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Wasn't there an episode a while back about an America hating teacher who magically found their vehicle defaced, scratched, painted up ETC. They called the cops, I think it made the news, only to find out - they had done it themselves.
Can't help but wonder...
Who knows but as information comes out, we will update it. I find it very curious that Columbia won't turn over the security tapes and are making the police get a court order.
What are they trying to hide and who are they trying to protect?
A university needed the court order for federal regulations protecting student privacy on campus. They told the nypd this right away and it is crazy it took the nypd a whole day to get a jidge to sign off. In the mean time columbia had downloaded all of the tapes and had them ready for the cops when the order arrived. It has also been widely reported that there are cameras at the entrances to the building, but not in the halls where her office was, so the tapes will only be helpful in narrowing it down to who might have been in the building - which is quite large/heavily trafficked...
but i dont want the actual news to get in the way of your pre-existing script about the big bad commie university... And the iran protest, while quite small, was largely students protesting his actions/words/policies and not the school's decision to invite him. That's an important distinction that also seems to be missed in your portrayal of columbia. And one final thought... You may want to consider why the comments that follow your post automatically go to the potential hoax angle. Why is it so hard to consider that horribly painful racist actions still take place every day in out country? Of course there have been false claims, but they are few and far between compared to what actually happens. There've been five noose stories just this week, including in the coast guard. It's like how one schizophrenic panhandler turns out to have a house/money that gets a ton of coverage and people get the assumption that all panhandlers are faking their need - when that is of course far from reality... Probably similar to this situation where we would rather cling to a hoax possibility than face the possibility that someone have something so evil in their Godless heart and can cause such pain to not just the professor, but other black people in the area who share that same fear. I'm quite shocked by how little compassion has been shown on some blogs to this woman, few even think to mention that this must be painful/scary and should never be accepted. I recommend the book of Matthew for a fairly in depth exploration of some of these themes of how we are all in this together, and no one can benefit while some face such injustice in our world.
North, we had photos up and hourly updates during those protests and your description of them is a complete lie.. Pictures don't lie, people do as you have just done.
Nice try at spinning, go try it with someone who DIDN'T cover those protests, they night before AND the day of the lunatics speaking.
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Spin? I was actually there protesting! 
I think he runs an atrocious regime and I protested his treatment of women and minority groups and his failure to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. But i, and most students, faculty, and other new yorkerd werent protesting the univ., but just exercising our right to assemble and protest the actions of iran. I didnt claim there werent protesters against the univ., but they were largely out on broadway and numbered in the low hundreds at best. And of course that was their right and was welcomed, but it is simply not true that there was a large outrage against columbia in nyc - and national polls largely showed most cant stand the guy or his regime, but werent opposed to him speaking. And columbia's uptick in donations from alumni following the event bore this out. Any pictures of large groups not out on broadway but watching from the campus quad clearly had to be members of the univ. community who showed ID to get on campus and that very large group of several thousand watching on the closed circuit big screens were largely not against columbia inviting the speaker. My point isn't to diminish the voice of those who did tar offense to the invitation and protested, but simply to point out reporting of the incident presenting that as a majority response is disgenuous at best. Don't be so quick to ascribe partisanship, "spin", or motive to a person that you become unable to address the content of what someone is saying--- mainly - where is the outrage at acts of hatred and racism?
North we recieved reports from people that were also there and all of those people were there protesting his being given a forum at all.
You claim to speak for them? Sorry, I let them speak for themselves.
As well as the scholars that tore up their columbia diplomas, stopped giving their donations to the school and will not be allowing their children to attend that school because they welcomed a genoceide inciting thug to their school.
Perhaps you missed these two sentences:
"I didnt claim there werent protesters against the univ."
"My point isn't to diminish the voice of those who did take offense to the invitation and protested, but simply to point out reporting of the incident presenting that as a majority response is disgenuous at best."
So, pretty clear that I don't "claim to speak for them" as you insinuate.
But... I also don't make the faulty assumption that those who contacted you from the event "to send in reports" (clearly readers who are more likely to be supportive of similar positions) - would be necessarily representative of the entire group of people there. As I mentioned above, random national polling bore out my statement, as would any person who was on broadway AND ON CAMPUS where there were thousands more people who simply looked around and saw what people were protesting or doing. But again, even if it was just one person against that wouldn't make their position necessarily wrong or less worthy - and I would never claim as such.. but reporting of the event that claims they were anywhere near the majority would be mistaken. Do I doubt your claim that you received reports from those who said they'd never give more money to the school? Absolutely not. But if that was a common feeling why are donations up so dramatically following the event? In fact, Columbia has one of the largest, and fastest growing endowments in the world.
And I notice still no one replies to what was my central question -- where is the outrage at a hurtful act to a person and group? why is the first response that it is likely a hoax or that people should just get over it?
p.s. as a humorous aside I wonder if those who "tore up their diplomas" will do as Kerry was accused in 2004 of just "sort of throwing away his medals/ribbons" -- in other words next time they change jobs will they stick to their convictions and not mention to a new prospective employer that they went to Columbia... or will they be sure to point out that they were educated at one of the top handful of institutions of higher learning in the world?
The pictures and signs speak more to the protesters intent than your words can. Those pictures were taken of people that do not come to this site, therefore ARE representative of those holding them.
Quit trying to spin and distract.. it was a bad move on the part of Columbia and Bollinger and everyone knows it.
It also doesn't speak to the investigation that they hindered by refusing to hand over the tapes until they realized they had no choice, which is what this post is about.
well i'm done going around and around.. you seem to miss my point or choose not to address it. so this is it for me.
your first point:
You could very well have a picture of me and several of my friends holding signs against him... but what i'm saying is don't assume that all protesters were therefore also against him being invited in the first place. Some certainly were directly protesting the invitation, but.. oh well,, i've already made that point.
your second point:
"it was a bad move on the part of Columbia and Bollinger and everyone knows it." umm, actually I don't "know that" and in fact MOST people don't know that because the university community is behind the invitation as were the numbers nationally. so, "everyone" not quite.
And your third point:
"It also doesn't speak to the investigation that they hindered by refusing to hand over the tapes until they realized they had no choice, which is what this post is about."
actually i spoke to that in the first sentence of my first post.... There are very strict federal regulations around privacy of information regarding students on campuses. Columbia communicated this immediately to the NYPD. They did not say that they wouldn't turn it over or try to fight the subpoena in anyway. All the NYPD had to do was go to a judge request a subpoena and come back to campus and get the tapes. Columbia didn't send lawyers to fight this request or push for a hearing, the nypd simply asked for a subpoena and then came to get the tapes that had in the intervening time been prepared for them by the university who knew that as soon as the paper work was filed could hand over the tapes. So, they followed their legal responsibilities to student privacy and it is not their fault the cops took so long to get a subpoena. Hell, this is NYC the cops can get a subpoena instantly if they want to, it's not like we have a shortage of judges. So, "what your post is about" is based on false information from early press reports. And I've given up expecting that anyone will answer my main question -- which was -- why is it the only posts on this incident are about how columbia is blocking the investigation (likely hiding info or protecting a liberal prof or student or a minority...) - yet there was no desire to post on how horrible it is that a person was threatened with a powerful symbol of lynching in a very hateful and Godless act??????????????????????
p.s. your readers should feel free to go to youtube or google video and look up videos of citizen cameras and news coverage of the protests. Notice a few things for me: pics/videos on the street (broadway) just outside the campus gates were those from outside the univ. community largely and the numbers were quite small (low hundreds at best) and even among those don't assume that all protesting Iran were also defacto protesting columbia's invitation. But also check out the videos from inside the campus courtyard where big screen tv's were set
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