A New Jersey jury today found former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi guilty on all counts for using a webcam to spy on his roommate, Tyler Clementi, having a gay sexual encounter in 2010.
Ravi, 20, was convicted of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering and hindering arrest, stemming from his role in activating the webcam to peek at Clementi's date with a man in the dorm room on Sept. 19, 2010. Ravi was also convicted of encouraging others to spy during a second date, on Sept. 21, 2010, and intimidating Clementi for being gay.
Ravi was found not guilty of some subparts of the 15 counts of bias intimidation, attempted invasion of privacy, and attempted bias intimidation, but needed only to be found guilty of one part of each count to be convicted.
The convictions carry a possible sentence of five to 10 years in prison. Because Ravi is a citizen of India, and is in the US on a green card, he could be deported following his sentencing. The US deports most criminals convicted of felonies, with the exception of thefts of amounts under $10,000.
________________
Dharun Ravi, the college roommate from hell, was indicted today.
A former Rutgers University freshman was indicted Wednesday for secretly viewing a same-sex encounter involving his roommate - who later jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
Dharun Ravi, 19, of Plainsboro, N.J., could face up to 5 years in prison if convicted of the top charges in the 15-count indictment announced by Middlesex County prosecutor Bruce Kaplan.
Ravi was charged by a grand jury with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy and witness and evidence tampering for using a webcam to spy on Tyler Clementi's dorm room date with another man.
Once Clementi's Sept. 22, 2010, suicide became public, Ravi asked witnesses not to implicate him and gave misleading information to investigators, Kaplan said.
According to the indictment, Ravi also knew the target of his webcam would be intimidated because of his sexual orientation.
"The grand jury indictment spells out cold and calculated acts against our son Tyler by his former college roommate," the Clementi family said in a statement.
"If these facts are true, as they appear to be, then it is important for our criminal justice system to establish clear accountability under law. We are eager to have the process moved forward for justice in this case."
What Ravi did (allegedly) to Tyler Clementi was beyond cruel. It was criminal.
If Ravi is convicted, he could spend 5 years in prison.
I think the odds of him serving that sort of sentence are slim. But hopefully, he will be held accountable under the law and given more than a slap on the wrist.
It seems inadequate to use the term "bullying" for what Ravi did to Clementi. Clearly, Ravi took bullying to new heights.
How does it get to the point where bullying becomes a crime? How could Ravi, an adult, be so callous and inhumane and lacking in conscience?
Somewhere along the line, Ravi wasn't reined in. I don't believe this was the first time Ravi bullied someone. I doubt that he suddenly turned into a thug. I suspect it was a life-long pattern with him.
Bottom line: People in positions of authority - teachers, coaches, parents, adults - cannot look the other way when they see a child being victimized. They must intervene and take bullying seriously. The bullies must face consequences. They must be punished for their anti-social behavior.
No happy, healthy individual would torture another innocent human being.
Authority figures must NOT blame the victims. When the adults ignore the sadistic behavior of bullies, they passively condone it. That is unacceptable. It is unconscionable.
The bullies are empowered and their hate-filled habits escalate.
It is inexcusable.
When people in positions of authority fail to stop bullying, they create monsters like Ravi.
Eight gay-hating Bronx gangbangers accused of one of the city's most savage crimes in years appeared in court Sunday to face charges in what Mayor Bloomberg called an act of "pure evil."
They stand accused of torturing and terrorizing a gay man, his older brother, and two teenagers over the course of many hours Oct. 3 in Morris Heights.
"Is it true you're a fag?" ringleader Idelfonso (Cheto) Mendez allegedly demanded of his bound victims before punching them in the face.
Prosecutors said he repeated the query and the punch over and over again.
The eight were hit with a slew of charges including gang assault, sexual assault, robbery, weapons possession and hate crimes. The gang assault count alone is enough to put them away for 25 years.
None of the defendants - Mendez, 23; Elmer Confresi, 23; David Rivera, 21; Bryan Almonte, 17; Steven Caraballo, 17; Nelson Falu, 17; Denis Peitars, 17; and Brian Cepeda, 16, all of the Bronx - entered pleas.
They are due back in court Oct. 14. Only Peitars and Caraballo were offered the chance to post $50,000 cash bail.
A ninth suspect, Rudy Vargas-Perez, 22, remained at large.
"Given how much we know, we'll get him," Bloomberg said.
Speaking at East Ward Baptist Church in Harlem, the mayor on Sunday called the attack "pure evil."
"Their heinous crime, I think, is matched only by their warped mindsets," he said.
...Members of a penny-ante crew calling themselves the Latin King Goonies, the defendants are accused of a depraved rampage that began at 3 a.m. on Oct. 3, after learning a 17-year-old wannabe recruit had been seen with a 30-year-old gay man.
In the abandoned three-story house at 1910 Osborne Place, they used as a clubhouse - and turned into a makeshift torture chamber - they allegedly stripped the boy naked, beat him, slashed him with a box cutter and sodomized him with a plunger handle.
That evening, a second 17-year-old was tied up in the house and interrogated about his relationship the 30-year-old man.
They then allegedly lured the older man to the house, stripped him, tied him to a chair and forced the 17-year-old to hit him in the face and burn his genitals with cigarettes as they jeered.
They then allegedly battered the older man with chains and sodomized him with a small baseball bat.
Some of the gangbangers also went to his 40-year-old brother's apartment and beat him, and forcing him to give them $1,000 dollars by putting him on the phone with his terrified captive brother.
They left him tied to his bed with his eyes, nose and mouth covered with tape, close to suffocation.
The other victims were allowed to go free but warned they would be killed if they revealed what happened to them.
The gangbangers allegedly cleaned their torture chamber with bleach, ripped up carpet and repainted the walls in an attempt to cover their tracks.
Tipsters told police what happened, and cops began arresting the crew Wednesday.
Gay men and women live openly in the largely Hispanic neighborhood where the Oct. 3 beatings took place, Morris Heights, and while residents were disturbed by some past violent behavior blamed on the defendants, some said they hadn't previously targeted homosexuals.
City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who is openly gay, and other elected officials went to the empty brick town house where the attacks occurred and passed out leaflets.
"People were very, very clear that they wanted it to be known that the acts of these individuals do not represent their neighborhood," Quinn said. "They were as stunned as anyone that something so violent, so premeditated ... could happen here."
OK.
I've been hearing about this story for a while now and my reaction is the same. I continue to be troubled about the way it's being reported.
The NBC report doesn't emphasize that these are the actions of a GANG. The emphasis is on the abuse of gays.
Read about the behavior of the members immersed in GANG culture, from the New York Daily News:
The members of a sadistic Bronx crew accused of torturing a man and two teens because they were gay claimed the gang's leaders forced them to participate - or become victims themselves.
Police sources said several members of the Latin King Goonies told detectives they would have been slashed and beaten if they did not help torment the defenseless victims.
The threats were allegedly made by ringleader Ildefonso (Cheto) Mendez, who orchestrated the homophobic assaults after learning that a 17-year-old gang recruit was gay. That recruit was made to watch as they sodomized his older boyfriend with a miniature baseball bat - and the teen was then forced to burn his lover with cigarettes.
...The sick attacks - the latest in a surge in anti-gay incidents across the region - outraged public leaders.
"When any New Yorker is attacked because of who they are or who they love, the fabric that binds us together is torn," Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday.
The torture began early last Sunday in an abandoned Morris Heights building - nicknamed the Goonie House - where gang members frequently partied. The 30-year-old victim's older brother was later beaten and robbed at his Bronx home.
Mendez was charged with robbery in 2005 and with gun possession in 2007 and 2009, records show. Neighbors at his E. 197th St. building described Mendez rounding up friends to torture a stray cat two months ago. "One of the cat's eyes was out and one of these [guys] was poking its eye socket with a stick," said the neighbor. "They were cheering like they just scored a touchdown."
The story of them torturing the stray cat is sick and sadistic. These thugs have no respect for any life. They have no compassion. In short, they're bad people.
No question, the brutal attacks carried out by the Latin King Goonies were heinous crimes. The members that engaged in the torturing of the three individuals are animals.
I'm glad they're off the streets. They aren't fit to live among law-abiding citizens. Clearly, they're a danger to the community.
There should be no confusion about where I stand on the attacks. I'm sickened by them. I want the thugs to face the maximum punishment for their criminal behavior.
What bothers me though is the ridiculousness of the outrage over known thugs behaving like thugs.
It's the hate crime angle, the anti-gay aspect of the attacks, that's bringing this story so much national attention. But there's more to this than "hating gay people."
The violence and cruelty permeate the way of life of the Latin King Goonies. It's a GANG thing.
Another thing being lost in the coverage of the attacks is the fact that one of the victims was a recruit.
One of the victims wanted to be a member of the Latin King Goonies. He wanted to prey on others, behave violently, and break the law.
Of course, I'm not saying that because the victim was a wannabe member that he somehow got what he deserved. Absolutely not. But I think it's important to highlight that those involved are thugs. They're criminals.
It seems to me that there's a lot of posturing happening. Bloomberg is outraged over the "pure evil" of the attacks on gays, but he's not pointing out that these were thugs, members of a GANG. Where's the outrage about that?
Gay men and women live openly in the largely Hispanic neighborhood where the Oct. 3 beatings took place, Morris Heights, and while residents were disturbed by some past violent behavior blamed on the defendants, some said they hadn't previously targeted homosexuals.
Why was the past violent behavior by the thugs dismissed?
I don't get that.
These attacks aren't on the same plane as some bullying incidents, like the Rutgers case, with Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei torturing Tyler Clementi. Ravi and Wei allegedly acted illegally and they spread their own type of evil, but it wasn't violent.
What the Latin King Goonies did was extremely violent. They did what GANGS do.
I realize that they haven't targeted gays before, and their brutal anti-gay attacks are shocking; but good grief, they're not boy scouts. We know that. We know that one victim wanted to be one of them.
There's a lot of dysfunction here.
There should be outrage about the terrible violence, but there shouldn't be surprise. We're talking about a GANG.
Perhaps the law-abiding residents of the neighborhood shouldn't have looked the other way when they were aware of other instances of law-breaking and violence by the defendants.
I want to hear Bloomberg speak out about the scourge of GANGS, not just gangs with an anti-gay bias. They terrorize people, commit cold-blooded acts, and ruin neighborhoods.
I'd like the media to stress the violence of GANGS, and not just connect the thugs' behavior with other recent instances of abuse and crimes against gays.
There's something twisted about that. It's important to acknowledge the ruthlessness of GANG life. At present, it's almost being ignored in this story.
A New Jersey jury today found former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi guilty on all counts for using a webcam to spy on his roommate, Tyler Clementi, having a gay sexual encounter in 2010.
Ravi, 20, was convicted of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering and hindering arrest, stemming from his role in activating the webcam to peek at Clementi's date with a man in the dorm room on Sept. 19, 2010. Ravi was also convicted of encouraging others to spy during a second date, on Sept. 21, 2010, and intimidating Clementi for being gay.
Ravi was found not guilty of some subparts of the 15 counts of bias intimidation, attempted invasion of privacy, and attempted bias intimidation, but needed only to be found guilty of one part of each count to be convicted.
The convictions carry a possible sentence of five to 10 years in prison. Because Ravi is a citizen of India, and is in the US on a green card, he could be deported following his sentencing. The US deports most criminals convicted of felonies, with the exception of thefts of amounts under $10,000.
A former Rutgers University freshman was indicted Wednesday for secretly viewing a same-sex encounter involving his roommate - who later jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
Dharun Ravi, 19, of Plainsboro, N.J., could face up to 5 years in prison if convicted of the top charges in the 15-count indictment announced by Middlesex County prosecutor Bruce Kaplan.
Ravi was charged by a grand jury with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy and witness and evidence tampering for using a webcam to spy on Tyler Clementi's dorm room date with another man.
Once Clementi's Sept. 22, 2010, suicide became public, Ravi asked witnesses not to implicate him and gave misleading information to investigators, Kaplan said.
According to the indictment, Ravi also knew the target of his webcam would be intimidated because of his sexual orientation.
"The grand jury indictment spells out cold and calculated acts against our son Tyler by his former college roommate," the Clementi family said in a statement.
"If these facts are true, as they appear to be, then it is important for our criminal justice system to establish clear accountability under law. We are eager to have the process moved forward for justice in this case."
________________
Dharun Ravi and Molly Wei deny that they had any bias against their victim, Tyler Clementi.
I guess that means they're equal opportunity voyeurs and torturers.
The two Rutgers University students accused of secretly filming Tyler Clementi in his dorm room just days before he leaped to his death, have broken their silence to insist they did not bully Clementi.
A lawyer for 18-year-old Dharun Ravi, who was roommates with Clementi, issued a statement urging the public not to "rush to charges" against his client.
"Unfortunately, a life has been lost," said attorney Steven Altman in the statement. "Out of respect to Tyler Clementi's family, this is not the time for explanations of defenses or justifications to be made public by an attorney."
"In regards to statements made by the prosecuting agencies of their continuing investigation and whether to file bias charges against Dharun Ravi, I am heartened to hear that they are taking their time to learn all the facts before rushing to judgment. I can only hope that the public will do the same," wrote Altman. "I am confident that nothing will be learned to justify, warrant or support the filing of any bias criminal complaint."
...Wei's attorney released a statement insisting on his client's innocence.
"This is a tragic situation. But this tragedy has also unfairly led to rampant speculation and misinformation, which threaten to overwhelm the actual facts of the matter," said attorney William Fisher. "Those true facts will reveal that Molly Wei is innocent. Molly committed no crime. Her remarkable reputation is being unjustly tarnished by uninformed and incorrect assumptions."
Fisher added that Wei is a "wonderful, caring and talented young woman with a bright future" who has been "maligned by unfounded attacks on her character."
So did Ravi lie to Wei?
Did she not know what Ravi was doing to Tyler Clementi?
That would have to be the case for her to be innocent, as her lawyer claims.
Did Wei view the stream?
...A town hall meeting is scheduled tonight at Rutgers to discuss bullying and is expected to be attended by several state politicans.
That's nice - a town hall meeting.
I'm not optimistic that such an event, where state politicians can posture, will have any impact whatsoever on bullying.
Thugs will continue to torture. Bullying is part of their personalities. Thug parents have raised thug children.
Bullying is a practice passed down from generation to generation.
Furthermore, I think it's important to remember that what Ravi and Wei are accused of doing went beyond bullying and became criminal.
A New Jersey jury today found former Rutgers student Dharun Ravi guilty on all counts for using a webcam to spy on his roommate, Tyler Clementi, having a gay sexual encounter in 2010.
Ravi, 20, was convicted of invasion of privacy, bias intimidation, witness tampering and hindering arrest, stemming from his role in activating the webcam to peek at Clementi's date with a man in the dorm room on Sept. 19, 2010. Ravi was also convicted of encouraging others to spy during a second date, on Sept. 21, 2010, and intimidating Clementi for being gay.
Ravi was found not guilty of some subparts of the 15 counts of bias intimidation, attempted invasion of privacy, and attempted bias intimidation, but needed only to be found guilty of one part of each count to be convicted.
The convictions carry a possible sentence of five to 10 years in prison. Because Ravi is a citizen of India, and is in the US on a green card, he could be deported following his sentencing. The US deports most criminals convicted of felonies, with the exception of thefts of amounts under $10,000.
NYPD harbor units have recovered the body of an individual believed to be Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers freshman who jumped to his death after two other students secretly filmed him during a sexual encounter with another man, PIX 11 News has learned.
Sources say there was no wallet and no identification on the body.
Clementi was spotted on the walkway of the George Washington Bridge on the night of Sept 22. Earlier in the evening, the 18-year-old freshman had posted a chilling goodbye message on his Facebook page.
"Jumping off the gw bridge sorry," Clementi wrote on Facebook before jumping to his death. Sources tell PIX 11 News, Clementi's car was later discovered along the New Jersey border with both his cell phone and computer inside.
Fellow freshmen students Dharun Ravi, 18, of Plainsboro and Molly Wei, 18, of Princeton have since been charged with invasion of privacy for allegedly placing a camera in Clementi's room.
Ravi and Wei were charged with two counts each of invasion of privacy for using a camera to view and transmit a live image of the teen during the sexual encounter on Sept. 19.
Ravi, who was Clementi's roommate, was additionally charged with two more counts of invasion of privacy for trying to use the hidden camera to view the same student during another sexual encounter just three days later on Sept. 21.
Days before the shocking suicide, Ravi updated his Twitter account, admitting to friends that he enabled his webcam to spy on Clementi who had asked his roommate for some privacy.
"Roommate asked for the room till midnight," he tweeted on Sept. 19. "I went into Molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."
...Ravi was released on $25,000 bail Tuesday after surrendering to Rutgers police, while Wei was released on her own recognizance Monday after surrendering to authorities.
According to Middlesex County Prosecutor Bruce Kaplan, it is a fourth-degree crime to collect or view images depicting nudity or sexual content of an individual without that person's consent. The crime becomes a third-degree offense if the images are transmitted or distributed.
Why would they do something that they knew would deeply hurt Tyler Clementi?
Did they think it was fun? Is bullying their hobby?
Clementi asked his roommate for privacy. Instead, Ravi allegedly violated his trust in a stunningly callous way. Ravi and Wei's lack of compassion is chilling.
According to Forbes, Ravi discovered that Clementi was gay from comments he made on a gay message forum, "JustUsBoys," and Clementi was aware of Ravi's video voyeurism.
A month-old tweet from Ravi indicates he discovered his roommate’s sexuality based on comments Clementi made on a gay message forum. Ravi tweeted on August 22, “Found out my roommate is gay,” and linked to a post he said was Clementi’s on JustUsBoys. It’s the same forum that Clementi appears to have turned to after discovering he’d been spied on. As Gawker noted, a user on the forum by the name of “cit2mo” posted a thread “college roommate spying…..” on September 21 at 7:22 a.m.
so the other night i had a guy over. I had talked to my roommate that afternoon and he had said it would be fine w/him. I checked his twitter today. he tweeted that I was using the room (which is obnoxious enough), AND that he went into somebody else’s room and remotely turned on his webcam and saw me making out with a guy. given the angle of the webcam I can be confident that that was all he could have seen.
so my question is what next?
I could just be more careful next time…make sure to turn the cam away… buttt… I’m kinda pissed at him (rightfully so I think, no?) and idk…if I could…it would be nice to get him in trouble but idk if I have enough to get him in trouble, i mean…he never saw anything pornographic…he never recorded anything… I feel like the only thing the school might do is find me another roommate, probably with me moving out…and i’d probably just end up with somebody worse than him….I mean aside from being an asshole from time to time, he’s a pretty decent roommate…
the other thing is I that don’t wanna report him and then end up with nothing happening except him getting pissed at me….
Other users advised him to report it to the school and make sure his roommate’s computer was closed during future encounters. Cit2mo replied:
I feel like it was “look at what a fag my roommate is” –other people have commented on his profile with things like “how did you manage to go back in there?” “are you ok?”
and the fact that the people he was with saw my making out with a guy as the scandal whereas i mean come on…he was SPYING ON ME….do they see nothing wrong with this?
unsettling to say the least….
so I decided to fill out the room change request form….its not guaranteed that you get a change…and i don’t have to switch if I change my mind or work things out over the next week (they won’t start filling requests until next week)…but I figure I might as well as see what they can offer me….
More users advised him of the illegality of this video voyeurism. A famous case of this, of course, is that of Erin Andrews. The man who made peephole videos of her undressing was ultimately sentenced to 30 months in prison. Cit2mo responds:
oh yah, on the school website it says recording people where there is an expectation of privacy (bathroom bedroom etc) without the consent of everyone involved could….COULD…..result in being expelled
the only things is…there are too many ‘could’s ….the fact that he didn’t ACTUALLY record me (to my knowledge) and the fact that the school really prolly won’t do much of anything….
but anyway, i’ll be talking to my RA later today for sure…..
and yah, revenge never ends well for me, as much as I would love to pour pink paint all over his stuff…..that would just let him win…..
Cit2mo did end up going to the RA after Ravi’s tweet on September 21st:
so I wanted to have the guy over again.
I texted roomie around 7 asking for the room later tonight and he said it was fine.
when I got back to the room I instantly noticed he had turned the webcam toward my bed. And he had posted online again….saying….”anyone want a free show just video chat me tonight”…or something similar to that….
soooo after that…..
I ran to the nearest RA and set this thing in motion…..
we’ll see what happens……
I haven’t even seen my roommate since sunday when i was asking for the room the first time…and him doing it again just set me off….so talking to him just didn’t seem like an option….
meanwhile I turned off and unplugged his computer, went crazy looking for other hidden cams….and then had a great time.
Cit2mo’s last posting to the site on the morning of September 22nd indicates that he emailed an RA a paragraph about what had happened. Though he seemed calm and collected in his postings to JustUsBoys, that night, he posted “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry” to his Facebook, and committed suicide.
Clementi's postings indicate his struggles with Ravi and his feelings of powerlessness.
Ravi and Wei are conscienceless cyberthugs and hopefully they will pay for their criminal behavior. No slap on the wrist for these thugs if they are found guilty. They must suffer the consequences for breaking the law. Without question, they should be expelled from Rutgers.
I deeply regret that today we learned from the family of one of our students that they believe their son has committed suicide. We are profoundly saddened by this report, and our hearts and prayers are with the parents, family, and friends of this young man, who had started at Rutgers this semester as a first-year student on the New Brunswick Campus.
While there is a lot of information being communicated, we don’t have all the facts in this case.
This young man was reportedly the victim of an incident that took place in one of our residence halls last week. Two fellow Rutgers students have been arrested and charged with invasion of privacy for their actions in that incident. If the charges are true, these actions gravely violate the university’s standards of decency and humanity.
The case is being investigated by the Rutgers University Police Department. The students—like all who are accused of a crime—must be presumed innocent until proven guilty. The case is also being investigated by the Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs under the code of student conduct. Please know that while Rutgers does not comment publicly on the specifics of cases involving active criminal investigations and allegations of student conduct, the university is taking this case very seriously.
We extend our heartfelt sympathies to the family during this most difficult time. While I did not have the privilege of knowing this young man, I have learned that in addition to his academic abilities, he was a gifted musician. Our university community feels the pain of his loss, and I know there is anger and outrage about these events.
Rutgers is a community that is extraordinarily proud of its diversity and the respect its members have for one another. In fact, we have just launched a two-year dialogue focusing attention on civility in the context of one of the most culturally and racially diverse research universities in the nation. I ask that all members of the Rutgers community honor the wishes of the family by providing them with privacy during this painful time and by committing to the values of civility, dignity, compassion, and respect for each other.
Richard L. McCormick
President
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Of course, Ravi and Wei have to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.
The cybertrail will be easy enough to trace. (See postings from "JustUsBoys.") I trust it won't take long to determine if they actually did what they are accused of doing.
The WPIX report states that sources say Clementi had asked to have his room changed, but Rutgers denied that request.
If true, that refusal to move Clementi was obviously a terrible mistake.
When it comes to taking one's own life, ultimate responsibility lies with the individual. Clementi made the choice. He chose to die, but arriving at that decision certainly speaks to Clementi's unbearable anguish, being only 18 and not wanting to live. His suffering probably went beyond the clash with his roommate. The tragic unknown in all of this is whether Clementi would have made the choice to live had Ravi and Wei not treated him like the star in a freak show.
It's heartbreaking that Clementi determined his best option was to jump from the George Washington Bridge.
Rutgers can't be blamed for Clementi's death but it may be responsible for failing to address 18-year-old Clementi's serious problems with Ravi and buddy Wei.
Ravi and Wei didn't kill Clementi, but they're accused of illegal activity that had to be torture for him. His suicide may have been precipitated by their bullying.
Bullying in the Internet age takes on a whole new dimension. Thugs can use the Internet to compound the agony for the victim.
Ravi and Wei didn't push Clementi off the bridge, but they have blood on their hands.
________________
This is the second statement from McCormick. In his first statement, September 29, 2010, he didn't mention Clementi by name.
His September 30, 2010, statement is a more personal expression of sympathy.
The Rutgers University community is in mourning over the death of first-year student Tyler Clementi.
We grieve for him and for his family, friends, and classmates as they deal with the tragic loss of a gifted young man who was a strong student and a highly accomplished musician. I have spoken with Tyler’s parents to extend my own and the university’s deepest sympathies, and we will continue to respect the family’s request for privacy.
It is up to us at Rutgers to honor this young man’s life by reaffirming, and living up to, our commitment to the values of civility, dignity, compassion, and respect for one another.
I don't want to be cynical about McCormick's motives but this second statement seems to be an attempt to deal with the Rutgers PR nightmare of Clementi's suicide.
I think McCormick has said enough.
_________________
A body recovered from the Hudson River has been confirmed to be Tyler Clementi, the Rutgers freshman who jumped to his death after two other students secretly filmed him during a sexual encounter with another man, officials announced Thursday.
The New York City medical examiner's office determined that Clementi drowned and had impact injuries on his torso after jumping off the George Washington Bridge last Wednesday.
Sources say there was no wallet and no identification on the body.
Clementi was spotted on the walkway of the bridge on the night of Sept 22. Earlier in the evening, the 18-year-old freshman had posted a chilling goodbye message on his Facebook page.
"Jumping off the gw bridge sorry," Clementi wrote on Facebook before jumping to his death.
This AP article discusses suicides and cyberbullying. It also includes some new information about Tyler Clementi, Dharun Ravi, and Molly Wei.
In Clementi's case, prosecutors said that his roommate, Dharun Ravi of Plainsboro, N.J., and Molly Wei of Princeton, N.J., both 18-year-old freshmen, transmitted a live image of Clementi having sex on Sept. 19 and that Ravi tried to webcast a second encounter on Sept. 21, the day before Clementi's suicide. Lawyers for Ravi and Wei did not return calls.
Luanne Peterpaul, vice chairwoman of the gay rights group Garden State Equality and a former New Jersey prosecutor, said authorities might be able to pursue the case as a hate crime under state law if they are able to establish that the defendants acted because they believed Clementi was gay.
Ravi posted a message on his now-closed Twitter account on Sept. 19: "Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."
Prosecutor Bruce J. Kaplan said in a statement: "We will be making every effort to assess whether bias played a role in the incident, and, if so, we will bring appropriate charges."
A lawyer for Clementi's family did not respond to requests for comment on whether Clementi had come out to friends and family about his sexual orientation. He also said the family had no comment.
The mourning continued at Rutgers and in Ridgewood, the suburban New Jersey town where Clementi grew up and attended high school.
"As the father of a 17-year-old, I can't imagine what those parents are feeling today," Gov. Chris Christie said. "Those people who led him to that bridge are going to have to bear that responsibility for the rest of their lives."
Ed Schmiedecke, the recently retired music director at Ridgewood High, called Clementi "a terrific musician and a very promising, hardworking young man."
"Musically, Tyler was destined for greatness," childhood friend Mary Alcaro, who played in a summer music academy with him, said in an e-mail. "I've never heard anyone make a violin sing the way he did."
Students at West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional High School, from which Ravi and Wei graduated, remembered them as nice people who were not in any way homophobic.
Ravi had gay friends, said Derek Yan, 16, a junior. Yan said he chatted online with Ravi about what college life was like, and Ravi "said he was lucky to have a good roommate. He said his roomate was cool."
Apparently, Ravi and Wei have changed dramatically since they left West Windsor-Plainsboro Regional High School.
If they were nice, as students at the high school remember them, then they've changed dramatically. They've revealed they aren't nice anymore. They're heartless, soulless.
This wasn't some innocent little prank gone bad. They allegedly behaved illegally. They conducted a cold, calculated plan to torment Clementi. Nice people don't do that.
As far as being homophobic goes, they've been outed.
Obviously, if Ravi liked his roommate and thought he was cool, he had a sick, sick way of showing it.
In the end, it doesn't matter what a person says. It's irrelevant that Ravi supposedly had gay friends in high school. The "but some of my best friends are gay" defense is pathetic. It's irrelevant that Ravi said kind things about Clementi to someone online.
Words can be empty, meaningless. It's so simple to say something. What matters is how those words are backed up by actions.
What Ravi and Wei allegedly DID says everything one needs to know about them.
_________________
The parents of a Rutgers University student who killed himself after his roommate allegedly used a webcam to spy on him during a tryst with another man have filed notice that they intend to sue the school.
Joseph and Jane Clementi, parents of Tyler Clementi, filed the notice on Friday. They have to wait six months to file the lawsuit over their son's death, which became a symbol in a national outcry over the bullying of young gays.
In the notice, the couple said "it appears Rutgers University failed to act, failed to put in place and/or failed to implement, and enforce policies and practices that would have prevented or deterred such acts, and that Rutgers failed to act timely and appropriately"
The claim, first reported by The Home News Tribune of East Brunswick, did not list how much in damages the Ridgewood family would seek.
Rutgers spokesman E.J. Miranda said in a statement that the school is not to blame.
"We at the university share the family's sense of loss of their son, who was a member of our community. We also recognize that a grieving family may question whether someone or some institution could somehow have responsibility for their son's death," Miranda said. "While the university understands this reaction, the university is not responsible for Tyler Clementi's suicide."
A former Rutgers University freshman was indicted Wednesday for secretly viewing a same-sex encounter involving his roommate - who later jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge.
Dharun Ravi, 19, of Plainsboro, N.J., could face up to 5 years in prison if convicted of the top charges in the 15-count indictment announced by Middlesex County prosecutor Bruce Kaplan.
Ravi was charged by a grand jury with bias intimidation, invasion of privacy and witness and evidence tampering for using a webcam to spy on Tyler Clementi's dorm room date with another man.
Once Clementi's Sept. 22, 2010, suicide became public, Ravi asked witnesses not to implicate him and gave misleading information to investigators, Kaplan said.
According to the indictment, Ravi also knew the target of his webcam would be intimidated because of his sexual orientation.
"The grand jury indictment spells out cold and calculated acts against our son Tyler by his former college roommate," the Clementi family said in a statement.
"If these facts are true, as they appear to be, then it is important for our criminal justice system to establish clear accountability under law. We are eager to have the process moved forward for justice in this case."
"And my job is to shut other white people down when they want to interrupt."
"We have to, at the DNC, provide training. We have to teach them how to communicate, how to be sensitive, and how to shut their mouths if they're white."
"Hollywood is crawling with outsiders and foreigners, and if we kick 'em all out, you'll have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, which are not the arts."
"When I would deny that there was a significant racist component in some of the politics on our side, it was because the people I hung out with were certainly not. When suddenly, this rock is turned over, there is this—'Oh shit, did I not see that?'"
----------------------------
"In any other scenario, Hillary Clinton's lying about her emails, and her pay-for-play relationship with the Clinton Foundation would be disqualifying issues. The only reason they're not disqualifying is because Donald Trump is a fundamentally more repellent, dishonest figure."
"I made a mistake in recalling the events of twelve years ago... I said I was traveling in an aircraft that was hit by RPG fire. I was instead in a following aircraft."
"I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the constitution of South Africa. That was a deliberate attempt to have a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights, had an independent judiciary. It really is, I think, a great piece of work that was done."
"The death of Andrew Breitbart disproves the adage that only the good die young."
--JULIAN BOND
"The National Institute of Health has said that it is a danger to women's health and safety of their families that for 30 years to be exposed to the prospects of pregnancy."
"Why did- Couldn't the President have said at that moment, way back in December of last year, 'no game playing. No hostage-taking. No terrorizing this country with the debt ceiling. I'm not going to negotiate with you guys. You can't play it that way.' Could he have done that?"
"I remember distinctly an image of--we were sitting on his couches, and I was looking at [Obama's] pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I'm thinking, a) he's going to be president and b) he'll be a very good president."
--DAVID BROOKS
"I feel like calling her back and smackin' her around."
"[I]f you go back to the year 2000, when we had an obvious disaster and - and saw that our voting process needed refinement, and we did that in the America Votes Act and made sure that we could iron out those kinks, now you have the Republicans, who want to literally drag us all the way back to Jim Crow laws and literally - and very transparently - block access to the polls to voters who are more likely to vote Democratic candidates than Republican candidates. And it's nothing short of that blatant."
--DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ
"This is probably one of the worst times we've seen because the numbers of people elected to Congress. I went through this as co-chair of the arts caucus. In '94 people were elected simply to come here to kill the National Endowment for the Arts. Now they’re here to kill women."
"The protesters have proven today that they‘re not going away. It was a pretty rough night last night. You can imagine if people said, well, we just can‘t fight the power. Instead, this morning, they came by tens, by hundreds, by thousands. By midday today, it was easily more than 10,000, perhaps as many as 15,000 people on the square here in Madison. Not organized by anyone, just grassroots citizens who came out just like the Minutemen in 1776."
--JOHN NICHOLS
"They're sitting on the money, they're using it for their own -- they're putting it someplace else with no interest in helping you with your life, with that money. We've allowed them to take that. That's not theirs, that's a national resource, that's ours. We all have this -- we all benefit from this or we all suffer as a result of not having it. I think we need to go back to taxing these people at the proper rates."
"Why don't we just raise the taxes and let these folks have their collective bargaining, have their union representation and go back to their jobs? Raise the taxes on the wealthy."
"So I would urge my Republican colleagues, no matter how strongly they feel -- you know, we have three branches of government. We have a House. We have a Senate. We have a president. And all three of us are going to have to come together and give some, but it is playing with fire to risk the shutting down of the government."
"I'm Rebecca Kleefisch. I performed fellatio on all the talk show hosts in Milwaukee. And they endorsed me and that's how I became lieutenant governor."
"[Military leaders] tell us that childhood obesity isn’t just a public health issue; they tell us that it is not just an economic threat -- it is a national security threat as well."
"[Obama] has to realize that Mitch McConnell has virtually said so that politically he wants to cut out his heart and throw his liver to the dogs."
--DAN RATHER
"And the instructions are not to improvise a comedy sketch, but to elect a group of unqualified, unstable individuals who will do what they are told, in exchange for money and power, and march this nation as far backward as they can get, backward to Jim Crow, or backward to the breadlines of the '30s, or backward to hanging union organizers, or backward to the trusts and the robber barons.
"Result: the Tea Party. Vote backward, vote Tea Party. And if you are somehow indifferent to what is planned for next Tuesday, it is nothing short of an attempted use of democracy to end this democracy."
"I gotta wonder when people are gonna start wearing uniforms. I mean they've got an army out there in Alaska of militia people. You've got these guys going around acting like street thugs. I mean it isn't far from what we saw in the thirties, where all of a sudden, political parties started showing up in uniform."
"[Sharron Angle] is a moron on top of being evil...
I'd like to see her do this ad in the South Bronx. Come here, bitch. Come to New York and do it. I'm not praying for her. She's going to hell. She's going to hell, this bitch."
"So people have been hurting and I understand that. And it doesn't give them comfort or solace for me to tell them, you know, but for me, we'd be in a worldwide depression."
"And to play Dick Cheney, all I had to do was find my Dick Cheney. And you can find all the villainy in the world in your own heart, and that's what an actor's job is. I always say to kids, inside you is Hitler and Jesus. And you got to find the appropriate person and bring them out."
"Because I live in the District of Columbia which is so predominantly Democratic, I am a registered Democrat. But I am an avowed neutral. And to put that into practice, I take my young daughter into the voting booth and she votes for me. She's now 14. We've been doing this since she was about age 4. She's now quite informed."
"Sarah Palin's an idiot. Come on. This is a remarkably, stunningly, jaw-droppingly incompetent and mean woman."
"The Democrats may have moved into the center, but the Republicans have moved into a mental institution."
--AARON SORKIN
"Perhaps the greatest threat of all is the undermining of our Constitution and the systematic attack against the inalienable rights of the citizens of this nation, rights that are guaranteed by our Constitution. At the vanguard of this insidious attack is the Tea Party. This band of misguided citizens is moving perilously close to achieving villainous ends."
"Ah, the Tea Party, the nativist bed-wetters who somehow control our national dialogue. Yes, I call them the Pee Party, Jay, because they're always peeing in their pants about something. They're just, they're afraid of a mosque being built in New York. They're afraid of guns. You know, they think Obama, who like every other pussy Democrat has never said a single word about gun control, but they are very sure that he and his Negro army are coming after their guns.
You know what? If you think that he's coming after your guns, you need to get out of your chat room and have your house tested for lead. He's not coming after your guns or your Bible or your fishing pole or your chewing tobacco."
"That's a trade-off society is making because of very, very high medical costs, and a lack of willingness to say, you know, is spending a million dollars on that last three months of life for that patient, would it be better not to lay off those ten teachers and to make that trade-off in medical costs. But that;s called the 'Death Panel' and you're not supposed to have that discussion."
"[If Rush Limbaugh suffered a heart attack in my presence, I would] laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out. I never knew I had this much hate in me. But he deserves it."
--SARAH SPITZ
"You want freedom, you going to have to kill some crackers. You going to have to kill some of their babies."
"If this was Texas, which is the state that, that is directly on the border with Mexico, and they were calling for a measure like this, saying that they had a major issue with, you know, with undocumented people flooding their borders, I would say I would have to look twice at this.
"But this is a state that is a ways removed from the border. And, um, it just, it doesn't make sense to me that when you google this subject, if you put in 'Arizona S.B. 1070,' that you see a picture of the governor of Arizona meeting with President Obama in May of 2010. If you have direct linkage to the president, there are already National Guard troops on the border in Arizona."
"Tell [the Jews] to get the hell out of Palestine. Remember, these people are occupied and it's their land. It's not German. It's not Poland. [The Jews] can go home. Poland. Germany."
--HELEN THOMAS
"After the last eight years, it's good to have a president that knows what a library is."
--PAUL McCARTNEY
"By the way, I just want to point out I'm wearing my splash shield because I was told I was going to be in the splash zone (during Harry Smith's colonoscopy on live TV)."
--KATIE COURIC
"And that Word is, we have to give voice to what that means in terms of public policy that would be in keeping with the values of the Word."
----------------------------
"Think of an economy where people could be an artist or a photographer or a writer without worrying about keeping their day job in order to have health insurance or that people could start a business and be entrepreneurial and take risk, but not job loss because of a child with asthma or someone in the family is bipolar—you name it, any condition — is job-locking."
--NANCY PELOSI
"Back in World War II, we viewed the Japanese as 'yellow, slant-eyed dogs' that believed in different gods. They were out to kill us because our way of living was different. We, in turn, wanted to annihilate them because they were different. Does that sound familiar, by any chance, to what's going on today?"
--TOM HANKS
"The 'White Right' is trying to set Barack up to be assassinated.... Here are Christians praying for God to kill Barack Obama."
--LOUIS FARRAKHAN
"I refuse to accept the notion that the United States of America is not going to lead the world economically throughout the 20th Century."
--JOE BIDEN
"Obama's critics keep blasting him for Chicago-style politics. So, fine. Channel your inner Al Capone and go gangsta against your foes. Let 'em know that if they aren't with you, they are against you, and will pay the price."
--ROLAND MARTIN
"Martha Coakley is running to fill the rest of Ted Kennedy's term, and her opponent is a far-right tea-bagger Republican."
--CHUCK SCHUMER
"I tell you what, if I lived in Massachusetts, I'd try to vote ten times. I don't know if they'd let me or not, but I'd try to. Yeah, that's right, I'd cheat to keep these bastards out. I would. 'Cause that's exactly what they are."
--ED SCHULTZ
"We also see how revved up the tea baggers are at the thought of hijacking health care reform and every chance we have at making progress in Washington."
--JOHN KERRY
"A few years ago, this guy (Obama) would have been getting us coffee."
--BILL CLINTON
"I didn't realize I had written a column defending Roman Polanski and minimized his crime - are you sure it was me? I mean, I? There is, apparently, more to this crime than it would seem, and it may sound like a hollow defense, but in Hollywood I am not sure a 13-year-old is really a 13-year-old."
--TOM SHALES
"Joe Wilson yelled 'You lie!' at a president who didn't. But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"
--MAUREEN DOWD
"One awkward moment for Sarah Palin at the Yankee game... During the 7th inning, her daughter was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez."
--DAVID LETTERMAN
"I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life."
--SONIA SOTOMAYOR
"We all considered sexual abuse of minors as a moral evil, but had no understanding of its criminal nature."
--REMBERT WEAKLAND, Archbishop of Milwaukee 1977- 2002
"You know, you might want to look into this, [President Obama], because I think maybe Rush Limbaugh was the 20th hijacker, but he was so strung out on Oxycontin he missed his flight."
"Rush Limbaugh -- 'I hope the country fails.' I hope his kidneys fail."
----------------------------
"[Obama] told me I did a great job. The first lady said the same thing. I got a 'well done' from the president, I'm on cloud nine."
--WANDA SYKES
"Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less."
--COLIN POWELL
"[Tea Party goers are] just a bunch of wimpy, whiny, weasels who don't love their country."
--PAUL BEGALA
"I wouldn't want [gay marriage] to go to the United States Supreme Court now because that homophobe Antonin Scalia has too many votes on this current court."
--BARNEY FRANK
"Going forward, my mind will be open to every solution -- except one. We should not -- we must not -- and I will not -- raise taxes."
--JIM DOYLE, Liar
"He's a terrorist. Rush Limbaugh is a terrorist."
--JOY BEHAR
"You know, I just want to say to her (Sarah Palin), just very quickly...F--- you."
--JON STEWART
"Should I be worried about being a slave and being returned to slavery?"
--WHOOPI GOLDBERG
"I also believe that America is the greatest sin against God."
--FR. MICHAEL PFLEGER
"Those who think they can revive the stinking corpse of the usurping and fake Israeli regime by throwing a birthday party are seriously mistaken. Today the reason for the Zionist regime's existence is questioned, and this regime is on its way to annihilation."
--MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD
"We'll be eight degrees hotter in ten, not ten but 30 or 40 years and basically none of the crops will grow. Most of the people will have died and the rest of us will be cannibals."
--TED TURNER
"Look, [Mitt] Romney comes from a religion founded by a criminal who was anti-American, pro-slavery, and a rapist. And he comes from that lineage and says, 'I respect this religion fully.'"
--LAWRENCE O'DONNELL
"Mexico does not end at its borders... Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."
--FELIPE CALDERON
"The planet has a fever. If your baby has a fever, you go to the doctor. If the doctor says you need to intervene here, you don't say, 'Well, I read a science fiction novel that told me it's not a problem.' If the crib's on fire, you don't speculate that the baby is flame retardant."
--AL GORE
"Don't fear the terrorists. They're mothers and fathers."
--ROSIE O'DONNELL
"Is America ready for a black president? Well, I say we just had a retarded one. When did being black become a bigger deterrent than being retarded?"
--CHRIS ROCK
"Shut the f--- up! Shut up if you can't take a joke [about President Bush]!"
--BARBRA STREISAND
"Right, oh, yeah, Happy 9/11! Celebrate the day, right?"
--JAMES BROLIN, Mr. Barbra Streisand
"I think President Bush very well may have signed an authorization for the 9/11 attacks."
--KEVIN BARRETT, UW-MADISON Lecturer
"I said what I said. I am not guilty."
--SADDAM HUSSEIN
"Terri will not be starved to death. Her nutrition and hydration will be taken away."
--MICHAEL SCHIAVO
"On the eve of the election last month my wife Judith and I were driving home late in the afternoon and turned on the radio for the traffic and weather. What we instantly got was a freak show of political pornography: lies, distortions, and half-truths -- half-truths being perhaps the blackest of all lies. "
--BILL MOYERS
"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for."
--HOWARD DEAN
"The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win."
--MICHAEL MOORE
"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs."
"I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president."
--HILLARY CLINTON
"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is."
--BILL CLINTON
"And let me tell you something -- for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment."
--MICHELLE OBAMA
"If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor, makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor."
"[F]or most of my lifetime, the United States was such a dominant economic power, we were such a large market, our industry, our technology, our manufacturing was so significant that we always met the rest of the world economically on our terms. And now, because of the incredible rise of India and China and Brazil and other countries, the United States remains the largest economic and the largest market but there’s real competition out there. And that's potentially healthy. It makes -- Michelle was saying earlier I like tough questions because it keeps me on my toes. Well, this will keep America on its toes."
----------------------------
"If Latinos sit out the election instead of saying, 'We're gonna PUNISH OUR ENEMIES and we're gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us,' if they don't see that kind of upsurge in voting in this election, then I think it's gonna be harder and that's why I think it's so important that people focus on voting on November 2."
----------------------------
"We don't mind the Republicans joining us. They can come for the ride, but THEY GOTTA SIT IN BACK."
----------------------------
"We can absorb a terrorist attack. We'll do everything we can to prevent it, but even a 9/11, even the biggest attack ever... we absorbed it and we are stronger."
"We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers so I know whose ass to kick."
----------------------------
"We're not trying to push financial reform because we begrudge success that's fairly earned. I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money. But, you know, part of the American way is, you know, you can just keep on making it if you’re providing a good product or you're providing good service. We don't want people to stop fulfilling the core responsibilities of the financial system to help grow the economy."
"It is a vital national security interest of the United States to reduce these conflicts because whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower, and when conflicts break out, one way or another we get pulled into them. And that ends up costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."
----------------------------
"But I -- I think that the most important thing for the public to understand is, we're not handling any of these cases any different than the Bush administration handled them all through 9/11."
----------------------------
"One such translator was an American of Haitian descent, representative of the extraordinary work that our men and women in uniform do all around the world -- Navy CORPSE-MAN Christian [sic] Brossard. And lying on a gurney aboard the USNS Comfort, a woman asked Christopher: 'Where do you come from? What country? After my operation,' she said, 'I will pray for that country.' And in Creole, CORPSE-MAN Brossard responded, 'Etazini.' The United States of America."
----------------------------
"I hear that Dr. Joe Medicine Crow was around, and so I want to give a shout-out to that Congressional Medal of Honor winner. It's good to see you."
"I am going to teach [my daughters] first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby."
----------------------------
"The reforms we seek would bring greater competition, choice, savings, and INEFFICIENCIES to our health care system."
----------------------------
"Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it."
--BARACK OBAMA
NOTEWORTHY QUOTATIONS
"In a word, freedom is ever new. It is a challenge held out to each generation, and it must constantly be won over for the cause of good.... [A] democracy without values can lose its very soul."
--POPE BENEDICT XVI
"When freedom does not have a purpose, when it does not wish to know anything about the rule of law engraved in the hearts of men and women, when it does not listen to the voice of conscience, it turns against humanity and society."
--POPE JOHN PAUL II
"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
--MOTHER TERESA
"To promote choice for its own sake is more akin to self-indulgence than self-determination. It is the philosophy of a pre-schooler in a candy shop."
--BRIAN POLLARD, M.D.
"The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people."
--MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
"The house we hope to build is not for my generation but for yours. It is your future that matters. And I hope that when you are my age, you will be able to say as I have been able to say: We lived in freedom. We lived lives that were a statement, not an apology."
--RONALD REAGAN
"Liberalism is the philosophy of the stupid."
--MARK LEVIN
"We are Warriors forever."
--BO ELLIS
"I know how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich, you know."