Who hazes? Jerks, that's who.

Once again, we’re beside ourselves.

The Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter at Boston University, albeit unrecognized by the university, was busted when police found five nearly naked men shivering in the fraternity house basement beaten and covered in condiments, flour, and coffee grounds.

We’re really mad. We were really mad a few weeks ago when we posted about the Dartmouth incident.

But, this article also makes us really sad. The police reports read, “All five were shivering and had horrified and fearful looks on their faces. They were tied together via duct tape wrist to wrist to form a human chain. [One] officer asked if they were alright and got no verbal answer. [One] victim looked right at [the] officer and with tears coming down his face shook head from right to left and back indicating no.”

WHO DOES THIS TO PEOPLE?! (Look, we’re yelling now.) Who takes a friend, a BROTHER, by the hand, puts duct tape on his near-naked body, screams and yells at him, covers him with horrible things, BEATS HIM, and then later tells him, “We love you, you’re a brother, you’re one of us… blah blah blah.”

If five women were found in a man’s home in this same situation, communities would be livid and in an uproar. It would be national, stop-what-you’re-doing-and-turn-on-the-television news. From what we can tell, no one has even been arrested so far. If a spouse did this to his or her partner, people would be keeled over in agony thinking about the horrors of domestic violence.

But this is relationship violence, too, people. It’s really no different. If you know anything about relationship violence, you’ve heard of the Cycle of Violence.

The cycle starts with tension building. The victim knows something is coming; they can just feel it in the air.

“Let’s go down to the basement, pledges.”

Then the violent incident occurs.

“Look what you’re making me do!”

Then, in comes the Honeymoon Period. Usually the perpetrator apologizes, tells their victim they love them, and minimizes the abuse – or denies it happened altogether.

“We love each other. Don’t worry, we’ve all been through this. Brotherhood is a strong and close relationship. We always back each other up. We always look out for each other.”

It’s a cycle, so it happens again and again. And again.

Who does this, you ask? Who would be so cruel, hateful, and abusive to someone they love? Hmmm, that’s a great question; we were just wondering the exact same thing.

Is there a double standard? Do people actually think it’s okay to beat some people but not others?

“[It] seems like torturing and it’s just beyond the limits.” One interviewed neighbor indicated.

Um, yes.

Another neighbor stated, “I’m not surprised but it’s definitely unfortunate.”

Yes, unfortunate is one word that comes to mind, although – quite frankly - we were thinking of some others.

Alpha Epsilon Pi has since closed this chapter. Their website reads, “Any members found responsible for participating in any actions contrary to our risk management guidelines will be expelled. We also intend to fully cooperate with all authorities and investigations.”