[NU Sports] RE: Brandon Lee and student-on-student crimes

[John Labbe]

1) I tend to agree with Dennis on this one, although I wouldn't necessarily be as harsh about the analysis.  But the point is that DUI is a misdemeanor, while credit card fraud is a serious felony.  It also exhibits a lack of honesty and trustworthiness, which is not what you're looking for in a student athlete.  From the reports, Brandon Lee also commited numerous burglaries and stole big-ticket items such as laptops; this wasn't just petty thievery.

I don't want to see an NU athlete featured in one of those public-interest segments during a game where they're explaining how bad he used to be, but now he's cleaned up his act.  This year I saw one of those segments about a football player who had raped another student, but hey, he was now pretty good football player.  Of course, we never heard from the girl he raped.  Lee didn't rape anybody, but it's a slippery slope if you let one guy back.  I think committing felonies on campus is a pretty good reason to expell someone and not take them back.

2) Why do we keep talking about Bernadine Dohrn on this list?  What the heck does she have to to with Northwestern athletics?  Apparently, the argument is that if the university could hire her, then the university can and should do all kinds of other things that it shouldn't do.  What the heck kind of reasoning is that?

John


On Friday, February 09, 2007, at 09:10AM, "Dennis W. Brandt" <tbng at comcast.net> wrote:
>> The issue is one of forgiveness. . .  Let's see how NU handles the McGee 
>> DUI situation.  Doesn't the same
>> standard apply at a minimum?
>
>No, it doesn't.  McGee broke no law in drinking or even drinking to excess. 
>He tripped over the line only when he backed his car out of the parking 
>space.  Should he do it a second time. . . well, maybe East Stroudsburg 
>State will need a coach just out of rehab.  Lee, on the other hand, broke 
>the law the moment he broke into someone else's property, the moment he 
>touched those credit cards, much less used them fraudulently, and the moment 
>illegal drugs touched his hands.  Is he sorry?  I'm damn sure he is.  And 
>ashamed, no doubt - finally.  The possibility of shame obviously afforded no 
>behavioral barrier beforehand.  Maybe if he had been brought up in a society 
>that still allowed moral judgments and resulting small shames to be part of 
>life's learning process he would not have been so undisciplined and 
>self-centered as to turn to criminal activity in his quest for instant 
>gratification.  I sincerely hope you learned your lesson, Brandon, and live 
>a near perfect life hereafter, but go be sorry at Illinois Central College. 
>
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