Lionel McIntyre, Columbia University Professor, Punches Colleague Camille Davis in Face During Heated Race Relations Discussion

Cops said Lionel McIntyre, 59, a prominent architecture professor at Columbia University, punched, Camille Davis, a university employee in the face at a Harlem bar during a heated argument about race relations. He was busted for assault when Davis, visibly bruised, filed charges. Davis works as a production manager in the school's theater department and both regularly visit Toast, the popular university bar on Broadway and 125th  Street, sources told the NY Post. Patrons said the professor had been engaged in a fiery discussion about "white privilege" with Davis, who is white, and another male regular, who is also white, Friday night at 10:30 when fists started flying, patrons said. I am amazed that this has flown under the mainstream media's radar, especially in New York City.

McIntyre, who is known as "Mac" at the bar, shoved Davis, and when the other patron and a bar employee tried to break it up, the prof slugged Davis in the face, witnesses said. "The punch was so loud, the kitchen workers in the back heard it over all the noise," bar back Richie Velez, 28, told The Post. "I was on my way over when he punched Camille and she fell on top of me."

The other patron involved in the dispute said McIntyre then took a swing at him after he yelled, "You don't hit a woman!" "He knocked the glasses right off my face," said the man, who would only give his first name as "Shannon." "The punch came out of nowhere. Mac was talking to us about white privilege and what I was doing about it -- apparently I wasn't doing enough."

McIntyre had squabbled with Davis several weeks earlier over issues involving race, witnesses said. As soon as the professor threw the punch Friday, server Rob Dalton and another employee tossed him out. "It was a real sucker punch," Dalton said. "Camille's a great lady, always nice to everybody, and doesn't deserve anything like this." Source: NY Post

McIntyre was released without bail at his arraignment last night. "It was a very unfortunate event," he said afterwards. "I didn't mean for it to explode the way it did." Isn't that the position the aggressor always takes, "I didn't mean for it to happen?" If he had any respect for this woman, he would not have struck her. It's amazing that this has flown  under the mainstream media radar in New York City. This is certainly not the negative PR that Columbia University needs at this time.

According to Columbia University World Leaders Forum, McIntyre is currently the Nancy and George Rupp Associate Professor in the Practice of Community Development and the director of the Urban Technical Assistance Project at Columbia University. He received his BA from Dillard University in 1987 and his MS in urban planning from Columbia in 1988. He was an honorary fellow at the Municipal Arts Society from 1989 to 1990. He also held the position of director of the Graduate Program in Urban Planning at Columbia University from 1993 to 1999. 

What I find appalling is that this man knows the struggles that blacks went through in this country, but yet, he got so angry that he hit a woman. According to the World Leaders Forum, he worked in civil rights and labor organization in the deep South from the mid-1960s to mid-1970s. He served as the director of planning for the Harlem Urban Development Corporation from 1989 to 1994 and served as advisor to the president of Columbia University on community development and the Empowerment Zone.  I have yet to see a statement issued by the university and I am wondering why he hasn't been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of this case in a court of law.

UPDATE#1: I sent an email to Robert Hornsby, Director of Media Relations at Columbia University, for a statement on the allegations against Mr. McIntyre and what I received was a response from him stating, "we have no comment on this matter." Though I am not surprised by his response, this amounts to nothing more than a double standard on the part of the school. 

UPDATE#2:  According to the Columbia Spectator, a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said on Tuesday that the judge had issued a bench warrant for McIntyre’s arrest for failure to appear in court on January 11th. The case has been adjourned until Jan. 26, but the warrant means that McIntyre could legally be arrested at any point before then, according to the DA spokesperson. McIntyre had previously been released without bail. What's also ridiculous is that Columbia University has not placed this man on administrative leave.

Photo credit: Lionel McIntyre, NY Post