Race Hoax at Kalamazoo College
There were actually two related hoaxes. The first was a false accusation by a student government leader of racist threats by an advocate for open carry. This was quickly debunked when the actual recording of the meeting showed nothing of the sort.
The second hoax was a threat anonymously posted to a student commission Google doc on March 4.
K-College officials learned early Wednesday that a "highly inflammatory entry" had been posted in the Student Commission Google Doc, an online collaboration tool that allows for group sharing and anonymous editing, according to an email to the campus community.
"The entry is racist, anti-Semitic, sexist and homophobic" and included a direct threat to K-College faculty, the email stated.
The post, which included "vitriol aimed at a wide range of campus members," included the following line, according to another email, this one from the president's staff to K-College faculty and staff: "At 900AM 3/5/15 I am going to start systematically executing faculty at Kalamazoo U, that will teach them the value of campus carry." Neither email repeated the entire posting.Mlive reported this without any skepticism. But there were several reasons to believe this was a hoax. As this blog wrote in March:
At this point, we should note that virtually every racial 'hate crime' on a college campus has been proven to be a hoax. As noted by National Review, The College Fix, Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter:
Instead, all the hair-on-fire college rape stories have been scams: the Duke lacrosse team’s gang-rape of a stripper; Lena Dunham’s rape by Oberlin College’s “resident Republican,” Barry; and Rolling Stone‘s fraternity gang-rape at UVA. Two of the three were foisted on the public—and disproved in public—only in the last few weeks.
The only epidemic sweeping the nation seems to be Munchausen rape syndrome. What’s next, college noose hoaxes?
The portions of the message quoted in the Gazette article sound like they were written to implicate gun rights supporters. Who would be most likely to know about the student commission Google doc? Also, who benefits from the attention and sympathy the threat provokes?The police launched an investigation.
That email said the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and K-College are taking the threat seriously, but KDPS officers believe it likely came from someone not connected to campus and that it is unlikely the person will follow through with the threat.It turns out KDPS went one-for-two on the predictions.
Police and prosecutors declined to say who charges are being sought against in the case. However, police reports and search warrants obtained by the Kalamazoo Gazette under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act show that two K-College students quickly became the focus of the KDPS investigation of the online threat.
The students, a woman who has since graduated and another woman who was a first-year student, came to the attention of detectives in the hours after the incident.
The threat was part of a series of anti-Semitic, homophobic, racist and sexist posts that were entered on the Google Doc between 10:37 p.m. and 11:51 p.m. on March 3. The threat said, "AT 900 AM 3/5/15 I AM GOING TO START SYSTEMATICALLY EXECUTING FACULTY AT KALAMAZOO U, THAT WILL TEACH THEM THE VALUE OF CAMPUS CARRY."So it now seems all but certain that the threat was a hoax by a K College student to revive the controversy that had been dying down. The goal of all this controversy was the creation of an "Intercultural Center", whatever that is. It worked. In June, K College announced that it would create an Intercultural Center.
The student(s) behind this hoax should be fully prosecuted, and K College should cancel the Intercultural Center as the fruit of a poisoned tree.
UPDATE: Kalamazoo County Prosecutor Jeff Getting has refused to file charges in the case. He claims that the identity of the perpetrator cannot be conclusively identified. The police apparently thought otherwise, since they sought charges. Is liberal democrat prosecutor Getting covering for a politically inconvenient perpetrator?
