<p>................</p>
<p>05.03.2008</a> - A message to the UC Berkeley community from Chancellor Robert Birgeneau</p>
<p>How tragic! My condolences to his family and friends.</p>
<p>My deepest sympathies go out to the family and friends of Christopher. What an incredible tragedy. My S will be starting in the College of Engineering in August and I had chills as I read the statement from Cal.</p>
<p>He was simply walking home from campus on Saturday morning on the "southside" of campus when he was stabbed after an "altercation"? I sincerely hope that Cal will provide more details about the tragedy so perhaps Christopher's tragic death will not be repeated.</p>
<p>My prayers are with Christopher's family.</p>
<p>The details are it was a loser Berkeley City College student who regularly got in fights and probably went out looking for trouble that night. I know it's not politically correct to find relative value in different lives, but Chris Wootton was apparently such a star on so many levels: it's hard for me to not look at the picture of the low-life who stabbed him and think the wrong person died.</p>
<p>Perhaps the SFGate story sheds a bit more light on what happened. Drunken</a> row preceded student's fatal stabbing</p>
<p>^ Yes, tragic and senseless as it is, drinking and large groups seem to have a role here...</p>
<p>BedHead:</p>
<p>Read post no. 5.</p>
<p>How horrible--my sincere condolences to his friends and family.</p>
<p>I'm glad this does not happen very often--this is actually the first time I've ever heard of this happening at Berkeley.</p>
<p>RIP Chris Wootton. This university will miss you.</p>
<p>I had actually heard about this kid before this happened to him. My friends roomate is pledging to the frat this kid belonged to. Apparently he was one of the top students in the nuclear engineering department and had been accepted to MIT and Cal for grad school.</p>
<p>Your image of the "low-life" seems to be a condescending assumption. He may not have had the same opportunities throughout his life like many Cal students have.</p>
<p>I'm not trying to justify his act but I'm just putting it into perspective so we aren't ignorant of greater social issues in our community.</p>
<p>However, the fact remains this criminal took the life of a man who would have become a productive and contributing member of the society.
Right, he "may not have had the same opportunities throughout his life like many Cal students have." That's why he comes to a sorority party where he doesn't belong to get wasted instead of trying to do something with his life. A great observation there, I must really commend you.</p>
<p>I am just saying we can't justify ourselves as superior or inferior to others just because we are all born into different socioeconomic positions [a big factor of where we end up in life].<br>
I wasn't saying the killer is not a low life. What he did makes him a horrible person and his actions are in no way excusable.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Your image of the "low-life" seems to be a condescending assumption. He may not have had the same opportunities throughout his life like many Cal students have.</p>
<p>I'm not trying to justify his act but I'm just putting it into perspective so we aren't ignorant of greater social issues in our community.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My statement of "low-life" is a statement of moral condescension, not class, though maybe in a complicated way the two become intertwined.</p>
<p>I believe strongly in Berkeley's mission, which I believe is superior of that of many other universities, of providing opportunities to people who may be challenged economically or by background. Berkeley does this to a far greater extent than other schools that ballyhoo their efforts in this area (Harvard, Stanford, for example). When one talks about Berkeley students one is also talking about many people who are putting themselves in the upper echelon of our nation's educational strata when odds are they wouldn't have been expected to do so. I don't consider these people low-life's. I recognize that Berkeley has a lot of very privileged students too, but it has a much higher proportion of non-privileged than other top 20 schools.</p>
<p>This guy, the stabber, came with a knife to frat row. He's in the paper as saying that Berkeley High's in-school suspension policy stopped him from getting in fights. I am not purporting to know what happened that night or whose perceptions were alcohol-fuzzed or not. But he clearly has fighting tendencies. </p>
<p>And he killed someone.</p>
<p>He's a low-life. And I assume his life, too, is effectively done.</p>
<p>the victim apparently was no angel. this was taken off of his blog entry where he brags about outnumbering and beating up people.</p>
<p>Myspace.com</a> Blogs - Fighting, Stripping, Blow Job's, and Bro's - Christopher Joseph MySpace Blog</p>
<p>Writing blogs is kinda wack but I've told this story about 17 times and it's a good story but I am tired of telling it.... Alright, so this is basically a recap of my weekend in which my brother Josh came to Berkeley to give me a surprise visit. So... surprise, my weekend <strong><em>in rocked. To tend to the title, I'll start off with the 'fighting' portion of the weekend. You probably know me pretty well if you're reading this and the word fight is most likely a shock to you coming from my weekend story but.... it has happened. So what happened was one of my fraternity brothers was being disrespected by a yoked 220 lb. mother *</em></strong>er and he got kicked out of the house but he decided to wait outside for at least 15 minutes, which is *<strong><em>in stupid when there are at least 25 bro's in the house that will *</em></strong> him up. Unfortunately, I was dancing with a legitimate female at the time and enjoying my night at our party but i was quickly interrupted by a report that someone wanted to fight my bro... so, being the dedicated friend that I am, i immediately answered with "who the *** is he and where?" followed by "let's **** him up" and yes, I was drunk, but not blacked out. So my bro Rex replies " lets find him" and we walk outside and by some form of dumb-**** magic, these 3 idiots are standing outside waiting for a fight. About 6 of us (including my blood brother Josh and his pledge bro) are making our way outside when I see my bro Rex surrounded by the guys. So i sprint up because i am the 2nd guy to work my way through the fat crowd. There we are, Rex and I, and I march up to the 220 lb. juggernaut and get in his face shouting "**** YOU, IF YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH REX, YOU GOT A PROBLEM WITH ME, <strong><em>" and then, without hesitation or any warning, the </em></strong>er socks me in the chest...all 220 lbs of him. I'm thankful me face wasn't the target because my chest is *<strong><em>ed up to the point where I can't even do a single push up. For the meat of the story: I am ready and basically unphased at the time so I swing a left and a right, landing only the right. But my brother josh, the *</em></strong>in man of the hour, comes out of nowhere and grabs this kook in a headlock so quickly that by the time my next set of punches come, I end up accidently landing a hard right on my brother's eye (sorry again)... Well, josh handles this *<strong><em>head and and drops him to the ground via a nice DDT and begins to grind his face into the coarse pavement of the sidewalk while several of are taking turns on his ribs and dome. By now, about 10-12 bro's are outside and there are only 3 opponents so my bro's decide to try and break *</em></strong> up but if you know josh (or myself as I have discovered this weekend), then you know that we get an intense adrenaline rush and calming us down is not very easy. well..... in most cases it isn't easy but when a pig rolls up with a night-stick and waves it in the air shouting "get the * out of here and go home," then separating **** is quite easy... the fighting story pretty much ends here but its a good one because my chest feels like a **** MAC truck ran into me and because my brother and I threw down together... I don't know, but around here in Berkeley, this was quite a story....</p>
<p>i have been ganged on up before and i hate it when people think they are tough just because they have backup.</p>
<p>
[quote]
So what happened was one of my fraternity brothers was being disrespected by a yoked 220 lb. mother <strong><em>er and he got kicked out of the house but he decided to wait outside for at least 15 minutes, which is *</em></strong>in stupid when there are at least 25 bro's in the house that will *** him up.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>The bizarre thing is how closely this seems to mirror what actually happened.</p>
<p>My name is Ryan. I am a Sigma Pi brother in the same house as Chris. I've known him for three years and I can tell you that the myspace comment does not do him justice. I was there for that fight and those guys deserved a beating... As for the comment about not having the same backgrounds or lifestyles... I am a Sociology major at Cal and I am fully aware of the sociological inequalities of Berkeley. However, until you live in a frat house and see how much Berkeley High and Berkeley City College Student create trouble for us, you can't say anything. We have had things stolen, broken, and puked on at all our parties... then they get mad at us for not letting them into our parties as if they are automatically privileged to enter... I fully support Chris' decision to kick those guys out and as for that fight on Myspace, they completely started it and as a Sigma Pi brother, we finished it. So don't go on these sites trying to criticize a person who loved life based on some series of events... we all aren't perfect... I'm sure all you people on this site have skeletons in your closet as well... if the microscope was on you, what would we find?... Please have some consideration for the deceased and believe me when I say that Chris Wootton was a great friend and brother... And all the things you say are just trying to tarnish a great person's final moments... you all should be ashamed of yourselves... I hope you never have your brother murdered and hear things like this... So just end this conversation and let justice, not your constant criticism, be the deciding factor is this tragedy.</p>
<p>
[quote]
So don't go on these sites trying to criticize a person who loved life based on some series of events... we all aren't perfect... I'm sure all you people on this site have skeletons in your closet as well...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>All I can say is that with a tragedy like this, it is important to try to understand what happened, so things like this can be avoided in the future. Maybe if people read that blog entry, and see how things ended up, they can make better decisions for themselves, and tragedies like this can be avoided.</p>
<p>Well I was there for that night and I can tell you that this guy was looking for a fight... before anything went down he pulled out the knife and was like "ok, who wants to get shanked!"... he instigated everything... so he deserves what he gets... I hope he gets life in prison... everyone is trying to make him seem like a good kid and everything... but who brings a knife out on friday night of partying?!? This guy is a horrible person and deserves to rot in jail for the rest of his life... end of story...</p>