Does anyone else get the sense that this guy had a really lonely childhood?

Somebody needs to take pictures of this guy whenever he’s in his yard or on his porch etc and post them on a site like, stodgyoldhyperboliccomputerilliterategeorgetownneighborswhowenttosecondrateschoolssuck.com

Sounds like Stephen Brown needs to get the stick out of his ass that was wedged in there during his Nova days and further rammed up from AU. Now it’s penetrating his brain… poor bloke.

http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/district-columbia-false-light

I hacked my way through most of that website… there really are some bizarre, incoherent ramblings that disturb me a little.

I was at the campus plan meeting last night. These neighbors are as irrational as we all fear. And they talk about students like they’re packs of wild dogs. It is disgraceful. They act like children—entitled, demanding, uncompromising children.

Unfortunately, Georgetown does a terrible job at defending itself and rebuking the opposition, so we’ll never get anywhere.

turning themselves into TMZ to garner respect.
Also that website looks like it was made with TextEdit and MSpaint

From a public Yellow Pages search:

[Comment removed by editor. Although Stephen R. Brown post others' personal information online, let's avoid nonsense like that around here.]

Did Brown say what possessed him to move to a house three blocks away from a university? A college professor of all people, should have a clue what college kids get up to. Plus, it’s pretty horrifying that a college professor has such a poor grasp on the English language.

My entire freshman year I went to one party in Burleith. I and my first year friends spent our weekends at parties in Village A, Village B, Henle Village and the houses between 36th and 37th Streets. Ever since the 2007 alcohol policy was passed, student parties have been pushed further off campus so as to avoid DPS and RAs. Want a safer and quieter Georgetown? Reverse the keg limit and move the parties back to the rooftops.

why do i feel like the killjoy who maintains this site would have been big into the prohibition movement in the early 20th century…

And another thing – even if you live in some bizarro internet from the year 2000 that does not mean you can cite This Article as being from (April 21, 2010). It appeared in the February 5, 2000 edition of MIT’s The Tech.

I feel bad for the AU students that had to take classes from “Professor” Brown.

Brown on 4/17/10: “I fell asleep early last night so missed the hi-jiniks which accompany every weekend night in Georgetown. ”

Mr. Brown, I know that you went to a second-rate school where intelligence and fun go to die, but even you must know that writing a post about falling asleep early on a Friday night does not validate the accusation that Georgetown students are always raucously drunken and loud.

Clearly a case of “the pot called the kettle black” in that perhaps it would behoove Professor Brown to look into the antics of students at his alma mater, Villanova University before condemning Georgetown as “AN EAST COAST PARTY SCHOOL.” Or does he labor under the mythos that Christ himself founded that institution and that every graduate is without blemish of sin or fault. Give me a break and get back in touch with the students you purport to teach!

Seriously, if I were a student living at one of these houses, or a student in one of the pictures, I would sue Brown under a false light claim.

Brown may well have a First Amendment right to publish the pictures (though here we get into the invasion of privacy tort and what reasonable expectations of privacy are — it would vary, depending on the lengths Brown went to take the photos), but his accompanying website text can cast these students in a false light.

By juxtaposing text and pictures, Brown is essentially representing that every person pictured in these photographs is an “alcoholic,” who is “frequently violent and unreasonable.”

For a false light claim, all you need is:
1. a public disclosure of
2. a false statement, representation, or imputation
3. about the plaintiff that
4. would be highly offensive to a reasonable person.

1. Public Disclosure It’s on a public website. This is absolutely public disclosure.

2. False statement — again, claiming that everyone pictured in the photos is drunk, alcoholic and frequently violent and unreasonable (not to mention the other text he accompanies specific photos with) is actionable. He’s casting a very wide and libelous net — and the entire content of the website is moreover designed to lead the reader to the conclusion that anyone pictured on there is a ‘drunken Georgetown student’.

3. About the plaintiff — The individuals don’t need to be identified by name. The mere fact that they are pictured on the site is enough; also, by listing the residences involved, it identifies all individuals living there.

4. That would be highly offensive to a reasonable person — Check.

As these students aren’t public figures, there’s not even a need to prove actual malice (although that wouldn’t be hard). Mere negligence is enough.

So, yeah. Good luck with that site, jackass.

Here is this guy’s address and phone number since he is so intent on putting everyone else’s on his site:

[Comment removed by editor]

Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve been to Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and I can say without hyperbole that this is a million times worse than all of them put together.

You ripped this right from Saxaspeak, the Hoya’s blog: http://saxaspeak.thehoya.com/. They posted a story on this at 4:47 a.m. today.

Students in the photos that Brown publishes should sue him (assuming that they weren’t drunk or alcoholics) for buckets of money, especially when he’s making veiled threats about security clearances that show his intent to damage their careers.

Also, The Voice *should* publish Brown’s address so that students can be appropriately warned of Brown’s activities around them. It should do so with the proviso that it discourages illegal or harassing retaliation against Brown, but that information is information that the student body should be aware of, especially since Brown is engaging in potentially damaging activities around his home.

I listed Brown’s address so that students can be appropriately warned of Brown’s activities around them. Obviously, there should be no harassing, stalking, or any illegal action against Brown. But if he is stalking students then they should at least be aware of his location. Also, his address and telephone # are both public information and listed on his own web site.

Brown’s website frightens me for the safety and security of Georgetown’s students. Posting photographs of others without permission sounds rather dicey, and is not protected under the First Amendment.

It seems like Brown has a grudge against Georgetown University as an institution. I feel like either he was rejected and had to choose Villanova instead, or couldn’t get a job there and was forced to settle for AU.

I hope he chooses to stop acting childish and realize that no one forced him to live in Georgetown.

Furthermore, he lists students addresses along with their unauthorized pictures which im pretty sure is illegal.

If anyone is interested in looking at his photography, it is listed on here:

http://srbphoto.zenfolio.com/

I emailed this tip to the blog at 11:24 p.m. last night, and then they said thanks, they had seen it, and wasn’t it crazy. Looks like the Voice didn’t publish it because they were waiting to hear back from the guy who ran the site. You know, reporting.

Meanwhile, let’s look at a few the things the Hoya has stolen from the Voice without recognition in the last few months:

http://www.thehoya.com/news/rise-govt-speakers-rove-gingrich-gu-bound/

after

http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/2010/03/30/karl-rove-newt-gingrich-to-speak-at-georgetown-university-this-april/

and

http://www.thehoya.com/news/burleith-citizens-rally-against-campus-plan/

after

http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/2010/04/12/the-burleith-bell-rallies-our-neighbors-to-the-north-against-the-2010-campus-plan-part-i/
http://blog.georgetownvoice.com/2010/04/13/burleith-against-the-2010-campus-plan-part-2-the-monetary-campaign/

I won’t list any more since it’s hard to keep track of them all and I know y’all have a racist newspaper to put together.

@Ricky

We’re not going to do that around here. I agree that students need to know what he’s doing, but Mr. Brown’s phone number and address can be found elsewhere.

Chris,

Understand and totally agree. Thanks.

-Ricky

@Chris: If you aren’t going to publish his specific address, you should at least note very explicitly the specific areas in Burleith that he’s been photographing and where he’s likely to do so in the future, all as a public service to students.

These pictures don’t even look like parties… They are a group of what appears to be no more than 12 people. This guy needs to reevaluate how he defines a party.

Furthermore, if the Georgetown administration doesn’t do something to protect the rights of their students, including use of lawyers, I am going to be furious.

@ugh

Mr. Brown lists addresses that correspond with each of his photos. I just took another quick glance at the site, and it seems to me that most of the photos were taken north of Reservoir Road along 37th Street.

The domain is operated via Heller Information Services, http://www.his.com and contains an acceptable use policy: http://info.his.com/policies/aup.html

Email support@his.com — I’ll state right now that I don’t have the time, but I’d highly recommend it to anyone, especially those residents targeted. You can argue both harassment and false light claims (see above).

HIS Acceptable Use Policy

# You may use the service for any legal purpose. You may not use the service for illegal purposes.
…
# You may not use the service to abuse or harrass others.
…
#
# Violation of the HIS acceptable use policy will result in termination of service.
# HIS reserves the right to refuse service to anyone for any reason.

Chiming in on the violation of reasonable expectation of privacy here. ESPECIALLY since I highly doubt he’s making sure that all of the people in his photographs are of the age of majority – plenty of Georgetown freshmen are not yet 18 by the start of freshman year, and as bad as it is to publish publicly photographs of adults without their consent, publishing photographs of minors without their parents’ consent is worse. Come on – if news programs have to blur out the faces of people walking in the background, there’s no WAY Brown’s pictures are legal. I say, find your face, find a lawyer, and sue this bitter old man who’s making American University look seriously bad.

(Villanova, I’ve noticed, has a habit of turning out graduates – even graduates in ENGLISH – with truly atrocious English grammar, so he’s not hurting their reputation)

Ricky, you’re absolutely right. The pictures should really be taken down (well, the whole site should, but I won’t get greedy).
How does one file a false light claim in DC?

I’m guessing there will be more urine puddles in this man’s backyard after this.

Check out this awesome party Brown has on his site:

http://drunkengeorgetownstudents.com/images/cropIMG_1746.jpg

Brown should just calm down and accept his true calling as Georgetown’s Cobrasnake.

@Concerned Contact a lawyer or DC Law Students in Court. They would start by sending Mr. Brown a demand to remove the pictures from the website. If he failed to comply, you would file a complaint in DC Superior Court.

@Matt,

I e-mailed Heller Information Services like you posted… thanks for the info! I figured that might be an easier way to get rid of this page (ordinarily, the neighbors’ inflammatory remarks amuse me more than upset me, but this website is disgusting) than going through the legal process that @Concerned mentioned.

I encourage others to do it! The body of the e-mail said:

Hello,

It’s come to my attention that the website, http://www.drunkengeorgetownstudents.com, a domain you operate, is in violation of your Acceptable Use Policies. According to your website, HIS websites “may not use the service to abuse or harass others” and that violation of this policy will “result in termination of service.” This information is listed on your site: http://info.his.com/policies/aup.html.

Mr. Brown, who runs this site, has posted photographs taken without the permission of those in the photograph, and posted without their permission on a public website. His comments regarding every individual photograph are libelous and could damage the reputation of the individuals in the photographs. Moreover, he publicly lists the personal addresses of these individuals and uses gross generalizations like “Be careful, drunken persons are frequently violent and unreasonable so “reasoning” with them isn’t a great plan” with reference to the individuals photographed and to the wider Georgetown University population.

Please consider speaking with Mr. Brown about these violations.

— Feel free to copy/paste/tweak and send to HIS too!

@Concerned

I’d go the administrative route with HIS first. Filing a lawsuit is expensive, and you can’t sue in Small Claims Court since it’s about reputational damages, and you’d presumably be requesting equitable relief (an injunction against Brown to take down the site) as well as damages. Filing fees are expensive ($120 to file a claim in DC Superior Court, plus additional fees to serve process) as are responding to motions if the other side gets a lawyer. You’d most certainly be best served by getting a lawyer — though if everyone from the affected houses chipped in and jointly retained one, it could certainly cut down on costs.

But, yeah. Litigation is slow and expensive.

(I didn’t really proof-read that e-mail, so the second paragraph is a little sloppy… oh well. Point got across)

“fact checker” would have a field day on that site. What a mean-spirited dude, this Brown guy is.

Really, this guy should just pay a little extra and spring for a Drupal or something instead of running a site from 1999. They have businesses now that prepackage Web sites so any Villanova sasquatch can make a Web site. My guess: he worked on Arpanet, still writes in Fortran and is nostalgic for the good old days when it was acceptable for him to get a little drunk in college, too. But now people have flash Web sites, write in C++ and tell him he’s creepy when he’s had four or five, so no fun for ANYONE!

It looks to me like there’s some kind of bot lurking around VoxPop posts that just copies someone’s comments and includes a name that’s linked to a blog (for spam/ad purposes). See “Sarah” ripping off “Concerned…”‘s post, and “Simon” ripping off “Policy Changes”‘s. Both link to sites that have the same format.

Chris Heller, other Vox Pop eds, any ideas what’s up with this / how to fix?

@Matt

I noticed that earlier today too. I’m looking into updating the spam filter we use at Vox, but for now I’ll take care of them one-by-one.

And also American, this guy probably attended some night classes at Syracuse too.

If anyone wants to sit-in on the next meeting of Citizens Association of Georgetown to actually represent the student and University’s position (constructively of course), they are having their next meeting on May 10 at the Four Seasons at 7:30.

If GU won’t do anything to represent students in the neighborhood we are going to have to do it ourselves

Ugh. What kind of sick bastard a) makes light of a student dying and b) does so by way of an article about an event that happened TEN YEARS AGO, before any of us were here?

Stephen: you’ve obviously got some sort of serious mental problems. Instead of taking them out on the poor, defenseless Internet, why don’t you sit inside, doubtlessly accompanied by your 37 cats and maybe the skeleton of a close relative?

Aww, c’mon guys, leave Stephen alone. I actually feel bad for the guy. I mean, he found the perfect house in a “Village in the City”, and overnight a medium-sized research university springs up out of the ground! I mean, there’s no way he’d launch such a bitter website had he known that Burleith is only a few blocks from Georgetown University, right?

[...] Georgetown’s blog Vox Populi warns students to be careful when venturing off-campus to drink their faces off, lest they end up [...]

Hire me and Stephen to shoot your next party!!!! Whoever said Stephen is the Cobrasnake of Georgetown is right– professional party photography is the next big thing for Burleith. Hire us to capture the special moments of your party like making animal noises in a pool, broing out with officer crist, or reaching the point in the party where there are like 8 people in your backyard/porch.

We’ll be cross-posting the photos for your Monday morning viewing pleasure on spectacular table-based nightlife websites including drunkengeorgetownstudents.com, http://www.srbphoto.com, and srbphoto.zenfolio.com

Rates are highly competitive as we’re stuck in the past. We can also shoot video if we can ever get those videos to decompress!!!!!!!gahhhhh

To Mr. Brown,

I hope this message finds you well. As a student of Georgetown, I am writing to you in response to your enlightened website, “DRUNKEN GEORGETOWN STUDENTS.COM: AN EAST COAST PARTY SCHOOL.” In this case, I will give you the benefit of the doubt that your use of capitals results from a combination of your apparent frustration and an attempt to increase marketing, rather than the technological ineptitude that plagues the rest of your site. Furthermore, I applaud your recognition of the fact that capital letters can effectively draw the attention of your colleagues in the intellectually challenged community.

Upon completing my perusal of your site, which I assume from its high quality and organization was constructed by your pre-school nephew (I further assume that your obsession with others’ lives serves as a diversion from the fact that you are middle-aged, unmarried and thus without children of your own, and that you most likely own cats), I was struck by several key points:

1. For a university professor, you display an astounding lack of command in English grammar and spelling (unrelated to my greater thesis, but both generally amusing and a cause for great fear regarding your students’ futures).
2. Your only contact with society seems to be with the police and other authority figures that are bound by the nature of their employ to interact with you.
3. You enjoy taking close-up photographs of teenage students at night.
4. Your extreme disillusionment regarding the realities of living in a college neighborhood is indicative of severe psychological damage.

In considering these notes in concert, I am forced to assume that you suffer from an acute case of covert pedophilia; your focus on male students also suggests latent homosexual tendencies. This becomes increasingly worrisome considering your extensive background in amateur photography (http://srbphoto.zenfolio.com/). I would refer you to the following website, which can provide you with some resources that may be helpful to your circumstances: http://www.searchmedica.com/search.html?q=Pedophilia. Should you not find solace here, I recommend exploring the Catholic priesthood.

Your classification of students as “pigs” and your focus on a young woman making “woof” and “quack” noises causes additional concern regarding bestiality. Especially in light of your ownership of cats (see above), I have serious apprehensions about this development. Should you wish to do the right thing and turn yourself in, you can write to the ASPCA at the following address, or contact the police (you seem to know them fairly well already, so I don’t imagine I need to provide contact information for them):

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)
424 E. 92nd St
New York, NY 10128-6804

Should I prove incorrect in any of my reasoning here, I apologize; as a logic-minded individual, I often find that I can focus too much on the details without thinking creatively about other possibilities.

However, I do expect that with the “intellectual prowess” among Georgetown students that you so praise on your website, my peers will happen across the following website: http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/district-columbia-false-light. Should you be interested, you’ll find some wonderful information there explaining how, in classifying all Georgetown students as “unreasonable,” “alcoholics,” and “pigs,” you make yourself quite the eligible candidate for the receipt of a false light claim. While some of my peers may disregard your website, both I and my father (an attorney who I alerted about your activities earlier this afternoon) agree with your statement that, as far as fines and jail time for offenders go, “…we need to go for the max….!”

I wish the best of luck to you and all of your cats (they’ll need it), and look forward to having further contact with you in the future.

Warmest regards,
Joe Hoya

I’d like the people identified in the photos to be made aware of this and quickly get a lawsuit together. There are causes of action for false light and invasion of privacy. Getting an injunction or restraining order against this guy will be a good first step. If he continues, one could even seek to get his computers and cameras seized.

Here is a knol that Mr. Brown created, which has a photo of him, so you can recognize him in the street and stay away from him. http://knol.google.com/k/stephen-r-brown/stephen-r-brown/3g98ta32adgw9/1#

[...] Georgetown campus community has several blogs, covering this new drunkard site, including Vox Populi and Saxa [...]

wow this guy made it into The Washington Post and the front page of HuffPost. really, really?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/28/drunken-georgetown-studen_n_554814.html

Just because you drink in college does not mean that you cannot do so whilst being respectful of your neighbors at the same time. If you fail to do this, do you really expect to skirt the natural and probable results of your failure to be respectful?

For all the law-talking guys here, please remember that truth is a defense to any defamation claim and that if a person is in a public place, or is clearly visible from a public place, i.e. the street, then they have no reasonable expectation of privacy. He can take your pic and there is absolutely nothing you can do about it. If you want to cry foul when he calls you an alcoholic, you have to be prepared to argue that a reasonable person would take the opinion of a photographer as fact on this medical issue. Doesn’t seem reasonable to me, nor any jury you could expect to hear your case. Lastly in this regard, any claims about your (derived) ‘right to privacy’ being infringed have to overcome the big daddy First Amendment. Ties go to the speaker/publisher.

No matter the legalities of it all, long before your university or our First Amendment, the natural law has been that you reap what you sow. The chickens that you set out in the morning will indeed come home to roost. Karma is a bitch. Conduct yourself as a jackass in public and you must be prepared to deal with the consequences. If this is new info to you, perhaps you should thank Mr. Brown for teaching you this most important lesson.

Read up on false light, Timbo. I don’t have much to say except you’re completely wrong. False light is much easier than defamation. Also, First Amendment cases involving privacy (generally) involve public figures; the privacy rights of private individuals are much greater (hence, defamation & false light law).

In any case, it looks like there’s been a partial victory — Brown’s internet service provider has forced him to censor the images and street names or risk being taken down. However, the false light claims are still possible, since he had the website up (retraction doesn’t save you).

It’s not entirely clear that everyone in the photos that this guy has posted are “drunken Georgetown students.” While no doubt there are plenty of those on the weekend, there may be some people at these parties who haven’t had much to drink or just don’t drink at all. And, guess what, it’s impossible to tell whether or not that’s the case from the pictures. While I agree with you that people are going to have a hard time with the privacy claims, it’s not obvious that someone who was not drunk at these parties doesn’t have a legitimate claim against this guy. Your post, for example, indicates how you assume that everyone in these photos is acting like “a jackass in public” by boozin’ it up way too much – that may be the case for some people, and it may not be the case for others. For those whom it isn’t the case, it appears that this dude has acted maliciously and attempted to damage their reputation and future earnings and employment potential. If I were this guy, I’d take these photos down before getting sued by someone like that.

Looks like he has censored his photographs if you check the website again.

Or, here’s a better idea – if you move to a neighborhood near a centuries-old university, you can STFU about student behavior. If you want peace and quiet, you can live in Alexandria, or Foxhall, or Friendship Heights…don’t move within blocks of a major university and then have the gumption to complain about student behavior. I know a lot of students here can act like total louts, but that’s unfortunately a reasonable expectation from college kids. You knew there were going to be students when you moved here. Deal with it.

Thanks guys, but I still think you’re wrong. The actual malice standard is not satisfied. Brown’s gripe is not with the individuals, but rather their behavior. I do not agree that Brown “attempted to damage their reputation and future earnings and employment potential”, but rather he (unconvincingly) argued that his website would have that effect. He doesn’t appear to want to destroy these asshats’ lives, but rather to quiet his own streets. It is his specific intent that would be at issue, and it is lacking here.

I further disagree that the “false light” prong is satisfied. The images depict intoxicated individuals in a public place and those that associate with them. What is false about this? If the person was not drunk, what damages can they reasonably show (understanding the tricky nature of the iied/nied-type damages at play here) for publication of the fact that they were either drunk and obnoxious once or were once in the company of drunken and obnoxious individuals?

While I do not disagree that Brown is being less than honorable in his response, and was less than wise in selecting his abode, he has not committed any actionable intentional tort, and I seriously doubt any potentially aggrieved parties will find representation on these facts. Regardless of what they tell you on the Fox News, you can’t just sue anybody for anything.

Further, censorship, even when it comes from a private party like his webhost, is not something to cheer. The cowardly webhost has caved to its own fear, leaving our Internet a less vibrant marketplace of ideas. Even if you disagree with a viewpoint, it is far nobler to ignore it than to quash it, even if you ‘know’ it is wrong. Do not view this as a victory.

If Brown just published the photos, he’d likely be alright (although the website name ‘Drunken Georgetown Students’ may present a problem).

However, as noted above, the entire website is designed (or was, before he blurred the photos and addresses) to lead one to the conclusion that anyone pictured in the photographs, or living at the residences in question, is an alcoholic and a habitual loutish drunk. The text on the website associates the people in the picture with violence, vandalism, urination, etc. False light is all about context.

If I showed you one of those pictures out of context, you would basically look and see about 8 or so people in a backyard. Some have beer cans in their hand. Any inferences you want to draw from that would be your own. That in and of itself isn’t a violation.

However, if I then posted those photos to “DrugUsers.com” or Alcoholics Anonymous and you saw them, the context would color your opinion. DrunkenGeorgetownStudents is like Girls Gone Wild in its suggestiveness. As he notes on the website, “Be careful, drunken persons are frequently violent and unreasonable so “reasoning” with them isn’t a great plan.” This, along with other phrases, casts anyone in the picture in an false light. And by associating entire addresses, and thus houses, with it, it casts the reputation of anyone living in or associated with the house as a wild, violent, alcoholic partier.

The fact that it further doesn’t identify the persons by name but by address can be harmful. What if you’re a pleasant roommate who doesn’t go out? Or what if you move in a year or two down the road, but a search of the address turns up the address that is allegedly associated with ‘wild’ behavior.

Again, if Brown just put up the pictures or video, without comment, that would probably be fine (as long as he doesn’t, you know, peek into people’s windows or anything like that — but if they’re in the yard or street, that’s basically fair game), it’s his comment and context that’s actionable.

And as to ‘caving into fear’, it’s more like, ‘caving into the posted acceptable use policies’. The website stated that you can’t use the site to harass people or do illegal behavior.

If he wants to move to another, more permissive web host, go ahead. That having been said, generally speaking web hosts aren’t liable for false light/defamation absent actual collusion. If Brown wants to host his pictures and text on some other site that lets him, he’s more than welcome, but he’s just inviting a lawsuit.

Sorry Timbo – gonna have to disagree with you on the whole “malice standard” question. The guy fully intends to damage the reputation of individual students and the university. He said so on his site and to the Washington Post. You can say something in public, do something in public, then back off and say you didnt mean it.

Even as an advocate of free speech – there are some things that dont fly in my book. Personal attacks on non-public figures using false claims is one of em. This is a victory. Not for Neighbors, not for students, but for the continued efforts of those who want to have reasonable dialogue between these groups.

I have to say, the website looks absolutely hilarious with all the photos blurred out.

Also, for a photographer, he sure did some unsophisticated blurring.

http://www.creepyburleithguy.com will continually be updated with the actions of Steven Brown, voyeur.

If people want to publish Stephen Brown’s phone number and address, then why not set uo your own web site? It is not hard. But then, that could seem pretty malicious.

I lived near GWU, and the student noise could get pretty bad at times, though not as bad as what Brown describes. Even if I lived there today, it is hard to imagine that I would put up such a web site … which, BTW, is offline at this moment.

This guys is really taking the wrong stance with all this. He should just stop with the pictures, it is a waste of his time. Take down the website and find other things to do. If he was really that pissed off with what was going on with these houses he would go after the owners of these houses. There are all kinds of legal things owners have to have in place before they can even rent group homes like this and most people in DC who rent out homes don’t bother with the paperwork. The fines can be huge for not having this paper work in place. Things like basic business license and certificate of occupancy and DCRA inspections. Some fines can be as much as 2k/day. He isn’t that pissed off about the noise or he would have jumped on the owner day one.

I wish the good students of Georgetown could read these comments from the point of a view of an outsider. Perhaps then you might realize how amazingly childish and petty you all appear – prime examples of a me-first, privileged culture of young people who get to feel as if they exist in a world all their own, with their own rules. Having worked at the Medical Center and spent a good bit of time on campus, I am not surprised.

The fact is that Georgetown University IS bordered by neighborhoods where people are attempting to live lives that involve raising children, going back and forth to work, and all the other day-to-day responsibilities of being an adult. You’re saying that such homeowners should have known better before buying in the neighborhood is one more example of excusing poor behavior rather than seeking a solution like quiet hours on weeknights or, at the very least, agreeing to settle down once a neighbor has asked you to.

It further surprises me that none of you see Mr. Brown’s actions as those of a man who has reached the end of his rope, rather than someone who is out to get you, take away your bottles, or invade your privacy. Instead, he is dismissed as just a cranky old guy trying to stop your fun. I call bullsh*t. He’s your neighbor and, judging from the comments here, you are not meeting him halfway on a problem. I suspect this man has better things to do than build a so-called harassing website or take pictures of loud, drunken teenagers and 20-somethings. Clearly, drunkgeorgetownstudents.com came to be when all other avenues and appeals to the students themselves, the University, and the local cops had failed.

The comments published here do not put Georgetown students in a good light. You appear spoiled, entitled, and mean. Your seemingly inability to empathize with this guy is unfortunate. But then, you’re college kids (emphasis on the kids) and as someone posted above, that kind of callous behavior is, unfortunately, to be expected.

Criticizing someone’s age or grammar skills and name-calling (like voyeur) are poor arguments. These pseudo-legal opinions (which read like kids playing grown-up), and the so-called privacy and safety concerns, do not excuse or justify what is essentially loutish, childish behavior. I hope that the very expensive education you are receiving will ultimately include a sense of empathy and a little-less entitlement down the line.

I, for one, side with Mr. Brown.

i concur with Nermal. Men and women for others?

Perhaps some of the comments here did get a little carried away. However, I think that’s based on a few things.

1. The pictures that Mr. Brown posted are all of small gatherings, with about 7-10 people visible at most. This doesn’t seem to substantiate his claims that all weekend nights in the neighborhood are plagued by raucous, uncontrollable partying. Granted his site is relatively new, but based on the small amount of evidence he has up there, readers have to generally take Mr. Brown’s word that the Burleith neighborhood is out of control on weekends which, from my experience, isn’t completely true.

2. As childish as the argument that “he should have known better when moving next to a university” can sound, it’s partly valid. The same can be said about living in a city; beyond the drinking scene, the simple fact is that it’s an extremely densely-populated area, and there will be more noise as a result.

3. The false light claims aren’t pseudo-legal opinions, that’s actually fact. Look up DC false light law, and you’ll find that what Mr. Brown is doing actually flirts on the border of law, by saying that all Georgetown students are “unreasonable” and “alcoholics.” Most here fit into neither of those categories.

4. His methods aren’t the most favorable. I don’t remember, but I’m not sure to what extent Mr. Brown says he ever tries to contact the residents first; again, he claims that drunk Georgetown students, or “alcoholics,” cannot be reasoned with. I don’t know about everyone else, but as a Georgetown student in off-campus housing who throws parties fairly regularly, if an adult neighbor of mine came to the door and asked me to quiet things down unless I wanted him to call the cops, I’d listen. Maybe Mr. Brown thinks this is the only avenue left to him, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that he demonstrates malicious intent against students throughout the language of his website. His attitude and methods are just as childish as you think we’re behaving.

5. Taking pictures of others on their private property is creepy. It’s not a poor argument. I understand that it was a reactionary decision, but if someone openly stated that they intended to roam the neighborhood taking pictures and videos of other residents and post them on the Internet, it would worry me.

Mr. Brown is addressing an issue that may need some working on, but he’s not doing it in the right way. He doesn’t know how to correctly spell the names of the University President or the woman in charge of Off Campus Student Life, who would be his primary contacts to voice concerns to the university, so it seems like he probably hasn’t tried working with them too extensively. If you look at some of the posts here and elsewhere, very few of his fellow elder Burleith residents agree with him; the President of the Citizens Association of Georgetown said his website is “just a little bit too dramatic.” And this is why Georgetown students are so upset about it.

To be fair, referring to this man as a voyeur isn’t particularly invalid name-calling.

One of the definitions of voyeur is: an obsessive observer of sordid or sensational topics.

If the behaviors Mr. Brown describes are correct, they can be labeled as sordid. Also, constantly updating a website documenting these observations can surely be referred to as “obsessive.” He perfectly fits the definition of the word used to describe him.

The fact of the matter is, Mr. Brown’s activities were possibly harmful for the students of the university and for himself, if his alleged police semi-custody claims were true (although, wouldn’t that mean he was semi- taken into custody? As in, the police viewed him as a possible sex offender?). They were also extremely creepy. Are you telling me that you wouldn’t mind someone documenting your life without your consent?

As English is my first language, you need not define voyeur for me. Mr. Brown obviously has a point to make and he is doing so “obsessively” because the normal way that people might go about resolving a situation like this just hasn’t panned out. His blog also “obsessively” points out the many times he has appealed to his neighbors (your fellow students), the police, and the University for some resolution of the issue.

Try seeing it from my angle – a non-resident of Georgetown who just happened upon an interesting story. This guy wants a decent night’s sleep in his home (or a quite evening in front of the tube) and that is prevented because the students who live across the street drink too much and carry on (and 7-10 people can make PLENTY of noise). This fellow follows the usual channels and nothing is done. The same clever fellow decides to use the web as a weapon and suddenly all kinds of people – even strangers like me – are paying attention. Maybe *now* he can get some satisfaction.

In my world, he’s in the right. Unfortunately, judging from many of the comments here, it would seem he is in far more danger than the students he photographs. So we have his “creepy” behavior on one hand and the loutish, bullying behavior of the students on the other. Again, I’ll side with creepy until loutish decides they can meet creepy halfway and tone it down.

And get off the guy’s spelling skills. It’s utterly immaterial to the situation at hand.

Georgetown is *not* an East Coast School! It is located on a swamp, and D.C. = the Deep South. Note the flaming heat of over 95%.. classic Southern climate here. Georgetown = Party-land school; and internal Administration study (Spring 09) within the university collected data on how nearly 60% of the enrolled Georgetown students get A grades across campus. Gradeflation -Plus campus, akin to Harvard.. where almost 85% are awarded A-grades. (i.e. over 80% graduate cum laude, Harvard). On Hoya-campus, the famed School of Foreign Service is a program where the average grade awarded is “A.” Courses and grades are a cake-walk. The NY Times July said that even the “famed’ law school bumped up the GPA of all their students — including alumni– by .33 points to give them an advantage when it came to being “competitive” for the job market. By White-Gravenor where the fish pond is located, a sophomore Died in a Drunken state by hitting his head on the concrete while drinking into the night. Note, he did not “collapse” due to exhaustion from studying too hard.. A house near Saxbys (O St.) partied til 4:30am starting Thursday, last day of classes, Fridays, Saturdays.. going for a full two years. When they “graduated” their bill from the realtor was $8,000 in “damages”.. from parties that went til 4am every week, Thurs-Fri-Saturday.

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