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Blog and Media Roundup - Wednesday, November 10, 2010; News Roundup
Topic Started: Nov 10 2010, 05:54 AM (501 Views)
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/10222002/article-Officials---Tailgate-had-to-end-?instance=homesecondleft

Officials: 'Tailgate had to end'
The Herald Sun
11.09.10 - 11:28 pm
Pre-game party 'had become an embarrassment'

By Neil Offen

noffen@heraldsun.com; 419-6646

DURHAM -- The decision to cancel student tailgate activities -- after an underage drinker was found unconscious in a portable toilet at last weekend's party before the football game -- was not made precipitously, said Duke University Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta.

"We've tried every way from Sunday to make it work, but it hadn't," Moneta said Tuesday about Tailgate, which allowed student groups to bring in a car and cases of beer to football parking lots and was known for loud music, exotic costumes and students spraying beer on each other.

"This was not a precipitous, thoughtless, ill-conceived action," Moneta said. "Pulling the plug wasn't a last-second decision. [The incident Saturday] was just the final determining factor."

Duke only has two home football games remaining -- Saturday against Boston College and Thanksgiving weekend, against Carolina. No consideration, Moneta said, was given to waiting until after the end of the season to cancel Tailgate.

"We didn't want to negotiate this or put off making a decision," he said. "It was absolutely clear Tailgate had to end and we had to make that statement now. Tailgate had become an embarrassment. It has become increasingly dangerous in every iteration."

The intoxicated teenager was the younger brother of a Duke student. Normally, only students with a valid ID can get in, but the rules allow for one guest per ID.

Moneta said the teen apparently was fine now, and whether any charges would be filed was unclear but "still under consideration." While acknowledging his prior assertion that the incident easily could have been tragic, he said that what is "most important at this point, now that he's OK, is what the incident reveals about Tailgate."

Administrators and students will meet during the spring semester to try and create a replacement for the event.

"We're looking to put a lot of heads together," said Chris Brown, the Duke Student Government vice president for athletics and campus services. "It will be a thorough process of redefining what Tailgate means to Duke University."

According to student government guidelines, student groups may bring beer into the Blue Zone using their vehicles at a maximum amount of 30 cases per group, 9 cases per vehicle. That adds up to more than 700 cans of beer per group, and 216 beers per car.

"And that's down from 75 cases or more in the past," said Moneta. "It was extraordinarily difficult to even get an agreement that there needed to be some limit, and there was going to be discussion about further refinements. But [Saturday's incident] pre-empted all possible discussions."

Lowering the number of cases of beer students could bring in was one of many different attempts to tinker with the event over the years. Officials also have tried monitoring by administrative staff and banning tailgating after kickoff, and considered moving Tailgate from the stadium area to the main quadrangle.

The decision to cancel the event completely, however, unleashed student anger. An article in The Chronicle, the Duke student newspaper, drew dozens of responses Tuesday, many criticizing the decision and vowing to take the party off campus.

"These kind of veiled threats rarely pan out," Moneta said. "There might be some [off-campus] events, but I'm pretty convinced we won't see anything major."

In fact, he added, student affairs had received "more positive e-mails than negative ones, and that's incredibly gratifying."

Staff writer Steve Wiseman contributed to this report.
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http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2010/11/trial_of_five_police_defendant.html

Trial of five police defendants in death of Henry Glover is expected to take up to four weeks

Published: Tuesday, November 09, 2010, 11:45 PM
Times-Picayune Staff Times-Picayune Staff

After nearly two days of questioning of prospective jurors and huddles between lawyers, a diverse jury was selected Tuesday to hear charges against five current and former New Orleans police officers in the 2005 death of Henry Glover.

The Times-PicayuneNew Orleans police officer Robert Italiano Jr. enters the Hale Boggs Federal Building in New Orleans on Monday for the start of jury selection in the federal trial of the NOPD officers charged in connection with the killing subsequent burning of Henry Glover in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

Opening statements will start today, kicking off what will be a closely watched trial of up to four weeks in which scores of New Orleans police officers will testify -- including some of the department's top officers.

The 12-member jury includes three African-Americans, an Indian-American man, and eight white residents. There are seven women and five men hailing from throughout the 13-parish Eastern District of Louisiana. Four members of the jury are from New Orleans, while others live in farther-flung parts of the region, including Gray and Bogalusa.

Four people, all of them white, were selected to serve as alternates.

Race is expected to hang heavily over the trial, given that Glover was black and the five accused officers are white. Glover was shot by a police officer; his body was later burned inside the car of a man who tried to help him. The episode took place in the chaotic days after Hurricane Katrina.

Jury selection took longer than U.S. District Judge Lance Africk had wanted when he opened the trial on Monday morning. The 16 jurors were selected from a pool that originally numbered more than 100.

One former police officer, David Warren, is charged with violating the 31-year-old Glover's civil rights by shooting him. Two other police officers, Lt. Dwayne Scheuermann and officer Greg McRae, are charged with beating men who tried to help the injured Glover and, eventually, burning Glover's corpse in a car. Two police supervisors, former Lt. Robert Italiano and Lt. Travis McCabe, are accused of writing a false police report about the shooting.

Attorneys for the government and for the charged officers spent the better part of two days haggling over the composition of the jury, with each side requesting that certain jurors be struck from the pool.

After each side made their challenges, however, federal prosecutor Jared Fishman indicated the government lawyers wanted to discuss the selection with Africk and the defense attorneys. That debate went on for some time, with Africk eventually instructing the prospective jurors to return in the midafternoon.

Africk asked prospective jurors a variety of questions, ranging from whether they had seen any news reports about the case to whether they or a relative had been convicted of a crime.

Two of the people who ultimately made it onto the jury indicated that they had read news reports or seen television news clips about the case. A handful of the jurors selected for the jury or as alternates indicated that they had stayed in the metropolitan area for the storm. Four jurors indicated that they or a close relative had been convicted of a crime.

As part of the juror selection process, attorneys also reeled off the names of witnesses they expect to testify in the case. The goal was to make sure jurors were not close to anyone who might take the stand.

About 14 current or former members of the New Orleans Police Department will testify for the federal government. The group includes several high-ranking officers, including Deputy Superintendent Marlon Defillo, Capt. Gary Gremillion, Capt. David Kirsch and Capt. Jeff Winn.

About 20 other people, including two forensic pathologists and members of Glover's family, are expected to testify. One witness, former Times-Picayune photographer Alex Brandon, was traveling with the NOPD's Special Operations Division after the storm and spent time at the Paul Habans Elementary school in Algiers, where Glover's friends took him to receive medical assistance. During the storm, Scheuermann and McRae were members of the special operations unit.

Some federal officials may also take the stand. Howard Schwartz, a top supervisor in the FBI's New Orleans office, was listed as a witness, although it was not clear whether he will be called by prosecutors or by a defendant. An attorney for Italiano indicated that he may call Felix Loicano, a former NOPD supervisor who later led the Causeway Police Department and now works with the U.S. Marshals Office.

Attorneys for most of the defendants also named dozens of additional potential witnesses, including current and former NOPD officers. An attorney for Scheuermann provided the longest list of possible witnesses, naming not just NOPD officers, but also A.C. Thompson, a reporter with ProPublica, an investigative newsroom, who first wrote about the Glover case in The Nation magazine.

Thompson has more recently worked in collaboration with reporters from The Times-Picayune and PBS' "Frontline" on a series about other officer-involved shootings from the post-Katrina period.

Laura Maggi and Brendan McCarthy wrote this report. Maggi can be reached at lmaggi@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3316. McCarthy can be reached at bmccarthy@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3301.
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story_news_durham/10221988/article-CHIEF-OFFERS-COP-S-EYE-VIEWS?instance=main_article

CHIEF OFFERS COP'S-EYE VIEWS
The Herald Sun
11.09.10 - 11:28 pm
The Herald-Sun | Christine T. Nguyen<br> Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez (left) and Duke Chapel Dean Sam Wells speak during the Dean’s Dialogues series on Tuesday at Duke Chapel. The session was titled “Listening to the Heart of Durham.”
Lopez: Immigration, economy affect safety in Durham

By KEITH UPCHURCH

kupchurch@heraldsun.com; 419-6612

DURHAM -- Immigration reform is needed at the federal level, Durham Police Chief Jose Lopez said Tuesday at a lunchtime conversation at Duke Chapel.

Lopez also identified what he sees as Durham's top problems and outlined his hopes for its future during the 2010 Dean's Dialogues series with Chapel Dean Sam Wells and the public.

The chief declined to specify what kind of immigration reform he would like, saying "that would be too personal for me." Lopez, a former New Yorker of Puerto Rican descent, acknowledged that Durham has undocumented immigrants who are "not legally supposed to be here," but made it clear that they shouldn't fear reporting crime when they or someone they know is a victim.

That fear among undocumented Durham residents "breeds more crime and problems in communities" because it makes them easy targets for criminals, Lopez said.

He issued a plea for illegal immigrants to report crime "and trust me to the extent that when they tell me something" police will try to "go out and identify the criminal and get them out of society."

Looking to the future, Lopez said Durham needs to build its economy.

"We have to build it from the outside, meaning that there is no gold here," he said. "We have to bring it from somewhere else. We have to do that through a lot of major corporations."

The chief said Durham needs more jobs, and he'd like to see the city become "more of a social hub."

"We need people from other cities to want to come to Durham and spend their money here instead of going somewhere else," Lopez said.

In response to a question from Wells, Lopez said Durham's top problems are poverty, drug addiction and mental health, many of which are tied to illegal drug use and the depression that's often part of abusers' lives.

"Many people think they can use drugs recreationally, which is a myth, because there is always a price tag," he said.

Lopez said many people the police encounter have mental problems, and he'd like to see more emphasis on treatment.

"Police are a great referral agent, but you have to have something to refer someone to," he said. "So I hope that doesn't fall by the wayside, that we continue to invest in that, to make our population mentally and emotionally healthy."
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/10216748/article-Time-to-end-Tailgate?instance=hs_editorials

Time to end Tailgate
The Herald Sun
11.09.10 - 02:33 pm
Larry Moneta wasn't being provocative when he said that the Duke Tailgate -- they capitalize it, not unlike Mardi Gras and natural disasters -- "has long lost its value as a pre-football, spirit building activity and has become increasingly dangerous in every iteration."

The university's vice president for student affairs was simply accurate, and he was only the most recent -- and, we hope, the last -- to publicly state that Duke's game day student bacchanal doesn't deserve the university's official sanction.

In 2009, Duke alumnus Matthew Iles described the scene in the Blue Zone and called it "our health-hazardous eyesore of a Masquerade Booze Ball," on Page 2, the opinion section of ESPN.com.

What's amazing about about Iles piece is that it may have been the Duke tailgate's first brush with athletics. ESPN is largely preoccupied with sports ... and the Tailgate is really, really not.

A 2010 graduate, Bradford Colbert, wrote about Tailgate in The Duke Chronicle last year, noting that "It has been apparent for years that Tailgate's relationship to Duke Football exists only on the calendar, but the contrast has become sharper now that fans are actually attending the games."

The 30-case-of-beer-per-group limit at the 9:30 a.m. tailgate may have something to do with why attendees don't make it to kickoff.

The university has been down this road. Tailgate's complete disconnection from sports and its sodden emphasis on booze and "Jersey Shore"-worthy behavior have led to a series of compromises that obviously never worked. Kegs were banned in 2002; for a short while the university catered the event. In 2005, Duke forced students to leave the lot at kickoff. In 2008, the university created alternate events. Nothing worked -- and the university, perhaps reluctant to force the party underground, stopped short of a ban.

Duke and Moneta did the right thing by cancelling the remaining Tailgate in the 2010 season.

Students may protest -- "work hard, play hard" tends to be the refrain in these things -- but Tailgate is, as we have seen, a potentially dangerous embarrassment.

But, they may argue, Tailgate is special.Tailgate is special -- it's the exception in Duke's traditions like Krzyzewskiville and Last Day of Classes, which include alcohol without making the student body look like lushes and louts.

Tailgate is not worth saving. Duke should cancel it in 2011, too.
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http://www.heraldsun.com/view/full_story/10216750/article-Nov--10--2010?instance=opinion_hs_letters

Please consider this letter a formal petition to the Durham City Council to exempt me from obeying any and all traffic laws while driving in the city of Durham.

I am not a Durham resident so, like illegal aliens caught breaking the traffic laws within the city boundaries, I should not be subjected to any harsh measures, such as arrest, by the police for any motor vehicle laws I might break nor should I feel compelled to present any evidence to Durham police that I am operating a vehicle according to the laws of North Carolina. That would include presenting a valid driver's license, registration or proof of insurance. I will present a library card, which may or may not be mine, instead. What's fair for one is fair for the other.

Discretion in enforcing laws, especially 'minor' violations, has long been a feature of local policing in the United States. We depend on the judgment exercised by departments and individual officers to avoid overcrowding jails with mere scofflaws. However, any declaration by a governing body that allows one group, especially non-citizens who are already breaking the law, to be treated with more deference than citizens and those who try to obey the law is an abandonment of responsibility and a repudiation of the oath they take.

Nowhere in the Bill of Rights does it set up a class of persons who are allowed to break the law with impunity.

ROBERT L. PORRECA

Hillsborough
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http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/11/10/792601/duke-calls-off-the-partywill-the.html

Published Wed, Nov 10, 2010 04:57 AM
Modified Wed, Nov 10, 2010 05:12 AM
Duke's Tailgate falls to school’s better judgment

DURHAM "Tailgate," Duke University's officially sanctioned pre-game football party, tried to corral boisterous, beer-drinking college students in a manner that was tolerable to campus administrators.

To no one's surprise, that really couldn't be done.

University officials have canceled Saturday's Tailgate after a teenager was found passed out in a portable toilet during last week's event.

Larry Moneta, Duke's vice president for student affairs, said the teen, whom he estimated to be about 15, was the brother of a student. The teen is fine, Moneta said, but the incident finally put an end to the current incarnation of Tailgate - an event that has long worried the administration.

"At some point you say, 'this particular version is not going to fly,' " Moneta said, adding that a revamped pre-game ritual will be unveiled before the 2011 football season.

Tailgate was held in an on-campus parking lot before home football games. Students did not have to be 21 to attend, but they did need to show a student ID to be admitted. Each student could bring one guest. The event's demise does not affect the less-formal tailgate parties organized by Duke alumni and fans.

On the Duke campus Tuesday afternoon, some students said Tailgate was an out-of-control event with little, if anything, to do with the football games it preceded. But others saw it is a beloved rite of passage, a way to blow off steam after a long week of classes. Some suggested that students might revolt this weekend and hold their own tailgate at another campus location.

"It's a little bit out of control, but students are used to it," said William Brathwaite, a junior from Atlanta. "It's definitely culturally entrenched. So there will be a backlash."

Adding rules

Although the party began spontaneously, the administration became involved in recent years as the event grew bigger. Students set up large stereo systems to blast music, and some wore costumes. Formal guidelines were added in an attempt to make the event run more smoothly, including rules that banned the throwing of beer cans, and standing or sitting on the tops of cars.

This football season marked the introduction of beer limits: each student group could have no more than 30 cases of beer. People walking to the party could carry no more than a six pack.

The beer, mixed with music, school spirit and hormones, created a rowdy atmosphere.

"The tendency is for it to morph into one big mosh pit," said Moneta, estimating that Saturday crowds could range from 300 young people to 2,000. Duke is home to 6,000 undergraduate students.

The university hired emergency medical technicians to monitor the event, as well as a private security company. Duke provided water for the students, as well as plastic cups into which partiers were supposed to pour their beer.

"No expense was spared to make this as safe as we humanly could," Moneta said, noting that the cups were intended to help prevent the throwing of beer-filled cans.

Once they were inside the party's perimeter, drinking students did not have their IDs checked, Moneta said. They were on the honor system.

Chris Brown, a Duke student government vice president who helped organize Tailgate, said the government decided not to challenge the administration's decision to cancel the event.

"We very narrowly escaped some extreme consequences," he said.

The cancellation of Saturday's Tailgate, scheduled before Duke's game against Boston College, effectively ends the tradition as students know it. Duke has one additional home game this season, against UNC-Chapel Hill on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, but Tailgate was not scheduled for the holiday weekend.

What game?

For many students, the party outshined the football game. Brown said the majority of students who attended Tailgates did not go to the games.

Throughout this season, Duke football coach David Cutcliffe has called for increased support from students and fans. Cutcliffe has lauded the small contingent of students who gather in the stands to show their support. He acknowledged them again on Saturday after a 55-48 victory over Virginia.

Cutcliffe said he wasn't involved with the university's decision not to hold Tailgate on Saturday. Asked whether canceling the event would hurt the students' game-day experience, Cutcliffe said that would be up to the students.

"You have to ask them," he said. "Surely there's other things that you can do. I bet you if they want to find a way to get together a little bit, there'll be some crowds gathered."

The canceling of Saturday's event has no effect on the university's more famous sports party, Krzyzewskiville, where students camp out for days to get Duke basketball tickets. Although alcohol is present there as well, K-ville has not traditionally had the same problems as Tailgate, Moneta said.

Staff writers Amy Dunn and Edward G. Robinson III contributed to this report.
matt.ehlers@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4889
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/city-still-faces-poverty-health-challenges-dpd-chief-says

City still faces poverty, health challenges, DPD chief says
Thanh HaNguyen/

Thanh HaNguyen/
By Robert Dunlap [4]
November 10, 2010

Duke Police Chief Jose Lopez recognized the challenges that remain for Bull City in his Chapel address yesterday.

Although he praised both Durham for being an engaged city and the University for leaving its footprint “just about everywhere” in the city, he called poverty, drug addiction and mental health issues the biggest issues facing Durham.

“[We need to] look at the youth who are really disconnected from society, who are not in school, who are not working and who live in a fantasy world­ and may commit a crime to supplement their income or supplement their addiction,” he said. “There are a lot of individuals who are depressed, addicted to a lot of different narcotics and drugs. And with a lot colleges nearby—and students there who use drugs, coupled with a lot of people who don’t watch after their property—it sets up a nice little situation for people to sell drugs and comfortably be able to purchase [them].”

Lopez said the prevalence of drugs leads to robberies and larcenies, particularly from “people who are on their way to buy drugs.”

Mental health is also a major issue that needs to be addressed in Durham, he said. Lopez added that in a mentally healthy community, crime would not be as directly linked to poverty and drug addiction.

“There are a lot of people we see out there that really need help. They need to get their lives in order and the police don’t do that,” he said. “That’s something that needs to be done by professionals and social workers. The police are a great agent, but you have to have someone to refer people to.”

The police chief addressed immigrant reform, as well, though he noted that “quite frankly it is not today’s issue—it has been in this country for many years,” and referred to “the Irish and the Chinese who [helped] build this country.”

He said that although he believes there does need to be immigration reform, it will not come from a local level. Until that change arrives, he said he would like illegal immigrants in Durham to feel more free to come forward and report crime without fear of compromising their own tentative position in America.

Lopez was at Duke for a discussion with Dean of the Chapel Sam Wells as a part of the Dean’s Dialogues series, “Listening to the Heart of Durham.” Lopez began the discussion by recounting the experiences that brought him to Durham in 2007 after serving in Connecticut at the Hartford Police Department for more than 23 years. Having applied for the position of police chief of Durham five years earlier, he decided to take the city up on its offer when the position opened again.

“I wanted to move to the South because I got into an argument with my snowblower and I did not want to be around it anymore,” Lopez joked before getting serious. “I looked at the statistics, looked at the police department, and from a professional law enforcement stance [DPD] looked like a very good organization.”

During the discussion, Wells addressed the media’s negative portrayal of the Duke-Durham relationship and how it affected the community’s interaction with the University.

“Many people watching will be quite frustrated with [the] very one dimensional stereotype of rich, white Duke and poor, non-white Durham, [because] obviously, none of those descriptions are accurate or helpful,” Wells said. “Nonetheless, they seem to lodge in the imagination of people, particularly [those] looking for a brief story or looking for information that confirms that kind of story.”

Looking forward to Durham’s future, Lopez said he believes that the city must focus on raising employment rates.

“We have to build on this economy, and we have to build from the outside,” he said. “There is no gold here.... A lot of corporations are looking for a home [and] this is a great home for them. We have to look at the job situation here in this county—there are a lot of people here who really need blue collar jobs.”

Lopez said he is pleased by the positive contribution that law enforcement can make to the community.

“You have to care about people. You have to want to make a difference,” he said. “Law enforcement is the only occupation where no matter what you do, whether you’re arresting [someone] or whether you’re solving a crime and assisting a victim, that you’re making a positive difference in someone’s life.”
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/end-era-2010

End of an era
By Editorial Board
November 10, 2010


Duke students’ Saturday morning Tailgate tradition has been ended at last. In an e-mail sent to the student body Monday night, Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta declared that Tailgate will not take place before the game against Boston College this Saturday, and Tailgate will no longer exist with University sanctioning.

The manner in which the administration took action against Tailgate does not inspire confidence. After waffling on the issue for years and implementing hollow, marginal adjustments to the event each season, the University has taken swift action at an inopportune time—just before the end of the season.

Additionally, the reasons expressed for the cancellation of Tailgate failed to address the true root of the problem with Blue Zone festivities. Moneta and other administrators have long seen Tailgate as an embarrassment to the University, so to use an isolated safety incident and low attendance at a successful home game as an impetus to cancel the event belies larger issues that should have been dealt with earlier.

Nonetheless, the decision to end Tailgate was a significant one for several key reasons. First, Tailgate creates an unsafe environment for the student body. The event regularly results in numerous students being sent to the hospital for alcohol-related injuries. Saturday’s incident, when a minor was found unconscious in a Porta Potty at the end of Tailgate, is symptomatic of a larger problem involving alcohol abuse at Tailgate. Although some degree of excessive drinking is inevitable on a college campus, the University cannot continue to support an event that has consistently produced alcohol-related EMS calls.

Second, Tailgate adversely impacts Duke’s reputation. As a top-ranked, prominent university, Duke faces constant scrutiny from the public. As a result, events such as Tailgate are publicized in national media outlets, drawing attention away from Duke’s academic successes and instead reinforcing negative stereotypes about our social scene.

The final reason to end Tailgate is its connection to Duke Football. Although few legitimate ties exist between these two entities, other than the event’s name and the time at which it is held, Tailgate inevitably corresponds with football games.

We do not believe that students should be required or unfairly pressured to attend football games—in the same way that they ought not to be mandated to attend other on-campus events—but the student body does have an obligation to show the team more respect. Players are contributing members of the University, and Tailgate makes a mockery of their efforts.

Students have responded strongly to Tailgate’s cancellation, with individuals expressing a sense of entitlement to the tradition and outrage at its sudden demise. With this outcry have come bloated characterizations of Tailgate’s unifying effects for campus life. Students should consider other, more constructive venues for creating campus unity.

In looking to the future, a vacuum now exists in the social climate of the Fall semester. Duke Student Government should take some agency in coordinating a viable replacement to Tailgate, but students themselves are also responsible for generating a new alternative. The administration has done its best to create a football-centric pre-game atmosphere on Main Quad, but the student body must determine what will occupy its time on Saturday mornings in the Fall.
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/tradition-fumbled

Tradition fumbled
By Alex Fanaroff
November 10, 2010


Let me be the first to say it in public: Thank you, Larry Moneta.

Thank you for saving Duke’s undergraduate population from itself.

Why the 14-year-old passing out in a Porta Potty was the straw that broke the camel’s back—and not the junior doing coke off the hood of a car (UNC Tailgate, 2004), or the time there were nine EMS calls (Richmond Tailgate, 2009), or the general appearance of every single Tailgate since tailgate underwent its malignant conversion into Tailgate—is beyond me. But still, better late than never.

Let’s get your objections out of the way first. Yes, I’m a crusty graduate student. Yes, what I think about Tailgate should have no bearing on its future. Yes, you should be able to have your good times the same way that I had mine.

But:

1. I’m an alumnus, and I care about my alma mater;

2. I’m old enough that not all of my decisions are awful ones, and I’m young enough that I still remember what it was like to have fun;

3. So maybe I’m in a fairly unique position to contribute here.

If you don’t buy that, more power to you. Moneta’s going to cancel Tailgate regardless. (And regardless of how many students come to a Main Quad protest Tailgate this Saturday.)

Some historical perspective may be in order.

Tailgate—as we know it, with costumes, spandex and beer showers—is not a grand historical tradition on the level of the Magna Carta or even Krzyzewskiville. Around 2000, a small number of students (mostly athletes) started wearing costumes during their Blue Zone tailgates. When I showed up in the Fall of 2003, Chronicle columnist Jonathan Ross actually wrote, “Football games are huge at most Division I schools, with tailgating and parties and all that, but here, they’re almost an afterthought.”

In the summer of 2004, thanks to visiting fans’ complaints that students vandalized their cars and the efforts of heretofore unrecognized Tailgate heroes Ted Roof and Joe Alleva, student tailgaters gained exclusive use of the back lot in the Blue Zone. Perhaps not coincidentally, most alumni remember 2004 as the year that tailgating became Tailgate. Following a “ruckus” (The Chronicle’s words) at the final tailgate of the year, the 2005 tailgating season was marked by the official participation of University administrators, who monitored the situation in the Blue Zone and passed out free hot dogs. Green-shirted student leaders wore shirts emblazoned with the legend “Don’t Fumble the Tradition” and herded students into the football game before kick-off.

Tailgate 2005 was somewhat different than Tailgate 2010. It was held in the back lot of the Blue Zone, a larger space than the first lot. There was free food and water. It was supervised by University administrators and cops, rather than just cops. Student groups were permitted to bring grills into Tailgate, and many of them did, including my own fraternity. I have no idea if any of this reduced hospitalizations, fistfights or cocaine abuse, but I do know that I brought my own younger brother to one of these Tailgates and that he didn’t wind up passed out in a portable toilet.

Still, Moneta and the rest of the Student Affairs people decided that Tailgate, as it stood then, was “extremely unsafe,” and essentially made the decision to stop supporting a centralized Tailgate in favor of a more protean vision of tailgating. But the administration’s official pull-out was not the death-knell for Tailgate. Instead, it just moved from the back of the Blue Zone to the front lot where it is now. Since then, with occasional changes—off-and-on (mostly off) official University support, a guest policy, a cars policy, a 30-case-per-vehicle policy—Tailgate has looked pretty much the same.

Looking back on it, Tailgate 2005 seemed both fun and safe, with decentralized clumps of students freely mingling around grills and baby pools filled with beer. Actually, it seemed an awful lot like a tailgate at any other school in the country. Tailgate 2010, meanwhile, looks like a cross between a riot and an orgy, which is 75 percent awesome, but also 25 percent dangerous. Especially if you’re 14.

The major difference between the Tailgates of my “youth,” and the current Tailgates appears to be the active involvement and presence of University administration, rather than just the imposition of limits and restrictions.

Obviously, this makes sense. Adolescents (and here we include anyone younger than, say, 22) are neurologically programmed to make poor decisions. Put a thousand adolescents in an enclosed space, allow them to police themselves with no input from real adults, and you’re going to get a bad result. It’s like “Lord of the Flies,” except with beer.

So here’s some unsolicited advice, for Moneta and the rest of the undergraduate leaders who are apparently going to hammer out a Tailgate plan this Spring: More free food and water. More involvement by University administrators. More grills. More T-shirts with clever slogans. More incentives (basketball tickets?) for students to behave themselves and actually attend football games.

The tradition may be fumbled, but the game is not yet lost.

Alex Fanaroff is a fourth-year medical student. His column runs every Wednesday.
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/discrepancies-administrations-support-extracurriculars

Discrepancies in administration's support of extracurriculars
By Brian Clement
November 10, 2010


What angers and disappoints me the most about the administration’s decision to cancel Tailgate is the idea that the football team deserves more support than other student organizations and on-campus events.

I’m tired of Coach Cutcliffe and Larry Moneta trying to make me feel guilty for not caring about or supporting Duke football. Coach Cutcliffe, why didn’t the football team show up to support me last Spring when I represented Duke in a global health case competition at Research Triangle Park?

My point is not that the football team should have shown up at my competition or that Moneta should have sent out an e-mail to the student body to chastise it for not heavily attending my event. I believe that both are unfair expectations given the legitimate differences in interest among students. The discourse surrounding this decision should be about more than whether Duke students should be supported by the University as they get drunk in Halloween costumes—it should also focus on unseating the assumption that certain kinds of extra-curricular participation should be encouraged and supported more than others.

Brian Clement

Trinity ’11
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http://www.dukechronicle.com/article/tailgate-cancellation-its-about-time

Tailgate cancellation-it's about time
By Laurel Burk
November 10, 2010

As a Duke student and Durham native, I am always acutely aware that the “Duke bubble” does not extend to athletic events. Non-student football and basketball spectators often consist of my neighbors, my friends’ parents and my parents’ coworkers. I ran into a middle-school-aged girl from my neighborhood at a football game this season, and later found out that she had been relieved to find me so “nicely dressed.” I had been wearing a ratty Duke sweatshirt and basketball shorts, hardly “nice” by real-world standards, but in stark contrast to many of my peers dressed in spandex and drenched in Busch Light. Family members who are Duke alums (even as recent as ’00) have also expressed confusion about and disapproval of Tailgate. Tailgate is not a Duke tradition, and I’m glad to see it go.

Laurel Burk

Trinity ’13
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http://www.the-spearhead.com/2010/11/09/feminists-fighting-to-squelch-advance-consent/

Feminists Fighting to Squelch Advance Consent

by W.F. Price on November 9, 2010

A recent case in Canada involving a couple that engaged in consensual kinky sex is testing the limits of the concept of prior consent. In the case, a man and woman had agreed to asphyxiation during sex, but when the woman was asphyxiated she says she came to and found a sex toy inserted in her anus, which she claims not to have consented to.

Initially, she did not contact police, but when a custody battle came up a couple months later she called the police and claimed she had been raped. Although she later recanted her testimony, the judge still sentenced the man to jail for having sex with an unconscious person.

However, an appeals court overturned the ruling, saying it was not sexual assault. Now, Canada’s Supreme Court is considering the case, and hearing arguments from attorneys concerning the meaning of consent.

According to Joanna Birenbaum, legal director of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, the concept of advance consent is both “dangerous and regressive.” She says that consent is something that must be continuous and consciously made. So, for example, if a man and woman were having consensual sex, and the woman changed her mind and told him she wanted to stop, if he did not do so at that moment it would be rape. Consent, according to feminists, is only valid if it is revocable at any time for any reason

The Canadian Supreme Court has already ruled that there is no such thing as “implied consent,” so in all likelihood the feminist standard will prevail. The next step for feminists is to introduce the concept of retroactively revocable consent, which means that if consent were based on some misunderstanding or falsehood, it can be retroactively revoked and what at first was a consensual encounter becomes rape after the fact.

The feminist goal of classifying all heterosexual sex as rape is nearing fruition. Perhaps at some point in the future, the term “sex” will no longer be used to describe coitus, but rather it will all be known as “rape,” at which point all sex will be criminalized.

One interesting implication of the argument against advance consent may concern whether or not people are allowed to sign do not resuscitate orders. If, when unconscious, dying people cannot have previously consented to pulling the plug, will doing so be murder?
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http://www.stanforddaily.com/2010/11/10/sawhney-newton-innocent-until-proven-guilty/

Sawhney: Newton innocent until proven guilty
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010 | By Kabir Sawhney

As I’m sure many of you reading this have heard by now, Auburn quarterback Cameron Newton has been mired in a swirl of controversy over the past couple of weeks. Newton, considered by many to be the frontrunner for the Heisman Trophy while leading the Tigers to an undefeated record, was first alleged to have sought payments of up to $200,000 during his recruitment from junior college.

Then, on Monday night, reports surfaced that Newton was allegedly facing censure and possible expulsion from the University of Florida due to academic violations before he transferred at the end of his sophomore year. Newton spent the first two seasons of his collegiate career with the Gators, but (according to a Sports Illustrated interview) transferred because of his low position on the Florida depth chart and charges of laptop theft.

Yet, the key word in what I just wrote was not “payments” or “expulsion” or “academic violations”; rather, it was “alleged.” To this point, nothing has been proven, and neither the NCAA nor the Southeastern Conference has taken any disciplinary action to revoke Newton’s remaining eligibility or otherwise prevent him from playing.

Auburn head coach Gene Chizik has shown no indication that he plans to sit Newton, which is a strong vote of confidence given the disastrous consequences that just one rogue athlete can unleash upon an entire program (see Bush, Reggie). Of course, the fact that Auburn is in the thick of a national title hunt has something to do with it, too, but Chizik must weigh the dual probabilities of a championship and of facing program-crippling sanctions.

So Newton might be guilty of taking money or cheating on papers or both. Or he might not be. The plain fact is that we don’t yet know and must wait for the results of NCAA investigations to truly find out.

In light of all this, I find the media’s collective rush to judgment to be extremely troubling. A number of columnists have bashed Newton, automatically assuming that he must be guilty of everything he has been accused of.

It might be partly because the recent scandals across college football have conditioned us to assume that guilt, but what happened to innocent until proven guilty? Until someone can show me conclusive proof that Newton took money or cheated academically, until these allegations are confirmed, I refuse to condemn Newton and urge my colleagues in the media to do the same.

Let’s start with the recruiting violations. According to ESPN.com, which broke the story, an agent who said he represented Newton called a former Mississippi State quarterback to say it would “take some cash to get Cam” (the Bulldogs were trying to recruit Newton at the time). For starters, I want proof that this agent represented Newton; I could call the Raiders right now and tell them that I represented Tom Brady and that they should give me $1 million to get him to suit up in the silver and black. Second, I want to see cash changing hands, or at least someone saying on record that it did, and details about the transaction. I can’t condemn Newton based on allegations and the statement, “Well, a third of SEC players are on the take, so he must be, too.”

As for the allegations of academic fraud, the Fox Sports report that broke the story was incredibly flimsy. Here’s the first sentence for you:

“Auburn quarterback Cameron Newton had three different instances of academic cheating while attending the University of Florida and faced potential expulsion from the University, according to a source.”

So this entire story, this whole whirlwind of condemnation on the assumption that, yes, Cam Newton cheated at Florida, is based wholly off one anonymous source? You have to be kidding me.

While I could write an entire column on the overuse of anonymous sources in sports journalism, suffice it to say that I don’t believe allegations stemming from a single unidentified source have enough basis to be credible. The words “according to the source” are used six times throughout the Fox Sports report, with no indication of where this source is from or why he or she asked not to be identified.

Even as a student journalist, if I give a source anonymity, I will list that source’s position or job and the compelling reason(s) as to why they are not identified. I guess the Fox Sports reporters who broke the story are just crossing their fingers and hoping that no one comes along and actually, you know, asks them to verify any of the so-called “truth” they are peddling.

More broadly, the sports media has rushed to judgment in the past and gotten memorably burned; just ask the slew of columnists who blasted the Duke lacrosse team, shoving aside concerns about silly things like “what actually happened,” “the reliability of the accuser” and “police misconduct.” The allegations of rape turned out to be false, and CBS’s “60 Minutes” conducted an extremely thorough, six-month review of the case, basically showing sports journalists how real journalism is done.

So, as the Newton allegations are endlessly replayed on SportsCenter and dissected by ESPN’s talking heads, please keep in mind that they are still just allegations. While the principle of innocent until proven guilty has taken a beating of late, it still has some life left in it; I can only hope that my fellow sportswriters don’t continue to take a sledgehammer to it based on a collective rapid judgment mentality.

Kabir Sawhney still wets the bed, according to an unnamed source. Challenge this accusation’s credibility at ksawhney “at Stanford.edu
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foxglove

abb
Nov 10 2010, 06:28 AM
http://www.the-spearhead.com/2010/11/09/feminists-fighting-to-squelch-advance-consent/

Feminists Fighting to Squelch Advance Consent

by W.F. Price on November 9, 2010

A recent case in Canada involving a couple that engaged in consensual kinky sex is testing the limits of the concept of prior consent. In the case, a man and woman had agreed to asphyxiation during sex, but when the woman was asphyxiated she says she came to and found a sex toy inserted in her anus, which she claims not to have consented to.

Initially, she did not contact police, but when a custody battle came up a couple months later she called the police and claimed she had been raped. Although she later recanted her testimony, the judge still sentenced the man to jail for having sex with an unconscious person.

However, an appeals court overturned the ruling, saying it was not sexual assault. Now, Canada’s Supreme Court is considering the case, and hearing arguments from attorneys concerning the meaning of consent.

According to Joanna Birenbaum, legal director of the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund, the concept of advance consent is both “dangerous and regressive.” She says that consent is something that must be continuous and consciously made. So, for example, if a man and woman were having consensual sex, and the woman changed her mind and told him she wanted to stop, if he did not do so at that moment it would be rape. Consent, according to feminists, is only valid if it is revocable at any time for any reason

The Canadian Supreme Court has already ruled that there is no such thing as “implied consent,” so in all likelihood the feminist standard will prevail. The next step for feminists is to introduce the concept of retroactively revocable consent, which means that if consent were based on some misunderstanding or falsehood, it can be retroactively revoked and what at first was a consensual encounter becomes rape after the fact.

The feminist goal of classifying all heterosexual sex as rape is nearing fruition. Perhaps at some point in the future, the term “sex” will no longer be used to describe coitus, but rather it will all be known as “rape,” at which point all sex will be criminalized.

One interesting implication of the argument against advance consent may concern whether or not people are allowed to sign do not resuscitate orders. If, when unconscious, dying people cannot have previously consented to pulling the plug, will doing so be murder?
I can't even begin to sort this out.

I would say the case should be thrown out.
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Quasimodo

http://www.transworldnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?id=622690&cat=19

Nancy Grace Dodges Lawsuit Over Guest Suicide After CNN Interview – Lies and Deceit....A History of Her Troubled Past!
New York City, New York 11/09/2010

The family and estate of 21 year old Melinda Duckett who committed suicide in 2006 after facing harsh questioning from talk-show host Nancy Grace regarding the disappearance of her 2 year old son Trenton, have dismissed a wrongful death and emotional distress Federal lawsuit against CNN and the host.

(snip)

Grace took an ON AIR pro-prosecution position throughout the 2006 Duke University Lacrosse case, in which Crystal Magnum, an African-American stripper and North Carolina Central University student, falsely accused three members of Duke University's men's lacrosse team of gang raping her at a party. Prior to Duke suspending its men's lacrosse team's season, Grace was heard sarcastically noting on the air that, "I'm so glad they didn't miss a lacrosse game over a little thing like gang rape!" and "Why would you go to a cop in an alleged gang rape case, say, and lie and give misleading information?" After the disbarment of District Attorney Mike Nifong, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper pronounced all three Duke players innocent of the rape charges made by Mangum. On the following broadcast of her show, Grace did not appear and a substitute reporter announced the removal of all charges.

(snip)
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