Barnard student stabbed to death

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12/15/2019 12:26

Subject: Barnard student stabbed to death

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:Professor Katherine Franke
December 13 at 9:08 AM

It is a horrible, horrible thing that Tessa Majors was stabbed to death in Morningside Park. Just horrible. Yet, this whole thing just reeks of Columbia's uncomfortable relationship with Harlem and our failure to address urban violence with anything other than policing. I used to walk through that park every day to and from work, but about a year and a half ago I noticed more and more drug-related activity, and groups of young kids following me through the park. I started taking another route to work. There were also reports of increased muggings and robberies - often committed by 12 and 13 year old kids (https://www.westsiderag.com/…/sucker-punch-attacks-in-morni…).

Last April, Bob Lederer, a long-time LGBT and AIDS activist was attacked and beaten at 4:30 in the afternoon in Morningside Park. He spent 8 days in the hospital with a traumatic brain injury. Activists in the community were concerned about this, but wanted to explore alternatives to police-related, carceral, responses to the safety issues in the park - especially since it was young kinds who were suspected of these muggings/robberies. They had a restorative justice approach to the issue, not a demand for more cops, (see Street Corner Resources, https://www.facebook.com/StreetCornerRes), but have had trouble getting the City or the Community Board to help, so the problem persisted with few efforts to address the problem of safety in the park.

Meanwhile Columbia did nothing. Didn't notify the Columbia community of an increase in violence in Morningside Park, so new members of the community like Tessa would be on alert. Didn't reach out to the community groups that were addressing safety issues in the park. Just kept public safety officers in a booth at the top of the park, but their job really focused west, toward the campus, not east, toward the park. Columbia has sufficient resources and will to annex most of West Harlem above 125th Street, but has long had difficulty with its relationship facing Morningside Park. It's worth noting that Tessa died almost on President Bollinger's doorstep.
Now they've arrested and charged a 13 year old boy in connection with Tessa's murder. The police say he confessed to the crime. But it's hard not to be reminded of the Central Park Five - did he have an attorney with him when he "confessed". News reports indicate that his aunt appeared with him, not an attorney. Apparently the police knew the identities of the 12 - 15 year old kids who were behind a string of muggings in the park - so they knew where to find this boy. But it just feels like something is terribly broken here. These are all kids, Tessa and the kids in the park. It's all just so heartbreaking. We have failed them all.

As first steps, Columbia may want to do two things: be sure that the 13 year old charged in this murder has effective counsel; and reach out to Street Corner Resources (the community restorative justice group) to develop a process for community healing that isn't limited to the Columbia campus, but to the entire community.

Another leftist nutjob trying to reconcile "social justice" with a murder. If Tessa had just been kicked around a bit and ended up in a hospital and not dead, there would be more of these people clamoring to let the "children" go. The boys are trouble makers and should have been dealt with long ago. Period. We have failed Tessa. The boys parents failed the boys. Put yourself in Tessa's parents' shoes. Meditate on that for an hours and then come back with your opinions.