As some of our commentors have noticed: according to Princeton Township Police, Nava has admitted to fabricating the story. Nava apparently sent the threatening emails to himself (and others). Whether there's more to it remains to be seen. Maybe he fabricated the concussion too.
Many on this blog and others have expressed concerns that Nava's attack was not made publicized enough. Although I agree that students and other campus-goers need to be informed, this case has demonstrated the necessity of waiting until all the facts are in.
Monday, December 17, 2007
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28 comments:
Yes, but complete silence on behalf of the university hardly seems to be the answer.
A simple ambiguous statement, to the effect "A student was apparently attacked at this date and time and place. The University/Public Saftey/Princeton Police is currently investigating the matter further. Further information will be distributed as the case develops. In the meantime, students are reminded to be vigilant," or whatever.
We were all duped. I look back at my previous post and wished I hadn't rushed to conclusions, but viewed the situation with its proper skepticism. The administration, Public Safety, and -not to mention- several conservative and Christian groups on campus should be commended for handling this whole incident properly, by not generating too much noise and waiting for all the facts to emerge before speaking out.
This may sound strange at first, but we still need to continue showing our support for Nava. He is the true victim in all this, and he needs all the help and encouragement he can get.
stephen, i agree that nava certainly needs the compassion, help, and support of the community to get himself to the point where he can be a smart, righteous human being again who doesn't feel the need to make up lies to get attention... but how is he the "true victim"? nobody victimized him.
Anonymous, you're right. It depends on how you define 'victim' -- could Nava be both a victim and a perpetrator, or do those labels not apply in this case? By 'true victim' I implied that he was a victim of himself, and I can't think of a more troubled state -- but I'd like to hear your thoughts.
Stephen,
You're only human, and to all eyes you made a rational analysis of the situation with the information given to you.
As to Nava, I'm not sure he's the victim, but clearly, if he was willing to go to such elaborate lengths and hurt himself so badly, then he probably needs some serious psychological help. Lets hope that he can soon be on his way to a full recovery.
I actually think he is the opposite of a victim--whatever harm he has suffered has been self-inflicted and entirely within his own control. "Victim" implies being subject to outside forces, and while I doubt any of us can truly understand what he was thinking, I doubt he is so disturbed as to not recognize the wrongness of his own actions. He certainly needs help, but I am hesitant to offer support to someone so morally misguided as to fabricate such a series of events.
I don't know Francisco Nava and I vehemently disagree with his politics, but I agree that we need to show him love and compassion.
Wow, very wtf.
At the same time, the earlier points still stand. As Martha notes, a Public Safety e-mail would still have been a good move if there was a chance of violent thugs running around. And likewise, the Duke and Columbia folks had no problem giving a same-day response.
Francisco Nava is obviously a very troubled person, but I think the real victims in this case are the other Anscombe Society members to whom he sent fake death threats. I would feel more sympathy for Nava had he not chosen to further his hoax by threatening and frightening the very people who had supported him.
i agree with gs. not to mention the possibility that people will see this as a poor reflection on anscombe/conservatives in general, when it is really just one individual's unfortunate decisions.
Many descriptions of Mr Nava come to my mind, but victim is definitely not one of them.
I am not a member of the Anscombe Society and disagree with many of their positions. I am, however, glad they're active on campus and have found their events and arguments intellectually stimulating - even when I disagreed -, and hope the reprehensible actions of one disturbed individual will not reflect badly on the organization, or on socially conservative students in general.
I know Mr. Nava as an acquaintance and my first instinct is to be even more worried about him than before. What state of mind must he have been in over the last few weeks to come to this point, and how could he have hidden it so well from us? I really hope he recovers well, both in terms of repercussions from this affair and whatever emotional or psychological matters he's been battling with. I didn't agree with the political stances of Anscombe, but I still respected him greatly as a peer and as a friend.
What a nutcase.
It's appropriate that these events not reflect badly on Anscombe. Just as, had the events been true, they should not have reflected badly on ideological progressives. There are nuts in every camp.
Who's guilty here?:
(1) Nava for lying, harming his friends and himself, drawing negative attention to this university, etc.
(2) The Admissions Committee for deciding that a guy who scrawled "die [anti-gay slur]" across his own door at Groton was good enough and mentally stable enough to come to Princeton compared to the hundreds of other qualified candidates. His family must be loaded.
I didn't know whether to believe the story or not at first. On the one hand people giving themselves a concussion is not very plausible, on the other it's quite a coincidence that the guy had faked a hate crime in the past.
It is strange to call him a victim, however troubled he may be. He not only threatened with harm and death people who supported him and his views (as some have mentioned), his goal was to create a backlash against liberals at Princeton, so that conservatives all over the country would decry the brown shirted left of Princeton. If he had gotten away with this he would have brought ridicule and blame upon a lot of people who don't deserve it, similar to the way athletes and coaches who had nothing to do with the alleged attack at Duke were wrongly denounced or embarrassed in that case.
Nava is no victim -- he filed a false police report, he sent threatening messages to other students and a professor, and, in doing so, casted doubt as to the person whose name he used for his bogus email address.
He also attempted to create political/group conflict with this whole stunt.
What a scumbag.
Francisco needs all our support right now. He is not deliberately, or at least not normally, someone who would do something like this. In all other interactions that I've seen him in, he's the nicest guy in the world. He's obviously suffering from severe emotional problems right now.
"In the meantime, Nava was being transported to the campus health center to have his jaw examined. On the way, he saw someone wearing a stocking cap like the one worn by one of his assailants and called out to his security guard to “get that guy’s name”—thinking that this was the perpetrator"
this "victim" identified a stranger to be singled out by the police...!
Victim? Nava is a real creep. As someone previously pointed out, he tried to start a nasty culture war at Princeton and bring great shame to the institution just to advance his politics. This story is now getting some national coverage and it's not exactly the kind Nava was hoping for.
What a pooskeeker.
Most likely diagnosis: Factitious disorder/Munchausen's disorder.
This story is fairly disgusting and testifies to the ridiculousness of campus conservative victimology. Conservatives aren't oppressed on America's campuses, and especially not as Princeton- but boy, they'll go to any lengths to make up stories that they are! And to top it all off, that the culprit here is a member of those holier-than-thous at the Anscombe Society, who are always preaching how moral they are and how we should all adopt their well-it-was-hot-in-the-Inquisition views on sexuality is really rich. These cultural fascists are real joksters if you ask me.
p'08: please keep things in perspective, and don't lash out against against an entire group. this disturbed individual represents only himself, not social conservatives as a group or an ideology. don't know much about the anscombe society, but i don't think he even represents them in any real sense.
Nava a right-wing liar? Maybe he should just drop out of Princeton and go work for the Bush administration. He'd fit right in.
I second 9:30 pm. Nava was clearly trying to bring down a national jihad against liberals at Princeton, and some conservatives do have a bizarre sense of victimhood, but the Anscombe Society is not to blame. Some of them believed his story, but they also withheld their righteous indignation until all the questions were resolved. This episode may be an indictment of some conservative bloggers and other right-wing nuts around the country who jumped to conclusions, but not of the conservatives at Princeton in general.
Many on this blog and others have expressed concerns that Nava's attack was not made publicized enough. Although I agree that students and other campus-goers need to be informed, this case has demonstrated the necessity of waiting until all the facts are in.
Is this as close as you can get to an apology for all the sly allegations against liberal groups the articles and the commentors have made?
Dude! nava is need of some major pscyho-help. this guy obviously has WAY too much going on in his personal life. i hope they send him straight to the shrink. this guy was in one of my precepts. he was very funny and was actually the one person I listened to...he made more sense than the instructor! he's also super polite; this just seems so out of character. princeton ought to be the place where students don't resort to this kind of stuff. it's too bad such a cool guy had to lose it here. but knowing him, i'm sure he'll do awesome wherever he goes. the guy is smart, even by Princeton standards. but it does suck to be him right now...
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