Readers Note: For background to the letter below, see these posts and other posts to which they link:
"Duke's Silence on 'Vigilante' and 'Wanted' posters"
"Letter to DUPD Director Dean"
"To DUPD Director Dean - 3/28/07"
John
_______________________________________
Dear Director Dean:
This letter contains questions concerning DUPD and the false and inflammatory “Vigilante” poster which last spring circulated on campus, directly targeting and endangering Duke students on our Men’s lacrosse team, and also placing at greater risk students who could have been unintended victims of unstable individuals and hate groups incited by the poster to target white members of the lacrosse team.
You know that firsthand because of the work you and DUPD did last spring under very difficult circumstances to provide as safe an environment as possible for students and others on campus, even as vice president for student affairs Moneta was alerting students with a campus-wide email concerning their safety and President Brodhead was adding his name to full-page newspaper ads calling on the public to remain calm and let justice take its course.
Most people admired and were grateful for DUPD’s fine work. I’m one of them. Thank you.
My questions are information seeking only; they imply no criticism of DUPD.
While I’m a tech dummy, tech knowledgeable people say it’s a relatively simple matter to ID the computer used to pull from GoDuke.com the face photos of the 43 white lacrosse players which appear on the “Vigilante” poster.
Has DUPD done that? If yes, what can you say publicly about what you learned? If not, can you say why not?
What has DUPD done to investigate the production and distribution on campus of a poster that targeted a particular group of students while heightening the risk for all?
Concerning the March 29 Take Back the Night rally on the Chapel steps, most participants spoke and acted in ways we would both affirm. But there were, as you know, a good number of “activists” there who engaged in actions described by one of the TBTN organizers, Geoffrey Lorenz, in an April 2 letter to the Raleigh News & Observer in which he said in part:
As one of the organizers of the March 29 Take Back the Night (TBTN) march and speak-out at Duke University, I want to clarify that we did not plan, nor do we endorse, the distribution of names and pictures of members of the Duke men's lacrosse team.What was DUPD’s role with regard to TBTN?
The distribution of the pictures, the targeting of the lacrosse team, and the violence implicit in the defacement of the pictures are nothing less than violations of the space that TBTN exists to create. The event is neither a protest of the kind we've witnessed recently, a forum for accusation nor a place to target and defame.
I have one final question, but I want to be as clearly understood as possible when I ask it. So this brief, italicized preface:
I usually avoid getting into matters in the “rumor” category. But the question I’m about to ask has been so frequently talked about on campus, in the community, and at blogs that I don’t think I’m spreading a rumor by asking it.
I’d be surprised if you and most others at Duke and elsewhere who have followed the Hoax and frame-up haven’t heard the rumor already, perhaps many times.
It is that a Duke employee, “free-lancing” and with no University foreknowledge whatsoever, is the prime producer of the endangering “Vigilante” poster; and that the employee did so, at least to a significant extent, using University IT resources, in particular for pulling the students’ face photos from GoDuke.com.
My question: Has any senior Duke administrator asked DUPD to determine whether there's any truth to the rumor?
My hope is that Duke will refute the rumor.
If it turns out part or the entire rumor is true, the University can take appropriate action.
As I did with your response to the “Wanted” poster questions, I’ll publish your response to the “Vigilante” questions in full and leave it free of my commentary for at least a day.
Once more in closing: I’m asking questions for information with no imputation regarding DUPD, whose professionalism I’ve admired as a Duke student, parent, contract employee and Durham resident.
Sincerely,
John in Carolina.
Cc: Robert Steel, chair, board of trustees, D U
Richard Brodhead, president, DU
John Burness, senior vice president for public affairs and government relations, DU
Larry Moneta, vice president for students affairs, DU
Aaron Graves, associate vice president for campus safety and security, DU
David Jarmul, associate vice president of news and communications
5 comments:
Good to hear all went well on the trip and I hope to see a response soon from Director Dean.
Off-topic, but certainly worthy of JinC's query:
http://truthinjustice.org/NC-commission.htm
Jez
Respectful and concisely-phrased questions. Based on Director Dean's honorable response to your earlier set, there is every reason to hope that he will shed some light on these issues.
Dean's attorney(ies) will want to limit what Dean says. Don't expect "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." You are to be congratulated for the tact and politeness with which you framed your questions. It's a shame the other side doesn't have even a tenth of your class.
John, my hope is that you'll receive something more than a cursory answer, but unless your questions were accompanied by a subpoena I doubt you'll get a real answer.
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