Talking to Regulars & Readers – 3-26-07

(A post in the old web log tradition: notes for those familiar with the material. Don’t look for hyperlinks or background explanations in this post.)

Thank you for your affirming comments. I appreciate them and bring them to mind whenever I hear from trolls.

And thank you for comments that point out my errors and/or “add to the story.”

Many of you have done a great deal of “adding to the story.” It’s all on the threads.

There’ve been a number of stories at JinC recently. In this post, I’ll focus only on the “poster stories.” In a few days, I’ll respond to some of the other JinC stories.

One of you self-ID’ing as a Duke lax Mom who attended the March 25 lax parents’ meeting with Duke administrators ( President Brodhead did not attend that meeting and, to the best of my knowledge, has refused since to met with the lax parents) says she asked at the meeting that the players’ face photos be removed from the GoDukeGo site.

That was a very wise request given the hate speech that was already circulating among certain Duke University and Durham “activists,” and the fact that on the morning of the 25th the Raleigh N&O, for reasons its never explained, published what it knew was a false, racially inflammatory story about what it said was a night that ended in “sexual violence.”

Within a few days of Brodhead's refusal to meet with the parents and the N&O's racially inflammatory story, unstable and hateful individuals and groups at Duke and in Durham were circulating the notorious Vigilante” poster, which targeted the players, and which the N&O then published on a Sunday (Apr. 2), its largest circulation day.

I’m working up a post that asks when Duke began “pulling” its students photos from GoDukeGo.

Based on the information I have right now, the post won’t offer a definitive answer to the “when” question, but it will provide some important “connect the dots” information to which I’ll add commentary.

Meanwhile, if the lax Mom or someone else who was at the meeting reads this post, a few questions:

At what time of day was the meeting held? To which (one or more) administrator(s) was the “remove” request made?

Did the administrator(s) explicitly acknowledge the request?

If yes, how?

Was a statement made by any Duke administrator that the students photos would be removed by a certain time?

Did any administrator (my understanding is there were four there) say he or she would step aside for a few minutes and cell call Duke’s IT system person on duty and request the removal of the photos?

At what time did the meeting end?

I’ve already confirmed with Jon Jackson, Duke’s SID, what media reported last March 29: Duke pulled the photos out of concern for the players’ safety.

That’s why the “Vigilante” poster has only the photos of 43 of the 46 white Duke lacrosse players the “vigilantes” were targeting. Jackson told me Duke learned of the photo “pulling” in time to take down the photos before the “vigilantes” got all 46.

But when did Duke pull the photos? I didn’t ask Jackson that question when I first reported on the “Vigilante” poster almost a year ago.

I think the Duke Mom wants to know when Duke pulled the photos. So do I.

I'll be calling Jackson tomorrow and asking him when the photos were pulled.

If I’ve misunderstood the Mom’s question, I hope she sets me straight.

I’ll keep you posted. But if you read this thread, you may know before I know.

About DUPD Director Dean, and his response to my “Wanted” poster questions:

I’ll respond to Dean tomorrow.

In that post I’ll reference the “main point” comments on the thread. Then I’ll ask where citizens can view the minutes of Durham CS board meetings held during 2006 when he was chair.

I’ll also ask Dean if he’s still a CS board member as well as for contact information for Pat Ellis whom Dean said was the current Durham CS board chair, and to whom Dean said I could refer for a copy of the 2006 IRS form Durham CS is required to file and make easily available to the public.

I’ll follow those questions with some brief, initial questions concerning the “Vigilante” poster.

I’ll say more about all of that tomorrow.

I hope you’re back.

John