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for the most specific descriptions possible being sent out. The purpose of the descriptions is so that hopefully the perpetrator will be caught. The more information given out, the higher likelihood of this occurring.

That being said, even though it is impossible to identify someone with only race and gender, it's better than nothing, so if it's all that's available, it should be given out. The purpose of identifying race in this case is not to stereotype black men, but to relay crucial information to the northwestern community. Now, if the police or whoever writes these mass emails identified race solely to perpetuate stereotypes, that would be unacceptable. But they don't. If a black person did a crime, it should be in the email. If a white person did a crime, it should be in the email. Whether we like it or not, race IS an identifying feature, and as such, should be reported.

firstname lastname

Thu Nov 12 2009 05:04

correction
Lauren Cole; excellent point
i see why you are at NU !

firstname lastname

Thu Nov 12 2009 05:03

i see why you are at NU !

Lokys Gust

Wed Nov 11 2009 22:15

My only concern is how long it took to get the alert out there. If northwestern was alerted immediately that there had been an assault by a black man, but waited on sending the alert because they wanted to get more information first, then i have a problem. As soon as you know there has been an assault you need to send that information out immediately. Even if you don't even know race/gender. As soon as you have more information send that. someone calls the cops and says they have been attacked by a black man, and gives no more immediate description, northwestern shouldn't wait until there is a full debriefing and we know every detail to send out an alert. Send out the alert with whatever information you have available, and update it as soon as possible. I'm all for being as descriptive as possible, and agree that in theory you shouldn't send out alerts about vague "black man" but not at the cost of time. send out a vague alert if that's all you know and update it as soon as possible.

Lauren Cole

Wed Nov 11 2009 16:00

We wouldn't be sacrificing security for political correctness by not mentioning race if they are no other attributes to distinguish the perpetrator. There is no possible way that anyone could identify a perpetrator simply by race and gender. Black people come in so many varying colors. They span all races as far as skin tone is concerned, even white. Identifying someone based solely on skin tone and gender does not strengthen anyone's public safety in any way. It only serves to strengthen stereotypes of minority groups, particularly black men.

AMB

Wed Nov 11 2009 09:42

Many people on this comment wall have been discussing whether students should be studying in academic buildings at night, or if maybe they should just study at home. What many students may not realize is that hundreds of graduate students MUST do work in academic buildings because our research is laboratory based, and often experiments take many hours requiring late nights. Tech is a gigantic building where somebody with malicious intent can easily enter after hours and evade detection (as one comment points out, the doors are locked after 11pm. This is WAY too late). Since this is our workplace, graduate students and researchers should be up in arms and demand that the outside doors be locked after 6 or 7:00 and ID required for entry. This is the case in the libraries where many more people are around, so why should it not be the case in Tech???

Miriam

Wed Nov 11 2009 09:23

@AM--that's a really good point, but what if skin color was all that the victim noticed and could report? That's the most immediately noticeable physical trait, especially for men since most of them have the same length of hair. Should we then provide NO descriptive information about the perpetrator? Isn't that sacrificing safety for the sake of political correctness?

excellent point AM

Tue Nov 10 2009 16:30

excellent point AM

Staff member

Tue Nov 10 2009 16:12

I walk through tech every evening leaving work, and it has never even crossed my mind that I could become a victim of a sexual crime right here on campus. I live in Chicago and am used to being safe in the evenings, but never for a minute did I think I needed to keep my guard up on campus. It bothers me that there is not enough security, cameras and an extra guard are needed after normal business hours. I hate to think that I will be scanning every passing student (or staff) afraid that they may be a threat to my security, a campus is a community and its members should be made safe within it's doors. This is an eye-opener!

fellow tech kid

Tue Nov 10 2009 15:45

I think we should have to swipe wildcards to get in to academic buildings. I understand that the nation as a whole is under pressure, causing people to act out of line. When occurrences similar to this one happened off campus, I understood that I should take safe ride or walk with a friend. But when I have to go to the bathroom during my night class, should I bring a friend along in case? Should I look out for blue lights in the halls of beloved tech? I understand the administration cannot do everything to protect us from the real world, but at most, they should be sure that only students/faculty/staff are using their facilities at night.

My heart goes out to the victim.

Wildcat in State College

Tue Nov 10 2009 14:42

Public safety should consider something like the Text Alert system that Penn State installed after the Virginia Tech shootings. It seems to work in near real time. A high wind was blowing pieces off the stadium scoreboard onto the street below imagine metal panels falling on Central and you get the idea) and we were notified within 10 minutes to avoid the area.

AM

Tue Nov 10 2009 13:55

I think a lot of people here are missing the point. I doubt that it offends people in the black community that the alleged perpetrators race was mentioned. It bothered people before because it only listed race, with little to no other additional descriptive information. That criminalizes all black men on campus. But listing additional attributes narrows it down and doesn't criminalize a significant subset of the Northwestern community.

Officer Krumkey

Tue Nov 10 2009 13:31

"The man was described as a black, 5 feet 8 inches tall, approximately 25 years old with shoulder-length braids and wearing an over-sized white t-shirt."

We are compromising our moral and ethical standards when we tolerate descriptions such as that quoted above. Clearly "black" is a racist statement. Reference to height is also inappropriate, just think how it makes those afflicted with dwarfism feel. Age discrimination is also noted in this statement and the color reference to the shirt is clearly inflamatory.

A morally responsible description would be: "The alleged perpetrator was wearing an over-sized t-shirt."

Your name

Tue Nov 10 2009 12:24

This is a truly alarming incident. Does no one else think the police harrassing a 19 year old with a red cup with amber liquid (how did the police know it was amber? It was night, and the student poured out the liquid) should be re-deployed to protect students from assault in university buildings?

Your name

Tue Nov 10 2009 11:48

1. Actually, most campus buildings are locked after either 11 pm or 12 am. Some even earlier.

2. I went to Tech last night at 10:30 and there were two squad cars outside and two police officers seated in the lobby. One of the officers actually told me to be careful and informed me of the incident that had occurred. So at least the university took immediate action. I think this should be the norm from now on. I mean, there's not a lot else going on for them to do, so I think this would be a great step toward improving safety.

3. I think the card reader idea is brilliant. That way you don't need special access to the building, you only need to be student/faculty/staff.

4. I don't think it is racist to say that the offender was black. If he were South Asian, White, or Latino I would expect that information to be posted as well.

Miriam

Tue Nov 10 2009 09:43

This is ridiculous. When I chose to come to Northwestern, I knew it's slightly less safe than the suburb I'm from because this is, after all, part of a metropolitan area, but I didn't expect that students would be assaulted inside academic buildings. Something needs to be done about this. I don't know what, but something does.

Your name

Tue Nov 10 2009 09:36

I wonder how long it will take the administration to decide this is "not a bona fide incident" either. seriously, why the outpouring of sympathy for this student when a girl who claimed to be sexually assaulted was dismissed as a lying slut (before the retraction was posted?)
this incident is awful, and I'm happy the student involved is okay, but I'm concerned by the weird double standard that seems to be at play here.