Barnard student stabbed to death

[Anonymous]

Poor family, now they are going to have to hear her character disparaged.

The school and the police (putting aside larger issues of disadvantage) seem more and more at fault. Teens are recruited by Columbia from a wide range of locales, put in a dangerous environment, and not armed with the knowledge they would need to protect themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Wow, that is incredibly tone deaf. And somewhat disgusting.

Keep on advocating for that restorative justice. Surely it will work miracles.

Franke is pure ivory tower. She's queer but she writes about how the legalization of gay marriage could ruin gay culture. So she's not very practically minded, one could say. The fact that she is at least willing to admit that Morningside Park crime happens, scared her, and changed her behavior, is actually pretty huge for her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The drug detail comes from the dead gal's own roommate. You think the NYPD is lying about what the roommate told them?

why would NYPD leak it?

based on what I've read, the recent crop of Columbia students has no idea about crime in Morningside Park. So the fact that she went there to buy weed has 0 to do with anything. I got a ticket there once for drinking a beer during a picnic - so did I deserve to be murdered?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Wow, that is incredibly tone deaf. And somewhat disgusting.

Keep on advocating for that restorative justice. Surely it will work miracles.

Franke is pure ivory tower. She's queer but she writes about how the legalization of gay marriage could ruin gay culture. So she's not very practically minded, one could say. The fact that she is at least willing to admit that Morningside Park crime happens, scared her, and changed her behavior, is actually pretty huge for her.

Went to Columbia for grad school and that university won’t get another dime from me as long as Franke is there. What an imbecile.