spitting on vets and stealing flags sounds like a rightwing urban myth or something.

At the same time, it seems the wounded vets themselves are making the allegations, so it seems credible.

Troubling.

Which paragraph suggests that?

I was wondering if we'd see a comment like this. I have to admit I'm a little surprised to see it in the very first reply.

Wow what a horrible story.

another bullshit story dug up from the Vietnam era where millions of hippies were accused of spitting at every returning soldier?

I'm gonna withhold judgment on this until I know a little more.

Emory fraternity suspends activities after veterans heckled
11Alive Staff, WXIA 12:44 a.m. EDT April 24, 2015

ATLANTA – A fraternity at Emory University has suspended all activities after a group of college students reportedly heckled veterans at a Wounded Warrior event in Panama City Beach, Fla.

WJGH-TV reports that the veterans were in town last weekend for the Warrior Beach Retreat. The soldiers were staying at the Lake Town Wharf Resort at the same time students in the fraternity Zeta Beta Tau from the University of Florida and Emory University were in town for their spring formal.

The veterans said college students threw beer on them from balconies and spit on them. "They actually spit on me and my service dog as well, and that's just so disrespectful and it hurts. I come and I feel honored and I feel safe and that I belong, but now I feel like I'm defending myself," wounded veteran Nicholas Connole told WJGH.

Linda Cope, founder of the Warrior Beach Retreat, said she's never seen such disgusting behavior.

More:
http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/emory/2015/04/23/emory-fraternity-veterans-heckles/26262507/

Because clickbait and "reportedly" do not mix well. We then read the word "reportedly" in the body, once the counter has told advertisers that a user bit the bait.

In order to believe this, one has to believe there is already an active, ongoing subculture that involves 'spitting on veterans' and stealing/burning flags. There is not. I'm withholding any credibility regarding this "story" until further evidence develops.

Apart from the dubious claim that US veterans are "spit upon" (anywhere, for that matter).. there is the fact that fraternities typically trend toward conservative politics & issues in the first place. I know, I was in one. Which makes this story even harder to believe.

Maybe, just *maybe* someone got pooped on by a bird, or a drop of moisture fell from a tree or from the sky - and it was misinterpreted as "spitting". There's already plenty of (justified) concern about what goes on in and around fraternities ...it's possible that someone was just waiting for an 'incident' to complain about, and has channeled a reliable old myth:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Spitting-Image-Memory-Vietnam/dp/0814751474

'spit on returning vets' shit that was laid on Hippies in the 1960s and 70s, every report of which having been decisively and emphaticaly refuted and debunked in the years since.

So I'm not saying frat rats aren't assholes, but simply that this seems to play too neatly into the 'frat rats are assholes' trope.

Well, Jackie did, but that's it.

...but never put anything past a group of drunken frat brothers. They are the Einsteins of Assholery.

Could you be saying that just to bolster your case against the frat?

remember an article you might really enjoy:

https://medium.com/bad-words/the-asshole-factory-71ff808d887c?sectionName=published

You may or may not have jumped the shark. Please keep us posted on the outcome of the investigation.

Doing something stupid is the inevitable second step.

... conscript their asses as an exercise in consciousness-raising.

-- Mal

Univ. of Florida frat expels 3 over insults to wounded vets
Apr 24, 1:49 PM EDT

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- A University of Florida fraternity expelled three of its members Friday after allegations that they spat at a group of disabled military veterans at a Panama City resort.

Zeta Beta Tau Executive Director Laurence Bolotin said in a statement that the group made the expulsions after finding that its members had behaved inappropriately.

. . .

Cope said hotel security got the situation under control and the fraternity members were evicted the next morning. The fraternity sent a letter of apology to Cope. She said she looks forward to the outcome of the investigations.

"They apologized to me in person, but only because they got caught," she said.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_FRATERNITY_INVESTIGATED_DISABLED_VETERANS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-04-24-13-26-42

an off-campus, non-frat related occasion is a far cry from the implication that the entire organization was uniformly guilty of this offense ...which is what some articles are suggesting.

Yes- I have a thing for little details like that.

According to some replies upthread, this was a made-up, right-wing slur.

I have no trouble believing this.

The past few spring breaks have seen a rolling gangbang in the back of a pickup truck riding through town, the house party shooting that made the news, over twenty handguns seized by the cops in one night, quite a few alcohol poisoning deaths, a good many students dead from balcony falls, the notorious gang rape on video (which is only one of several the sheriff is investigating now), more public sex and nudity incidents than one can count, and more.

It's like the last days of the Roman Empire here for all of March and part of April.

Given the stuff that goes on here, this story is pretty mild.

but that's more in the Northeast

One should stay a safe distance from them at all times!

UF could expel Zeta Beta Tau over harassment of wounded veterans
By Jeff Schweers
Staff writer



Published: Friday, April 24, 2015 at 4:52 p.m.

Last Modified: Friday, April 24, 2015 at 5:47 p.m.


Already on a one-year probation for hazing, the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity at the University of Florida has been suspended following reports that its members yelled at and spit on wounded military veterans vacationing in Panama City Beach last weekend.
The fraternity has been charged with several offenses as a part of the university’s formal investigation into “allegations of disturbing behavior toward veterans,” officials said in a news release issued Friday afternoon.

The university has charged the fraternity with “causing physical or other harm, obscene behavior, public intoxication, theft and property damage.” ZBT is suspended from all activities pending the outcome of a complete investigation.

. . .

Since the incident in Panama City Beach was reported, three students have been expelled from the fraternity, with a promise that more disciplinary action will be taken if the fraternity finds out others were responsible. Because the fraternity is already on probation, it faces stiffer penalties if found to be in violation, including expulsion.

Veterans attending the biannual Warrior Beach Retreat at the Laketown Wharf Resort said frat members attending a spring social from both UF and Emory University on April 17 tore through the parking lot, ripping flags off veterans’ cars, insulted vets, spat on them, threw beer bottles off the balcony and were stopped short of urinating on a flag.

More:
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20150424/ARTICLES/150429771?tc=cr&tc=ar