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UPDATE: The Warrior, Marquette’s Independent News Source has confirmed the story with a player as well.

Yes It’s become official that Marquette’s Tom Crean is heading a few states east to take over the coaching position at Indiana.

And in response Marquette posted this at monster.com: Wanted: Over-paid and over-rated basketball coach to take over Marquette’s soon to be floundering program

Qualifications: Must be willing to accept top dollar to end season outside of top 25
Win 1-2 Big East Tournament Games and 1-2 NCAA tournament games ever 3-5 seasons.
Able to be a ‘big –time recruiter’ by recruiting under-developed 3 and 4 star guards, 2 star big men, and fill bench with unsuccessful 5’9’’ catch-and-shoot 3 point guards
Have odd affinity for Diet Pepsi
Must donate part of salary to other athletic teams to pretend to be with school for ‘long haul’
Be able to tolerate hack athletic director that has less knowledge of college basketball than 15 year old with latest XBOX 360 NCAA March Madness video game.

If the way we hired an AD is indicative of how we’ll find a coach here is your short list of replacements

Tim Buckley
Bennie Selzer
Buzz Williams
Jason Rabedeaux

Other likely candidates:
See Above
Fr. Andy Thon
Dwyane Wade

In all honesty I don’t blame Crean for leaving. He asked for an athletic director, we gave him a lawyer. He may or may not be better off (Ok he’ll be better off but for how long?). IU is a storied program in shambles right now. He could rebuild it, will he have the time to do it? As for Marquette: We are screwed…to the wall…royally. There is zero reason why we’ll be able to perform at all next year. A brand new coach, our best players about to leave, and a less than stellar foundation for the future is a great way to be excited for suck that will be next fall. (A suck so bad, I question if it’s worth buying tickets.) Hopefully MU fans can get excited about hanging an NIT Final Four banner up soon!

My sincerest apologies to Lazar (my favorite player) Wes (since I have your jersey) Jerel and Dom… we’re really gonna suck next season, no one will blame you if you want to leave too.

From the Chicago Tribune:

Six people were arrested at Holy Name parish’s auditorium Sunday after disrupting an Easter mass to protest the Iraq war.

The group—whose female and male members identified themselves as Catholic Schoolgirls Against the War—stood up at the beginning of Cardinal Francis George’s homily and shouted their opposition to the conflict, which marked its fifth anniversary last week. As security guards and ushers tried to remove them from the service, the demonstrators squirted fake blood on themselves and parishioners dressed in their Easter finery.

The red substance, which one protester later described as “stage blood,” initially drew gasps and a few terrified yelps from the 600 worshipers at the mass. The shock, however, quickly transformed into anger as people booed the six while they were escorted from the parish auditorium.

Here’s a video of the event:

Harak LOVES to be the center of attention at anti-war protests, particularly ones involving die-ins. He refused to reveal whether or not he was the inspiration for the anti-ROTC protest last Fall at Marquette.

Is the University ready for the publicity when this guy next cracks in the national news and Marquette’s name is tied up with it?

Thus sayeth the personal assistant to Barack Obama, via Hotline:

Obama’s campaign staff is competing in a $10 per person pool. Their picks? Bill Burton and Dan Pfeiffer both have Georgetown in the championship, but UCLA winning. Speechwriter Jon Favreau and Ben Finkenbinder have Kansas. Strategist David Axelrod and policy dir Heather Higginbottom picked UNC. And Obama Body Man Reggie Love has Duke, Louisville, Kansas, and Marquette in his final four (Wake-Up Call! reporting).

For those who think this is vain hoping, note that Reggie was previously a member of the 2005 ACC champion Duke Blue Devils.

The Warrior, Marquette’s Independent News Source has unveiled it’s new and improved website design in time for March Madness, the end of the school year and eventual graduation reminiscing.

Improvements include:
- Better search functionality
- Improved category management
- Most popular articles lists, comments and tags
- New ad spots (contact business@thewarrior.org if you’re interested)
- Better RSS feeds
- Email subscriptions are now available
- More pictures, better organization

They are still loading in all the the archives but, be sure to check it out!

Dr. McAdams blogged on an email the Marquette community received yesterday about new armed robberies from “early Friday morning”:

The Department of Public Safety apprehended five suspects within minutes of an armed robbery that occurred early Friday morning in the 2000 block of W. Wisconsin Avenue. The victim, a Marquette student, was approached by the suspects while walking alone and shown a weapon. The suspects took the victim’s personal possessions and fled on foot. The victim was not physically injured and immediately entered a nearby building to call Public Safety. Public Safety officers immediately responded and were able to catch the suspects. All five suspects are now in police custody. Milwaukee Police do not believe that this incident is related to any previous incident involving Marquette students.

I wonder when “early Friday morning” was. Good for the Department of Public Safety for responding quickly to the incident and seizing the suspects.

The incident and the email that includes a quick overview of Marquette’s security system reminds McAdams of previous efforts to counteract safety problems:

Back in the early 1990s, then Marquette President Albert DiUlio felt the need to deal with the perception that Marquette was a dangerous place, and did so by dumping millions of Marquette’s money into a program called “Campus Circle” — a redevelopment plan that made the area adjacent to Marquette more attractive at horrendous cost.

It seemed to “work,” or at least the bad publicity died down.

But in reality a campus near a dangerous area of a dangerous city is never going to be as safe as a campus in some bucolic rural area.

But the situation in Milwaukee is made worse by the rather lax attitude civic elites have toward law enforcement.

I’ll address this in a future post, but much of the problem with the response to these acts of violence is that Marquette, and to the limited extent to which the Milwaukee Police Department cares about student safety, engages in too much of what I call “symptom management,” something McAdams alludes to. There is too much effort spent trying to respond to the fact of the problem rather than trying to respond to the problem itself.

Relatedly, WISN, the best off-campus source for news about the kidnappings, has news (a video) about the beginning of the trial of Mark Nellum, one of the kidnappers, including testimony from two of the victims:

One of the men accused of kidnapping and robbing two Marquette University students will stand trial.

A judge made his decision after listening to testimony from the victims on Thursday.

They accused Mark Nellum of kidnapping them and then driving them around town and forcing them to withdraw money from automated teller machines.

Nellum faces eight charges including, armed robbery and false imprisonment.

Police are still looking to arrest a second person in the case. [Emphasis added]

Hopefully the police are somewhat close to finding the second kidnapping suspect.

By the way, we’re creating a new GOP3 category: “There is no crisis” in honor of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s inane comment about safety in the City of Milwaukee.

Linda Spice has the following on today’s NewsWatch:

Milwaukee police are seeking are seeking a suspect accused of kidnapping a woman on the city’s northwest side late Tuesday before he attempted to pull her between two buildings and assault her.

Police reported on Thursday that the woman was walking in the 6800 block of W. Appleton Ave. about 11:15 p.m. when the suspect grabbed her, pulled her between two apartment complexes, displayed a black handgun and demanded valuables. He then attempted to assault her, however, she bit him on the hand.

The suspect fled on foot to a parked car and drove off.

The suspect is wanted on kidnapping, armed robbery and attempted first degree sexual assault.

He is described as a black male, about 25 to 30 years of age, 170 to 180 pounds with a medium build, dark complexion and round face.

He was wearing a dark knit cap, dark waist-length winter jacket, dark pants and a gray sweater. He fled in a small older model vehicle, light blue or gray in color. Click the image above to see an enlarged version of the photo. [Emphasis added]

Does someone in Marquette’s Department of Public Safety or the Milwaukee Police Department want to explain to me why the above — dragging a woman from outside a building to between two buildings — is a kidnapping but forcing two Marquette students into a van at gunpoint and driving them around the City of Milwaukee is not kidnapping?

What the hell?

Instead, the Milwaukee Police Department charges one of the Marquette kidnapping suspects with “false imprisonment” and the gutless Administrators at Marquette University hazily refer to the kidnappings as “robberies” because, according to Russell Shaw at last week’s Safety Forum, we don’t want to “sensationalize” the event. By, like, you know, accruately describing it.

And people wonder why I loathe the Marquette bureaucracy.

From today’s MUSG E-List that just arrived in my email box:

Fr. Andy Thon, SJ. announces today that he will be stepping down from the Vice President for Student Affairs position at Marquette Univeristy. Marquette University Student Government would like to take the time to thank Fr. Andy for his nineteen years of service to this institution.

Fr. Andy will be beginning an administrative sabbatical in mid-June which will be focuesd on writing projects for the Jesuit Association of Student Personnel Administrators (JASPA). More specifically he will be revising and updating his initial mission The Ignation Perspective: The Role of Student Affairs in Jesuit Higher Education monograph.

Fr. Thon and I have clashed on some issues in the past, but I’ve always found him to be a very respectful and cordial dialogue partner. Plus, his Andy Thon, SJ DJ was a staple of Hunger Clean-up rallies.

The Journal Sentinel has a story up on a kidnapping involving a non-Marquette student that occured at 14th and State on Thursday night:

A separate investigation continues into two other robberies that involved Marquette University students early Wednesday. A 47-year-old man also was robbed the same night, and police are looking for a single robber in those three cases. Investigators did not believe the latest robberies were connected to last weekend’s crimes.

On Thursday night, a woman’s purse was snatched near campus. But Milwaukee police assigned to robbery suppression in the Marquette area quickly arrested a 53-year-old man who had been chased by residents after the robbery, according to Capt. James Harpole.

Police do not believe the man is tied to any of the other recent robberies around the university. Officers James McNichol and Misty Torres had been patrolling the area when they found the suspect hiding under bushes. He remained in police custody on Friday.

Harpole said a 63-year-old woman had exited a bus about 6:35 p.m. in the 1400 block of W. Highland Ave. and was heading home when the robber grabbed her purse and shoved her to the ground. Bystanders chased the suspect to the 900 block of N. 14th St., where officers arrested him.

The story also states that a criminal complaint has been issued against the one suspect that the police have apprehended thusfar, “Mark Devon Nellum”:

A Milwaukee man and an accomplice stole a newspaper carrier’s van before driving around the Marquette University area last weekend and robbing three students at gunpoint, kidnapping two of them and forcing them to withdraw money from an ATM, according to a criminal complaint filed Friday.

Mark Devon Nellum, 19, is charged with three counts of being party to a crime of armed robbery, threat of force; two counts of being party to a crime of false imprisonment while armed; operating a vehicle without owner’s consent; fleeing police; and possession of a firearm by a felon. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 153 years in prison and $365,000 in fines.

Nellum was being held in Milwaukee County Jail, with bail set at $100,000. Police are looking for the second assailant. [E/A]

I’m very, very happy that the Journal Sentinel’s Linda Spice has decided to describe the crimes as they were - kidnappings. The only reason I can see that the Milwaukee Police Department would choose to charge Nellum with “false imprisonment” might be some kind of agreement with the defendent or perhaps worries about a conviction on kidnapping.

One part of the criminal complaint that jumps out is the statement from one of the victims that

“The two were then driven around for a while and at one point he was told by the man with the gun to walk behind a house and wait there. [Blackened] indicated that the man with the gun said, “Wait for your friend; that is if we don’t kill him first!” [Blackened] then walked to the back of the house and while in the back yard waited there for a period of time. While waiting in the back yard, [blackened] indicated that it started to get light and he began to get cold. [Blackened] began to zigzag his way soutbound through the yards concealing himself whenever a car approached [...].”

This is, of course, exactly what GOP3 reported first (and apparently exclusively until the release of this criminal complaint) 24 hours or so after DPS published a Safety Alert.

You can download and read the MPD criminal complaint here.

Nellum’s crimes are worsened by the fact the he already was a felon.

This complaint is further based on the review of Milwaukee County Case #2004JV001249 in which the above-named defendant was found delinquent of the felony offense of Armed Robbery, As a Party To a Crime, in violation of Wisconsin Statutes Section 943.32(2) and 939.05 on October 18, 2004. On November 8, 2004, the above-named defendant was advised of the fact that he could no longer posses a firearm pursuant to Wisconsin Statute.

If you want a taste of the ungodly nightmare these two young men faced 8 days ago, read the entire report.

WISN reports tonight:

With four students held up on or near the Marquette University campus since Saturday, public safety officials at the school are urging students to take precautions and be vigilant. Milwaukee police say there are fewer crimes in that area than in many other places in the city, and said that they’re pulling out all the stops to end the recent crime spree before it gets out of control. …
Marquette and Milwaukee police are rolling out a new crime plan, flooding the area around campus with extra patrols beginning Wednesday evening. City police are also adding the campus to a new crime policing plan and will have a liaison from their department work closely with the university to make sure students are doing everything they can to stay safe.

I agree with both Brian and Katie: First, like Brian said, Public Safety needs to be transparent and honest when incidents happen on campus. Second, like Katie said “Marquette puts forth respectable and reasonable effort to prevent these things from happening. Our public safety force is top-notch, professional, and incredibly student-friendly.”

I am glad to hear that both Public Safety and MPD are committing extra resources to the neighborhood to keep students safe. I say that as it’s dark out right now at 8:22 and I’m about to walk from the law library to my apartment 12 blocks away.

Another morning, another Marquette Safety alert e-mail. Admittedly, I almost deleted this one, writing it off as delayed update on the weekend’s campus kidnapping.

Wrong. This was a fresh advisory about what kinds of things happened while I was on the way home from the library last night.

Two separate robberies were reported to the Milwaukee Police Department shortly after 3 a.m. on Wednesday, March 5. The first robbery occurred within the 500 block of North 18th Street at approximately 2:55 a.m.; the second robbery occurred within the 600 block of North 17th Street at approximately 3:01 a.m. In both incidents, which appear to be related, two suspects in a dark- colored Jeep Grand Cherokee drove up to the victims, who are both Marquette students; one suspect displayed a weapon and demanded personal property.

Is it a coincidence that the incidents are picking up? A few weeks ago we had a carjacking; we now have a kidnapping and an additional armed robbery in a matter of days.

In my opinion, Marquette puts forth respectable and reasonable effort to prevent these things from happening. Our public safety force is top-notch, professional, and incredibly student-friendly.

But the administration blew it when they tried to downplay the serious nature of what actually occurred over the weekend. Marquette likes to post fliers on our doors and send us “alerts” to keep us up to date on safety issues, but if these alerts can’t be trusted for accuracy, then all of the talk about open and instantaneous communication is mere puffery.

There’s still a chance for administration to redeem themselves going forward.

Here’s what I’d like to see. Prosecute these criminals to the fullest. Marquette can’t prevent every crime, and they’ve already blown the transparency and honesty on this one. But they’ve apprehended at least one suspect from the kidnapping, and they should do a lot more than quietly press charges. It would be refreshing to see Fr. Wild come out of O’Hara Hall showing a little fire and publicly demand that these people be locked away for the maximum.

If administration can’t send a clear notice to us about what took place, perhaps they could make up for it by sending a resounding message to potential future abductors. Maybe that would help avoid more e-mails like the one we received this morning. The criminals deserve it, and so do the Marquette students.