Unpunished vandalism rampage inspired by Rolling Stone’s U.Va. rape story

It turns out the UVA is a breeding ground for Leftists who think that violent attacks on people they don't like is admirable.

Yet finding a student willing to admit his or her role as well as eyewitnesses who saw the group conduct the attack was relatively easy for a Washington Times reporter who spent two days on campus. After all, a witness who found a cellphone at the scene he believed belonged to a perpetrator gave the device to police.

The witness, who spoke to The Times only on the condition of anonymity because of fears of retaliation, said the cellphone had a text message from a second person he believed also participated in the attack. “That was exhilarating,” the message said.

After finding witnesses, cellphone information and social media postings bragging about the attack, The Times tracked down a male student identified by witnesses as a possible leader of the attack. The student agreed to talk to The Times only on the condition that his name wasn’t published, saying he didn’t want police to find him.

The young man, the progeny of a privileged family, readily and unrepentantly admitted his role and described the attack his friends carried out in details that match police and eyewitness reports. He also said he knew his actions would be considered illegal.

“I texted one of my friends and I was like, ‘Let’s throw bottles at the Phi Psi house tonight,’ and she said, ‘Yes!’ I think that the article made it clear that victims at the university have no legitimate channels to take action, and I think vandalism is a completely legitimate form of action when like, legitimate authority is corrupt. I think it was justified,” he said in an interview with The Times.

Asked whether he believed the ends generally justified the means, he casually replied, “Sure.” He also said he is not opposed to “armed revolution” as a means to end what he termed “systemic oppression.”

The student said his group of friends sent an anonymous letter to various news organizations several hours after the attack warning that it was “just the beginning.” The letter threatened to “escalate and provoke until certain demands were met,” including “an immediate revision of university policy mandating expulsion as the only sanction for rape and sexual assault.”

Even Liberals like Alan Dershowitz are starting to worry:

The mentality on campus — including from the one student who claimed to have taken part in the attack — raises issues far beyond a single criminal act, analysts say.

Alan Dershowitz, one of the nation’s premier defense lawyers and a Harvard law professor, told The Times that university displays of double-standards in excusing violence from the political left and failing to punish activities such as attacks on fraternity houses can have dangerous consequences.

“Look at people like [Bill] Ayers and [Bernardine] Dohrn, who were violent radicals in the 1970s who now hold distinguished positions of respect [at universities]. It’s clearly a left-right issue. No one would reward the Ku Klux Klan decades after their acts of violence, but if violence is committed by the hard left, then it becomes acceptable in the academic context,” Mr. Dershowitz told The Washington Times.

Mr. Dershowitz also said the mentality expressed by the student who claims to have participated in the fraternity house attack also should raise alarm.

“It’s the notion of collective punishment; you punish an entire fraternity for the allegations of several people, and you take the law into your own hands, and it’s a total violation to the notion that punishment should be based on proof of individual guilt,” he said. “It’s become a mantra of the radical left, whether it’s about punishing all policemen for Ferguson or all fraternity persons for alleged rapes. It’s a road to lawlessness.

“That’s the argument the terrorists make,” he said. “That’s the argument that Hamas makes, that al Qaeda makes, and it’s the argument that some radical Weathermen made in the U.S. when they blew up universities in the 1970s. It’s the first baby step on the road to justifying terrorism.”

Many students on campus seemed apathetic to seeing the attackers brought to justice. One young woman who answered the front door of her sorority told The Times that she did not feel the fraternity attack was the right story to cover.

“I think the next important story is continuing to focus on the problem of sexual assault of young women on campuses, whether Jackie’s story is true or not,” she said.

Asked whether she felt it was important to consider the rights of the fraternity members and the violence inspired by the falsities published by Rolling Stone, she paused and said, “Well, I guess that’s true.”