Founded 1876 daily since 1892 online since 1998
Tuesday April 10, 2018 vol. CXLII no. 39
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Pride Alliance posters found torn down, ripped By Roberto Hasbun Contributor
On Friday, the Princeton Pride Alliance hung up 50 posters around campus to advertise an ice cream social for prospective Class of 2022 students visiting for Preview. Over the course of the weekend, however, the majority of the posters were torn or went missing. The purpose of the social was to help the admitted students feel welcome on campus and connect them with current students who are part of the LGBTQ+ community. Scooter Liapin ’20, president of the alliance, said that he noticed some of the posters he had hung up near Mathey Courtyard were missing on Saturday morning. On Sunday, a fellow Pride Alliance member noted that additional posters had been taken down or ripped.
“It’s quite the wake-up call to find out that there are still people on campus who oppose our mission to provide resources and security to the LGBTQ+ community here at Princeton,” Liapin said. “We understand that there are people, especially on this campus, who don’t think we have the right to exist happily and securely, let alone exist at all.” Christian Flores ’21, vice president of the Pride Alliance, said that he found two posters on the ground, one of which was ripped in half. “Regardless of the intention, it seems like they were trying to harm the queer community on campus, and would not look good on the pre-frosh,” Flores said. Flores is a contributing copy editor for The Daily Princetonian. “It is incredibly disappointing to hear about the destruction of our posters, especially as this event was
OVERLINE
meant to welcome prefrosh,” Anna Macknick ’21, who designed the posters, added. Eli Berman ’20 also expressed disappointment that the posters had been ripped down. “The ice cream social at my Preview was really important for me as a queer, non-binary trans student looking for LGBTQIA+ community in college,” Berman said. They added that prospective students should know that it’s not always easy to be LGBTQIA+ at the University, because the environment can sometimes feel unsupportive or even unsafe, but resources such as the LGBT Center can help students succeed and feel at home. “Know that there are LGBTQIA+ students at Princeton that are visible, proud, and thriving — we see you, we love you, and we welcome you into our community,” Berman said. LOCAL NEWS
COURTESY OF ARLENE CUERVO
Several flyers advertising the Pride Alliance’s ice cream social were discovered lying on campus.
ON CAMPUS
NJ European Heritage Panera Public Safety to investigate Association flyer posted gunman violation of privacy in near FitzRandolph Gate was armed Firestone men’s bathroom with BB gun By Claire Thornton Head News Editor
Head News Editor
COURTESY OF DEVIN KILPATRICK
A poster advertising a white supremacist group was found near campus.
By Audrey Spensley Associate News Editor
A poster referring to “The White Race” as “Earth’s Most Endangered Species” was found on a lamppost outside FitzRandolph Gate on Monday. The underlined words “Help preserve it” were printed beneath a large picture of a mother holding a baby, followed by contact information for a white supremacist organization called the New Jersey European Heritage Association. Devin Kilpatrick ’19 noticed the f lyer at about 2:30 p.m. He notified a Public Safety officer, who stated that he would file a report. A picture of the f lyer was also posted on the organization’s website along with images of other posters reading, “We Must Secure the Existence of our People and a Future for White Children.”
The website also states that the group aims to publicize itself through “f lyering, banner drops, f lash protest, and various other mediums.” Kilpatrick noted that the timing of the poster coincided with Princeton Preview, when hundreds of prospective students are visiting campus. “I know things like this have happened in the past and I wondered if this was a stunt for Preview,” he said. Two anonymous f lyers advertising a mock course at the University, “Introduction to White Studies: White Guilt and Reparations,” were found posted on campus on Dec. 4, 2017. The Department of Public Safety and the New Jersey European Heritage Association could not be reached for comment at the time of publication.
The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office has released surveillance videos showing that the late Scott Mielentz, who was killed by state police officers at the Panera Bread at 136 Nassau St. on March 20, was armed with a black Crosman PFM BB Pistol. Computer-Aided Dispatch reports released with the video show that at 10:28 a.m. on March 20, the Princeton Police Department received a call from a man reporting “there’s a guy with a gun at Panera.” The pistol in Mielentz’s hand was later determined to have actually been a BB pistol. The video, which was published in Planet Princeton, shows state police officers engaged in a standoff with Mielentz from behind Panera’s trash and recycle depositories. Troopers were armed with M4 rif les, according to Planet Princeton. The standoff lasted five hours. The video shows that at approximately 2:54 p.m., two members of the New Jersey State Police Technical Emergency and Mission Specialists Unit fired at Mielentz, striking him in the head and torso. The video also shows that immediately before state police fired, Mielentz raised his BB gun towards them. The New Jersey Attorney General’s Office is investigating the use of deadly force by police.
On Sunday, April 8, there were two reported incidents of an individual using a cell phone to take pictures of male students while they were in bathroom stalls in Firestone Library. The first reported incident occurred at approximately 7:50 p.m. in the men’s bathroom on the A f loor, and the second reported incident occurred at approximately 8:30 p.m. in the men’s bathroom on the first f loor, according to the Department of Public Safety’s email alert. OVERLINE
Panel discusses military in the age of information By Isabel Ting Assistant News Editor
The University invited prominent figures from the military, computer, journalism, and social science fields to speak about the defense tactics that United States should employ in the social media age at a day-long forum on Saturday, April 7. The first panel, moderated by Mara Liasson from National Public Radio, focused on the foreign policy and military challenges of weaponized information. The second, moderated by Carol Giacomo from The New York Times, dealt with the technological challenges of weaponized information. The third, moderated by Jim Rutenberg from The New York Times, posed the following question: how can we defend America’s democracy from attacks rendered through disinformation,
In Opinion
Today on Campus
Contributing columnist Gabriel Lipkowitz defends the School of Architecture’s controversial design, while columnist Sinan Ozbay argues that we should hear out those with whom we disagree. PAGE 6
5:30 p.m.: A performance by the acclaimed Chilean artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña and the Colombian composer Ricardo Gallo. Reservations required. Art Museum
See FIRESTONE page 3
propaganda, and other digital information interference? Panelists included R. David Edelman, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former member of the White House National Security Council; Terrell McSweeny, from the Federal Trade Commission; Philip M. Napoli, from Duke University; Lieutenant General Robert Schmidle, formerly with the United States Cyber Command; and Rand Waltzman, from the RAND Corporation. “We need more humans involved in the governance of technology [because] we don’t have humans minding the technology they’re putting out,” McSweeny argued. She acknowledged that while there have been conversations about privacy and security, there needs to be more dialogue surrounding See PANEL page 4
WEATHER
By Claire Thonton
The Department of Public Safety is considering the situation as on ongoing threat to the health and safety of University student and employees, and sent out a campus-wide email alert on Monday, April 9, at 11:10 a.m. “Public Safety will do its best to find the perpetrator or perpetrators,” Assistant Vice President for Communications Dan Day told The Daily Princetonian in an interview on Monday. The incident is being investigated as an invasion of privacy crime. According to Day, it is not
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