May 12, 2004:
Final Decision of the Committee
"As a committee appointed to discuss Jeremy Davenport's latest abusive language in Charlotte Chess Club's Bulletin Board, here is our final decision: Penalty to Jeremy, regardless of apology, should be 4 weeks suspension from CCC USCF rated events, effective May 12, 2004. In case he does not give an apology within 4 weeks from May 12, then this penalty would be increased by 11 months which brings the overall penalty to 1 year. In case of additional abuse to CCC and its leadership, the penalty would convert to permanent censure from CCC USCF rated events until further notice. Jeremy should be given proper notice to rectify the situation in a reasonable manner, and it would not be incorrect to copy his parents on this, after all, he is a minor, and his parents could be an ally on this lesson learned."Alphonse Ashamalla, Bernard Baker, Mike Eberhardinger,
Winfred Gatlin, Patrick McCartney
5-3-04Dear Committee Members:
The following message was posted on the CCC Message Board on May 1, 04.
"The Committee of the CCC has observed recent remarks and slurs made by Jeremy Davenport on the Message Board. The CCC is comprised of individuals from every walk of life, every race, color, creed & national origin imaginable. Weak or strong, each member is treated with equal respect as a man. Racisim and Anti-Semitism have never been tolerated at the Charlotte Chess Club. Those who utter such are not welcome. As of 5-2-04, JEREMY DAVENPORT 12907488 has been expelled from the Charlotte Chess Club and is forbidden from competing in any CCC event. Furthermore, all of his future messages on the Message Board will be removed.
NM Leland Fuerstman Sr. Director, CCC."A committee of CCC elders comprised of Alphonse Ashamalla, Bernard Baker, Mike Eberhardinger, Winfred Gatlin and Patrick McCartney has been formed to determine whether the decision of this Senior Director shall stand. A Director has the right to arbitrarily forbid anyone
from participation under extreme circumstance. The purpose of this committee is to observe the evidence and make a determination as to the degree of severity of the offense and the punishment. The committee may vote to let the decision stand, decide upon a lesser or different punishment, or no punishment at all. I will respectfully abide by the decision of the committee. (However, I reserve the right to take legal action, if necessary).Jeremy Davenport was one of our scholastic members. He had been a club member for approximately 2 years. He has probably made more posts on our "Message Board" than anyone else. Because of his tender age, one might expect the content of his postings to reflect a rather sophomoric attitude. One of my postings actually drew attention to his poor spelling and grammar which seemed to have greatly angered him. In fact, his postings soon became violent and accusatory replete with false accusations, incredible hearsay and religious epithets. His unsubstantiated defamation of my character is clearly libelous. It was then necessary for this Senior Director to sanction him accordingly. However, it must be understood that Mr.Davenport has already withdrawn his membership from the Charlotte Chess Club. The intention of this action, is to prevent him from competing in any future CCC events or posting messages on the Message Board. I will ask each committee member to read the CCC Message Board starting with Jeremy Davenport's comment "i just love soccer" dated 4-29-04. Upon reading each of his comments you will find the statements, "you label urself NM leland "im the greatest ever, coolest, and best of all" feurstman, u dont even deserve that title. we all know how u got ur stupid NM title"...words cant describe what the vast majority of NC chess thinks of u, ur a crook and yes leland id like my refund to ur club, if that is to much to ask from a jew then thast fine too."
In my opinion, making such comments constitutes a violation of the USCF Code of Conduct, ie. Denegration of a player. Every member of the Charlotte Chess Club has a right to be protected from such unsubstantiated verbal assaults and epithets, me included. I would have wished that Mr. Davenport quickly come to his senses, realize his mistakes and show some form of contrition. Unfortunately, even after he was cautioned not to post on the Message Board any longer, the "hate
mail" seen below* was submitted (and removed). Thank you for participating as a Committee member. E-mail addresses and phone numbers of all members are enclosed. I would hope that a decision could be made promptly. Until then, the decision of this Director stands.With utmost respect to the Committee,
NM Leland Fuerstman,
Sr. TD, CCCThe following message was posted after Mr. Davenport was advised NOT to make any further postings. This can hardly be considered a letter of contrition. LF
*Posted by Jeremy anti-sematic Davenport (24.93.79.240) on May 02, 2004 at 23:38:36:
"Leland ur right i do pretty much hate u, however it shouldnt get the way of chess i agree. pretty much all u said is tricky wording and false, ( i just happened to congratulate doug on beating curcuru.) right... overall should i be punished or banned from the CCC for remarking to you, and only you, about the
jewish statement, probably so. as i stated BEFORE i played lee becuase i know she came to play chess and even though i didnt want to i said lets play a unrated but same time control game and even
record moves. guess what i got KILLED, about 15 moves and resign. i dont fear playing anyone. as for being anti-sematic, i think ur blowing it out of proportion, im sorry if i offended others becuase it was intended to leland alone, and yes most jewish ppl r easily sterotyped and thats what i did, but for me when somene talks behind my back i see it no differntly as calling them a vulgar word. regardless if u only told it to one maybe two ppl, the punishmen should be =, and after getting hounded for posting
under under a false name u went and did it urself in which it was a harsh message towards tony. nothing i can do about it and i really dont care, if i scooped up a hand full of CCC players, and i have, and asked them what they think about u they luagh and say what i say, just becuase i have the balls to say it on a message board in which everyone can read shouldnt make me the bad guy. and as for ur NM title i wont continue this crap but i will say ive been told by roughly all ur old friends at least from the club, including respected players and i belive them over u any day."