Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

Students face racial violence

21. September 2005 • Matt Hollerbach
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The Michigan Daily reports today on this shocking instance of racial intimidation:

The incident began when one of the suspects, a 21-year-old, allegedly urinated from a second-floor balcony on two Asian students walking down the 600 block of South Forest Avenue Thursday night.

After the couple asked why they were being urinated on, the suspect and another student reportedly began to use racial slurs disparaging the couple’s Asian heritage.

The situation escalated, according to a police report, when at least one student began throwing items, which the couple suspected were eggs, at the couple.

One of the students was immediately taken into custody. The other student who urinated on the couple, barricaded himself in the apartment, which the police could not enter without a warrant.



  1. I’m neither a lawyer nor a police officer, but if the police had reason to believe that a suspect to an assault (which I would think urinating on someone would be) had barricaded himself in an apartment, then they could forcibly enter the apartment without a warrant.

    Can any lawyers or police officers out there verify what the law is?
       —H.S.    Sep. 22 '05 - 01:05AM    #
  2. for that matter, why couldn’t they get a warrant?
       —[libcat]    Sep. 22 '05 - 04:23AM    #
  3. Sounds like the act of craven cowards with high levels of insecurity.

    It also reminds me of what the dirty monkeys and gorillas do from behind the bars in the Detroit Zoo when they are bored.

    Perhaps these boneheads might learn something if they were given (among other things) the job of cleaning up the crap from the domino’s petting zoo for community service and be forced to pay high enough fines so that they cannot afford to get drunk and act so stupidly in the near future.

    Whatever happens, these ignorant fools are a very bad example of what you might find in a college town like Ann Arbor.

    Unfortunately, it IS a sign of the times.
       —Bear    Sep. 22 '05 - 02:37PM    #
  4. A terrible thing. Hope the perpetrators are punished.
    By the way, speaking of “racial (or other) violence”, let’s see if we can get UM to pledge to divest from Sudan. EVEN IF they’re totally clean of Sudan stocks right now, how do we know they’ll be tomorrow? ...And at least one divestment group says that even “clean” schools should take the pledge, to send a public message. Sounds good to me.
    (Maybe I’ll write Mark Dilley, too…)
       —David Boyle    Sep. 23 '05 - 01:20AM    #
  5. David:

    So it’s OK to push divestment from Sudan, on ArborUpdate?

    Great!

    I say divest from an occupying atomic superpower (Israel), which Uncle Sam has financed to the tune of at lwast $100 billion so far.
       —-Blaine. (Palestine)    Sep. 23 '05 - 02:17AM    #
  6. hm, who didn’t see that coming?
       —[libcat]    Sep. 23 '05 - 02:46AM    #
  7. Sudan is much worse, sorry. After Sudan, maybe other places.
    And there is much more world consensus about that (the “much worse” part), too.
       —David Boyle    Sep. 23 '05 - 03:07AM    #
  8. Perhaps these boneheads might learn something if they were given (among other things) the job of cleaning up the crap from the domino’s petting zoo for community service…

    That’s not too harsh a lesson, any kid who has grown up on a farm has done worse chores… But I know what is – a public urinator could also face indecent exposure charges if a prosecutor feels so inclined (as in a case such as this). I don’t have a law book open, but I think that’s up to 4 years imprisonment and a spot on the sex offenders list… Lesson learned.
       —FAA    Sep. 23 '05 - 03:42AM    #
  9. To be honest, I’m surprised there is not more attention being paid to this by the Daily, Ann Arbor News, etc. This was an extreme act of racial intolerance that has gone mostly ignored in my opinion. I hope the judge throws the book at those two assholes.
       —Bil    Sep. 23 '05 - 02:13PM    #
  10. Perhaps the two assholes could be required to spend an upcoming Saturday lying in one of the urinal troughs at the football stadium. I’d stand in line to get a shot at them.
       —Parking Structure Dude!    Sep. 23 '05 - 03:19PM    #