Wednesday, May 23, 2018

A long year later

It takes a year for the Earth to orbit the sun, a 580 million mile trip at 65,000 mph. That's 365 days, or 2,100 work hours for a single person. In four years of college, you only spend 1,900 hrs in class! Thus one person should be able to get a heck of a lot done in a year.

May 31 marks one full year since the Yu Chen tragedy. We hate to dwell on this incident, but at the same time, the death of a Hoofer Sailing instructor on the water--and especially the manner in which it occurred--overshadows other news. Let's also not forget the drowning off the O'Day in 2015. If you want the latest on socials, squirt guns, ice cream, etc, visit the club's official website (where you won't find anything on Yu Chen--shame).

A year later, the DA is still sitting on his hands with a thumb up his you-know-what instead of making a decision on whether to bring charges against the motorboat driver(s). Consider: if it wasn't their fault--if Chen did some stupid maneuver and landed himself smack in front of the motorboat--the report surely would have been released by now because it would clear the UW Rescue staff of wrongdoing. Thus it seems likely at this point that there will be charges.

If I were the family's attorney, I'd be getting mighty worried about crucial investigative records mysteriously disappearing. How do you even know what records existed a year ago..? The UW has produced its own report on the tragedy--which they too are refusing to release. Why? Did they have access to the sheriff's data while creating their report? One has to wonder if the UW is putting pressure on the DA not to bring charges because a criminal conviction would make for a much stronger civil suit, which they know is coming. By delaying a decision, the authorities are making it into an ever-bigger story.

Meanwhile, someone had a great idea to paint an old Tech sail and sail it around the lakefront on Thurs May 31 and/or Friday June 1 (it could be done on other days too). This would help to draw attention to the situation, especially if somebody calls the local news ahead of time. Hopefully someone is following through on organizing that because our specialty here is criticizing, not organizing.

6 comments:

  1. While it seems you are a bit of a conspiracy theorist, did it ever occur to you that these reports are not being released because the tragedy is being litigated? Did it also not occur to you, since you have plenty of time to watch TV during the day, that IN a litigation, the family would learn about these reports in the discovery phase of their lawsuit?

    Let the process work, Kommander. Quit using the loss of such a great man to further your anti-university/anti-Hoofer/anti-law enforcement agenda. Just as you smear past club leaders without any proof (BY NAME!), you denigrate the memory of a truly great man by using his good name to further your hate and anger-filled agenda.

    This is shameful, Kommander. You seem to have an appallingly distorted view of reality that does NO service to the family or friends of Yu Chen. It only serves to denigrate you. Get some professional help, okay?

    A-Non

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is the only place to find-out what is/what is not happening. The Yu Chen tragedy is not being exploited by this site or posters. Rather, our Gov't and University have just gone dead cold quiet. We the people should have an open and transparent gov't. The Yu Chen incident tells us that we now live in an illiberal democracy. Fine! Tell us that it is being litigated and don't leave the entire community hanging in the breeze.

    At the very least, let's have a memorial for our friend Yu Chen.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Perhaps "A-Non" is one of the motorboat drivers who stands to lose big if/when charges are brought in this incident? I would remain anonymous too. Here is a "conspiracy theory" froma real newspaper, an old article where lawyer for the family had this to say:

    “The state may be refusing to share facts about the incident because it wants to avoid liability and doesn't want to admit what really happened.”

    http://www.wkow.com/story/35653682/2017/06/Tuesday/family-of-windsurfer-killed-in-lake-mendota-crash-demands-documents-may-sue

    That is pretty much the same thing as this blog has been saying. If the state, that is the UW, is refusing for that reason, then at some point their delay becomes pointless and they have to either release the full report, or destroy the most incriminating evidence.

    ReplyDelete
  4. William Stebbins is in the picture in the newspaper with law enforcementfrom the day of the incident.

    ReplyDelete
  5. So Jiggles shows up at the social this evening around six, I would say, Ambling more than usual, but it is a lot of work being an ex commodore. Is he still putting on weight? He certainly has since I saw him last. which was only a week ago. He started playing down the Tartan 10 as not good for Hoofers, something about too simple a rig, too small. It is a small cabin if you are a BIG. It was interesting because, he has had his share of problems with keelboats. Didn;t he run the J29 agoround? And snapped a mast, forgot to put ringdings in, etc. It was diffacult to hear asxactly who said what after that.

    ReplyDelete
  6. For those interested, some planned events to honor Yu Chen are announced here:

    https://honoryuchen.weebly.com/

    Painting a sail was a good idea too, maybe it can still happen.

    ReplyDelete