One
LSA
freshman,
who
requested to remain anonymous,
said he has paid almost $200,
and will pay about another $400
in courts costs and up to $1,000
in probation fees. He also has to
complete five days of community
service, and though the student
foresees a judge accepting his
plea and giving him six to 12
months of reporting probation,
combined with regular drug
and
breathalyzer
tests,
the
repercussions aren’t over.
This student has received
two
MIPs
while
attending
the University. He grew up
in Michigan and noted MIPs
were treated differently in his
hometown.
“I am from Michigan, and have
been dealing with the old laws
since I started drinking in high
school senior year. In my county,
one that hasn’t voted a Democrat
into office since the 1800s, the
consequences of a MIP were
much higher than in Washtenaw,”
he said.
Under previous law, those
convicted of a MIP could have
faced heavy fines, community
service, enrollment in an alcohol
education program or jail time
if probation is violated. Now, the
civil infraction carries a $100
fine and no court appearance for
violators, on par with a traffic
ticket.
New Year’s Day new laws
governing Minor in Possession
of Alcohol offenses went into
effect in Michigan, changing the
crime from a misdemeanor to a
civil infraction and reducing the
penalties for underage across the
state. The legislation first passed
the Michigan Senate in the spring
of 2016 and was signed by Gov.
Rick Snyder in December 2017.
A blood alcohol content of 0.02
or above for anyone under 21 years
old constitutes a violation under
the law. Though the first offense is
now a civil infraction, the second
offense remains a misdemeanor
punishable by 30 days in jail, a
$200 fine and a driver’s license
suspension.
The legislation was sponsored
by state Sen. Rick Jones, R-Grand
Ledge, a former policeman. In
an interview with the Detroit
Free Press earlier this month,
Jones said he wants to give young
people a chance to make a mistake
without obtaining a criminal
history.
“As a former police officer, I
would never try to put something
in a law that would encourage
young people to drink. But when
college students go out to drink,
they don’t think about committing
a misdemeanor,” Jones said.
College
towns
consistently
rank among the top districts
for MIP citations in the state
of Michigan. According to the
Michigan State Police, 4,408
people were charged with an MIP
in 2016. From 2009-2013, a total
University of Michigan student
organization Michigan Pakistanis
held a vigil Thursday night to
honor Zainab Ansari, an eight-
year-old girl who was raped and
murdered in Kasur, Pakistan last
week. Around 25 students gathered
on the Diag, which was adorned
with candles in the shape of the
Pakistani flag.
Ansari went missing Jan. 4 after
leaving her home to attend Quranic
studies. Police officials found her
body five days later in a trash can.
Her abuse and murder have set off
protestsand riots across Pakistan,
calling for the government to take
more action to prevent similar
crimes like this.
LSA senior Muneeb Shaikh,
president of Michigan Pakistanis,
noted how Ansari’s murder is not a
unique case in in Pakistan. She was
the eighth child who was raped and
murdered in Kasur this year.
“This is part of a larger problem
plaguing Pakistan right now,”
Shaikh said. “There have been
multiple documents of incidences
of rape and murder to young girls.”
The vigil began with Shaikh
michigandaily.com
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Friday, January 19, 2018
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 58
©2018 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
CL A S S I F I E DS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
See VIGIL, Page 3
Brutally
slain child
lamented in
Diag vigil
CAMPUS LIFE
Student organization
honors life and memory
of 8-year-old Pakistani
ELIZABETH LAWRENCE
Daily Staff Reporter
New MIP law takes effect is expected to
correct discrepancies in enforcement
State legislature reduces penalties for minors caught in possession of alcohol
MAEVE O’BRIEN
Daily Staff Reporter
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
See MIP, Page 3
Professor of linguistics at
Massachusetts
Institute
of
Technology, Michel DeGraff
thinks Haiti needs a paradigm
shift.
On
Thursday
night,
approximately 75 people came
to the Michigan League to hear
DeGraff discuss prejudice and
racism in linguistics at the
Inaugural Martin Luther King
Jr. Commemorative Lecture,
held by the Department of
Romance
Languages
and
Literatures.
His
speech,
titled “Can Our Black Lives
Matter If Our Languages Do
Not Matter?” focused on the
suppression of Haitian Creole
language in his native Haiti.
“As linguists, as scholars,
the question for us is where is
there injustice in this world
today?” DeGraff said. “MLK
Day should not be a celebration.
It should be a call to action. It
should be a day of passion.”
As director of the MIT-
Haiti Initiative – a nonprofit
promoting
STEM
learning
taught in Haitian Creole –
See LINGUISTICS, Page 3
MIT prof.
examines
racism in
linguistics
CAMPUS LIFE
Michel DeGraff points
to stigmas of language
as barriers in society
LEAH GRAHAM
Daily Staff Reporter
On
Thursday
afternoon,
Michigan
State
University
announced white supremacist
Richard Spencer would be
permitted to speak at the
university on March 5. This
decision comes as part of a
lawsuit against MSU after
it initially denied Spencer’s
request to rent space at which
to
speak,
citing
security
concerns in the wake of
the
white
supremacist,
“Unite the Right,” rally in
Charlottesville, Virginia, in
which one woman was killed.
Kyle Bristow, an attorney
representing Spencer’s team,
dubbed the decision a victory
for the “alt-right.”
“This is a resounding First
Amendment victory for the
Alt-Right,” Bristow said in
an interview with the Detroit
Free
Press.
“Left-wing
censorship of right-wing ideas
in academia is unacceptable.”
In
a
statement,
MSU
president Lou Anna Simon
reaffirmed the university’s
rejection of Spencer’s message
and said the arrangement of
the event was intended to
minimize risk.
“This
agreement
was
based
on
the
university’s
requirement that the event
occur on a date and at a
venue that minimizes the
risk of violence or disruption
to
campus,”
Simon
said.
“The security of our campus
community remains our top
priority and all appropriate
security measures will be
taken in connection with the
event. Michigan State rejects
this
group’s
divisive
and
racist messages and remains
committed
to
maintaining
a
diverse
campus
and
supporting an inclusive, just
and democratic society.”
MSU
and
Spencer’s
lawyers agreed to a two-hour
speaking time from 4:30 p.m.
to 6:30 p.m. in the Pavilion
for Agriculture and Livestock
MSU settles
with Spencer
to proceed
with speech
Poet Claudia Rankine, dramaturg
P. Carl talk racial themes in theater
See SPEECH, Page 3
JOSHUA HAN/Daily
Claudia Rankine discusses ways that contemporary theater and performance can catalyze and promote social justice in American at the Michigan Theater Thursday
ROSEANNE CHAO/Daily
ADMINISTRATION
Parties agree to host two-hour event
on first day of university’s spring break
REMY FARKAS
Daily Staff Reporter
Rankine’s “The White Card” strives to promote lasting conversations on race
Nearly every seat in the Michigan
Theater’s main auditorium was
filled Thursday night to hear poet
and
essayist
Claudia
Rankine
discuss her transition from print
to the stage, as part of the Penny
Stamps Speaker Series.
Rankine was joined onstage by P.
Carl, an accomplished theater artist,
who collaborated with Rankine
to bring her new play, “The White
Card”, to the Emerson Paramount
Center in Boston. The play is set to
premiere on Feb.4.
“The White Card” follows the
story of Charlotte Cummings, a
Black artist who visits the home of
two white prominent art dealers in
New York City. The tensions that
unfold around the dinner table
when Charlotte arrives reflect
Rankine’s interest in unpacking
racism in everyday life.
Rankine also spoke about being
on tour for her New York Times
best-seller “Citizen: An American
Lyric,” a collection of poetry that
reflects racial aggressions in the
21st century. Rankine noted her
experience during question and
answer sessions following her book
readings were what inspired her
play.
“The beginning of the process
really began as I toured with
‘Citizen’, I got to the point where
the reading of ‘Citizen’ at these
readings was the least interesting
part for me,” Rankine said. “What I
really wanted to hear was what the
audience wanted to say.”
According
to
Rankine,
the
dynamic of these conversations
elicited the central question of “The
White Card”.
“That idea, how do you stage
a conversation around race that
continues, that doesn’t get shut
down because of good manners
or is able to ride the tide of good
manners, and still come back to the
questions on the table,” Rankine
said. “That became the generator for
‘The White Card’.”
Both Rankine and Carl grappled
with the challenge of engaging
theater attendees and maintaining
an honest discourse of whiteness
in America while working on “The
SHANNON ORS
Daily Staff Reporter
See POET, Page 3