I've walked past four blocks of fraternity houses on my way home every morning and every night for the past three semesters. In that time, I have seen some pretty terrible things. I've seen a dog chained to a mattress on a porch with no food or water. Also a very loud and obscene argument and threats of violence on a street corner within hearing distance of young children. I've seen sidewalks peppered with trash and bottles that never seem to get cleaned up, along with a symbol of women's exploitation painted on a roof.

The only time I went to an actual fraternity house one of the attendees had an automatic pistol tucked in his belt. One of my roommates from freshman year was met with verbal harassment and threats of violence when he de-pledged a fraternity. Last semester I found an unconscious man face-down on Garner Street; Some fraternity had seen fit to supply him with a dangerous amount of alcohol, then abandoned him in a stunning display of brotherhood and integrity. I woke him up and helped him stagger five blocks back to his dorm.

As to unwarranted victims, what about the woman who had to clean a full garbage bag of paper plates and beer bottles out of her flower beds last Tuesday morning? The fraternities can blow all the smoke they want about community and fellowship and being gentlemen, but they're not fooling anyone. It goes far beyond "boys will be boys" or "sowing wild oats." The activities are often illegal, amoral, self-destructive and even life threatening.