SIAP: Druskinis booted from Michigan hockey team after being caught on camera spraypainting swastikas and homophobic slurs onto the University Jewish Resource Center

Submitted by Toby Flenderson on October 3rd, 2023 at 9:59 AM

https://x.com/StopAntisemites/status/1708125586093207692?s=20
 

Michigan lacrosse player Megan Minturn also participated in the vandalism, but is so far only suspended and not kicked off her team.  I'm not sure how either is even still allowed to attend the school.  Unless Michigan has to go through some formal process to officially expel them, it's a complete failure by the University to allow them to still attend.

Denard In Space

October 3rd, 2023 at 12:40 PM ^

You can see who's changed your points by clicking on your username in the top right section of the page, and then going to the "points" tab in the next page. I have done so for years, keeping receipts on everyone who has either praised or harmed me, while holding my hand close above a candle flame. May your foe be revealed and your vengeance be swift. 

Kapitan Howard

October 3rd, 2023 at 2:08 PM ^

I remember how I learned you can see that! I negged a comment I didn't care for and someone was like "who negged this?!" A third person told them it was me and explained how to check the points. The original person I negged had gone and negged a few of my comments, which amused me a little because it was back when I didn't comment anywhere near as much as I do now. I still remember who it was because the star by their name is easy to spot.

Amazinblu

October 3rd, 2023 at 10:14 AM ^

In any definition, this is absolutely unacceptable behavior.   

They could have painted The Rock in tie dye colors - and no one would have noticed, or cared.

Their understanding, conscious, motivation, and actions are beyond me.

As for expulsion from the University, there's going to be a process and review before a determination / decision is reached.   Based on what's been written, it seems like a formality.

Hensons Mobile…

October 3rd, 2023 at 11:19 AM ^

I just want to make sure I have this right:

First of all, the news is he was kicked off the team, not expelled from school, although I imagine expulsion is on the table.

But putting that aside, you believe expulsion for swastikas and gay slurs at a Jewish Resource Center is a surprising punishment at a modern university, but when it turns out it's just gay slurs then it makes sense?

jsimms

October 3rd, 2023 at 1:49 PM ^

i agree that the current punishment is expulsion from the team only-------i meant to use the word "could" with the word expelled in the sense of "might" [which allows for "might not"]--------apologies for not being more precise

but i also strongly suggest that michigan is far less attentive to an anti-social behavior such as antisemitism when compared to its response toward other hateful behaviors such as prejudice against gays 

anyway-----given the latest i have heard it may be impossible to know from this case whether i am wrong or not

 

 

Hensons Mobile…

October 3rd, 2023 at 2:15 PM ^

but i also strongly suggest that michigan is far less attentive to an anti-social behavior such as antisemitism when compared to its response toward other hateful behaviors such as prejudice against gays 

I am now understanding this as your perception of how Michigan handles anti-semitism versus anti-gay offenses, which is not how I read your initial reply.

On that particular belief, I don't know enough to offer a meaningful opinion, but thank you for clarifying.

bacon1431

October 3rd, 2023 at 10:26 AM ^

You'd think this would have happened at night. Surprised to watch the video and see it in broad daylight. You'd hope someone would publicly call them out on it, but I'm sure some just weren't paying attention to what they were spraypainting. But from personal experience of someone saying the n word at my parent's neighbor's house when we were over for a bonfire, sometimes you're just shell shocked by what you see/hear and freeze. 

Kapitan Howard

October 3rd, 2023 at 10:49 AM ^

I was working somewhere around 100 yards from a police department on a major road and at 4PM in the middle of summer, some guy in a pickup truck wearing an orange vest took a sledgehammer to the sign out front. He would have to try pretty hard to be more conspicuous, and my point is I don't think regular people are going to risk their safety by stopping someone from behaving ridiculously.

Hensons Mobile…

October 3rd, 2023 at 11:30 AM ^

https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/watch-ann-arbor-police-release-video-of-suspects-defacing-jewish-resource-center-grounds/

They made it public a while ago to get help from the community in identifying them.

When I watch the video, to me it looks like there are just a handful of passersby who don't even look at the drunk kids spray painting on the sidewalk. I am outraged at the vandals but feel it hard to muster any outrage about the people walking by. Maybe I'm missing a different piece of the video.

LAmichigan

October 3rd, 2023 at 10:37 AM ^

Spray-painting gay slurs is not acceptable in its own right, but HOW DID swastikas ever make it into this story?  That's a different level of hate.  

jhayes1189

October 3rd, 2023 at 12:34 PM ^

We also know that the initial writer of the story is trying to make him into a nazi-sympathizer because they lied about spray painting swastikas. That is bad, like really bad. 
 

How people refuse to see that lying about this in a public sphere or the media gives this guy leverage in a defamation lawsuit is beyond me. 
 

All it does it turn the victimizer (the vandilazer homophobe) into a victim, whether he meant to spray it at Jewish Center or not. 
 

Calling someone a neo-nazi Hitler sympathizer is a life sentence in the public opinion department unless he wants shut himself off from society to go live it up with Neo-Nazis the rest of his life, which I’m sure he doesn’t. 
 

The focus should be on the guys homophobia and vandalism of a Jewish Center, and that’s all awful enough what he did, but to add the other is absolutely journalism malpractice. 

evenyoubrutus

October 3rd, 2023 at 1:20 PM ^

If you want, I'll happily write you a sermon about how scripture prophesies that there will be a rise in antisemitism in the last days preceding the day of judgment. If you want to go down that rabbit hole it's a scary place. I have several tattoos in Hebrew and I've experienced confrontations because of them despite the fact that I'm not Jewish. Antisemitism is real and it's getting worse. I'm also hyper sensitive to dog piling, so forgive me if I ever come off as callous. It's not my intention.

jhayes1189

October 3rd, 2023 at 12:09 PM ^

Agreed here, there seems to be, as per usual, more to the story. 
 

For one, they sound like they were drunk, and probably didn’t even know it was a Jewish resources center sidewalk, as sidewalk is usually just a public walkway. None of this is an excuse for vandalism or the gay slur stuff, but to instantly go to Swastikas and for people to plaster it on Twitter as fact is the sad state of the media world we live in. 
 

For decades now, the mention of this guys name will now be one in the same with neo-nazi, Hitler sympathizer, etc. Even though the evidence clearly doesn’t show that, but because of sensationalized false reporting, everyone believes that’s what he is. Whoever the initial reporter of the Swastika story should also receive tons of public backlash for being a liar and pinning something on someone that could literally ruin them for life. 
 

The gay slur stuff and vandalism is bad enough, and he should get public reprimand and he should be liable to the consequences of his own actions on that front, especially being that he represents the University. 

jhayes1189

October 3rd, 2023 at 12:27 PM ^

This is up for debate, if they were drunk, it lessens the chance that they were thinking much about who’s sidewalk they were spraying, but it certainly could be intentionally there. 

But they are certainly full on idiots not only for vandalizing and spray painting slurs, but also total do it there. 

 

SalvatoreQuattro

October 3rd, 2023 at 10:39 AM ^

At my step-grandmother’s funeral in 2003 her brother in law made some antisemitic remarks. He fought on D-Day. I’ll never forget that as long as I live. Here was a guy who fought actual Nazis and he still hated Jews.

HighBeta

October 3rd, 2023 at 11:31 AM ^

First exposure to antisemitism as a young boy: parents take us to a resort in NY that caters to the metro NYC Jewish community (in what was then called the Borscht Belt (aka the Yiddish Alps)). The owners are famous Jews, know their clientele - even the meals at the resort are Kosher. I must have been around 8 or 9. Having a nice week at the resort, meeting new people. Another kid and I are ice skating outside, just hanging out, being kids. Out of the blue he asks me: where are your horns? Under your hat? And does your tail fit under your parka?

As young and naive as I was, I had no idea what he was asking me. My parents were not amused, nor were the owners.

The Mad Hatter

October 3rd, 2023 at 11:39 AM ^

I'm surprised that you were surprised.  Most Americans wanted nothing to do with fighting that war until Pearl Harbor, and it would have been a hard sell for FDR to get a declaration of war against Germany without them declaring war first. 

People in general are tribal and bigoted.  It's buried deep in our DNA.  This person doesn't look, act, think, behave, etc like me, therefore they may be a threat.

Wendyk5

October 3rd, 2023 at 3:51 PM ^

In my grandparents' generation, universities had quotas for Jews. My grandfather and great uncle both went to the University of Chicago in the 1920's, as part of the quota. My great uncle played both baseball and basketball (captain of the team) under Fritz Crisler. He must've been a pretty good athlete if they let him in. But the "No Jews Allowed" thing still goes on, albeit very quietly.