Daniel Fetterman
Chad Washington is now being represented by a partner in a major Manhattan law firm.
Daniel Fetterman of Kasowitz, Benson, Torres and Friedman told the Columbia Spectator that:
"The allegations do not accurately portray the events that occurred," he said. "When all the facts come out, it will be clear that Mr. Washington did not commit a hate crime, and he will be vindicated."
Fetterman also said that Washington is not being charged with a felony, as NBC reported, but with a misdemeanor.
Tweets
Less than 48 hours ago, I thought I has seen just about every Tweet sent out by members of the football team over the past 6 or 7 months. I was wrong. I hate a lot what I have seen in the last couple of days and honestly, I don't know the best way to respond. It's clear that many of the young men on the team don't quite grasp what it means to send out comments that the whole world can see. Some major training and discussions about the nature of social media are in order. And for the worst offenders, more disciplinary action is required.
Suffice it to say that I'm watching this story unfold with the most possible trepidation.
11 comments:
Best case scenario is that it wasn't a hate crime. But those Asian tweets aren't going to be helpful. But it is going to be tough to explain why a 6'4" 240 pound conditioned athlete slammed a 5'7" civilian against a wall. Looks like bullying from here.
This effectively ends the fifty year long debate about football players on campus. No, not everyone, but it turns out that what the non-athletes have long maintained is fundamentally right: on average, the football team has a higher percentage of players who drink til they puke, spout racist and anti-Semitic nonsense, and generally act like a'holes. When Jake expresses shock at this discovery, he sounds like Bogart in Casablanca. For all these years, who the hell did he think he was defending?
It was Rains in Casablanca, not Bogart. (And I'm a former player).
I strongly disagree with anonymous that this incident "ends the debate." This is a failure of leadership. One bully and a few jerks should not lead to condemnation of the entire program. I have had a fair number of players as summer interns at my law firm, and the young men I have met from the football program are as fine a group of young people I have ever met. Their lives and athletic careers should not be impeded by the actions of the primary actors here. But I do want to emphasize that this is also a leadership issue.
Rains it is. And just to be clear, I would never say this about the basketball team. On the other hand, you cannot wall off what happened by describing it as a "failure of leadership." Unlike other sports, football players are specifically trained for violence and aggression. Unfortunately, however, it's a package deal--too many of the people with those traits come with others that have provoked the longstanding antipathy to the football team on campus. Leadership, p'shaw? The quality of the leadership makes little difference if all you are leading is a bunch of drunken racists and anti-Semites?
LOL, so now the whole team is "a bunch of drunken racists and anti-Semites"? If there is anything to "p'shaw" its that statement.
If Colubmia doesn't field a football team, they will be booted from the Ivy League. Is that what you want?
One final, enormous irony: before Jake submerged his Fox politics on this blog, its previous iteration would often carry on about anyone whom he deemed anti-Israel. Now, it turns out that he has overlooked one prominent group of anti-semites--namely, the football players he has long been defending!
We're talking maybe 7-8 guys out of 100 on the roster. What if we looked at the Twitter feeds of the total undergrad population. What percentage would spout objectionable views? Maybe not as high as the football team's percentage but certainly not zero.
If you admit a diverse undergrad population, that's what get, the good and the bad. In theory, four years at Columbia helps turn some kids to the good side.
Ultimately it comes down to bigotry stemming from ignorance and immaturity, but also, as has been pointed out, failure of moral leadership. Not just on CU's part, the families are also culpable, and perhaps moreso.
To anonymous above who is generalizing and is condemning the entire FB team for what 10 players has done ... Get your facts straight. For your info , when I was in college there were many groups of students who " drank till they puked" . It was not limited to just FB players. There is an old saying. " people in glass houses don't throw stones".You sound like you are just a little bit better than the rest of us. We all make mistakes and some of us really screw up badly, but condemning as you are here, usually comes back to bite you in the butt.
Post a Comment