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Man Arrested After Social Media Threats Against Black Students At University Of Missouri

Man Arrested After Social Media Threats Against Black Students At University Of Missouri

By Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

COLUMBIA, Mo. — University of Missouri police arrested a 19-year-old man about 100 miles from campus on suspicion of posting social media threats against black students, who were deeply disturbed by anonymous messages, including one that said, “I’m going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see.”

University police said in a Wednesday morning statement that the suspect had posted threats to the anonymous posting service Yik Yak and other social media and was not situated on or near campus “at the time of the threat.”

Another message on Yik Yak said: “Some of you are alright. Don’t go to campus tomorrow.”

The suspect, Hunter Park, who is white and from Lake St. Louis, was arrested on suspicion of making terrorist threats and was being held on $4,500 bail, according to records from the Boone County jail.

University of Missouri police said in a statement that Park was arrested at 1:50 a.m. in Rolla, Mo., almost 100 miles southeast of Columbia. Police officials declined to release more details.

Black students were rattled by the threats, which came after a semester of mounting campus protests over racial issues that culminated with University System President Tim Wolfe and Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin announcing their resignations Monday.

Loftin tweeted that the suspect used “multiple accounts” to threaten students.

Some professors canceled classes and some black students left campus out of fear for their safety late Tuesday night as students — including Missouri student body President Payton Head — also circulated incorrect social media reports that Ku Klux Klan members had gathered on campus.

University of Missouri police Maj. Brian Weimer told the Los Angeles Times late Tuesday night that the department had received no reports of Klan members on campus.

Students were also unsettled by a man shouting and cursing late Tuesday night at the speaker’s circle next to the university library. Weimer said the man walked away with a friend.

Someone placed a threatening phone call to the campus’s black culture center earlier in the day Tuesday, but the center was not evacuated, said Weimer, who added that university police were maintaining a heavier presence on campus than usual.

Some black students were still upset Wednesday morning after a night in which students urged each other to walk home in groups and offer students walking alone an escort home.

“How Mizzou responds to the threat on Black lives today will dictate the progress of the school for the next 10+ years,” graduate student Jonathan Butler, 25, who held a seven-day hunger strike to call for the system president’s removal, wrote on Twitter.

University of Missouri officials said in a statement on its alert service that the university was still operating under its usual schedule, adding, “Safety is the university’s top priority, and we are working hard to assure that the campus remains safe while information is obtained and confirmed.”

Photo: Hunter Park is pictured in this undated booking photo provided by Boone County Sheriff’s Department in Missouri. Park, was in custody on November 11, 2015, for making online threats to shoot black students at the University of Missouri following racial protests that prompted the school’s president and chancellor to step down this week, campus police said. REUTERS/Boone County Sheriff’s Department/Handout via Reuters

@POTUS: Another Way To Attack The President

@POTUS: Another Way To Attack The President

Any high-profile person starting a Twitter account is news.

But when the president does it? Well, that’s something else entirely.

Who does he follow? Who is he talking to? Who’s tweeting at him? And how many of those tweets consist of threats and hate speech? (Unfortunately, a lot.)

@POTUS — not to be confused with @BarackObama, which is controlled by the group Organizing for Action — is the actual Twitter handle of the president.

So who is @POTUS following? Most of the 65 accounts he follows are government entities — the Treasury Department, Energy Department, Department of Veterans Affairs — and high-level administration officials, like Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel, Secretary of State John Kerry, and Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker.

But he also follows his alma maters, Occidental College (1979-1981), Columbia University (1981-1983), and Harvard University (1988-1991); Chicago sports teams (Blackhawks, White Sox, Bears, and Bulls); and of course, Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, and the White House.

Notably lacking? TheChicago Tribunepointed out that @POTUS was not following the Chicago Cubs.

Former advisor David Axelrod told the Tribune that the president has pledged his allegiance to the White Sox many times.

“Hey, say what you will, he’s consistent,” Axelrod said. “Once a Sox man, always a Sox man.”

The Sox’s senior coordinator of social media, Colleen Maxwell, told the Tribune that “it’s standard procedure” not to follow a rival when you’re a big fan of a particular team. “But if it was him [clicking to follow], it shows he knows the audience. He knows what he’s doing.”

@POTUS, which launched earlier this week, will have tweets coming exclusively from the president, the White House announced, as part of his ongoing effort to be transparent to the American public. The president immediately charmed with an exchange with former President Bill Clinton (whom he follows, along with the first President Bush):

Along with @FLOTUS and @VP, the @POTUS account will have new owners, presumably after the presidential inauguration in 2017.

However, in the five days since the account launched, @POTUS has been the recipient of racial slurs and hate speech. Since @POTUS’s bio says that tweets directed at the account can be archived — as is true of anyone whose tweets are part of official government business — it may not be advisable to tweet the president directly. The Secret Service monitors Twitter for threats, and they will go after someone they deem a credible threat.

Case in point: Jeff Gullickson of Minneapolis tweeted a doctored picture of the president with a noose around his neck, calling for his arrest. The Secret Service landed on his doorstep shortly after, TheNew York Timesreported.

Don’t presume that you can just use Americans’s favorite justification for everything, the First Amendment, as an excuse to make violent tweets against the president. As Hanni Fakhoury, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, toldThe Daily Dot, “the First Amendment does not protect true threats: any statement that conveys an intent to do harm or physical injury.” Tweeting threats to the president can land you in jail.

The BBC on Wednesday published its own comparison of world leaders’ Twitter accounts.

@BarackObama leads with more than 59 million followers, with the Pope in second place — although he has nine (!) different accounts, each in a different language, so that designation really needs an asterisk.

India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, is number three and Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is fourth. India’s huge population and Twitter’s popularity in Turkey accounts for their high standings.

@POTUS, as of this writing, has 2.33 million followers, although that number is sure to grow. Sysomos, a social media monitoring firm, published a blog post Wednesday analyzing the spread of @POTUS’s tweets and his audience. Only 38 percent of his followers identify themselves as coming from the U.S., with the U.K. making up 6.6 percent. (Over 27 percent is unidentified.) Sixty-five percent of his followers are male, with 35 percent female.

Photo: For some reason, it took six years for Barack Obama to do this. Image: @POTUS/Twitter

Nebraska’s Lieutenant Governor Resigns After Sister Alleges Threats

Nebraska’s Lieutenant Governor Resigns After Sister Alleges Threats

By Matt Pearce, Los Angeles Times

Nebraska’s lieutenant governor announced his resignation Tuesday morning, a day after a state judge ordered him not to contact his sister after she accused him of having anger problems and threatening her.

Lt. Gov. Lavon Heidemann, who was appointed to his office by Gov. Dave Heineman in 2013, was running in the November election to retain his position as part of a joint Republican ticket with gubernatorial candidate Pete Ricketts.

“This has been a difficult situation, and after much thought, discussion, and prayer, I have decided that for the good of my family, for the office of lieutenant governor, and for the future of Nebraska, I am resigning today from the office of lieutenant governor, as well as withdrawing as running mate for Pete Ricketts,” Heidemann said in a statement.

According to the Nebraska secretary of state’s office, the official deadline for withdrawing from the race passed on Sept. 1. It was not immediately clear how Heidemann’s resignation would affect the election. Ricketts’ campaign website said that he was planning to announce a new running mate on Tuesday afternoon.

Heidemann — who had said Monday that he “disputed much of my sister’s claims” — added in his Tuesday statement that his sister’s allegations against him “are not who I am,” and did not discuss the issue further.

The protection order sought by Heidemann’s sister, Lois L. Bohling of Elk Creek, Nebraska, was granted by Johnson County District Judge Daniel Bryan after a hearing Monday morning, according to local media reports.

Bohling wanted to block Heidemann from contacting her or from visiting their disabled mother, Lola Heidemann, who was widowed when their father died in January 2013.

According to a petition Bohling filed with the court, Bohling and Heidemann have been struggling over how to divide their father’s property since at least October 2013.

In one December incident, Bohling said, “Lavon became VERY angry and his anger was pointed at me. He was shouting at me and at one point raised up, and started to come over the table at me with a furor in his eyes, like a wild man, that scared me to pieces.”

Bohling said she began to avoid her brother after that, but had another run-in with him a few weeks ago, on Aug. 19, at their mother’s home.

Bohling, who said she has been her mother’s primary caregiver during the last five years, said that Heidemann became angry with her after he arrived and she began to talk about their mother’s medical care.

Bohling said Heidemann then charged at her with “hatred” in his eyes, grabbing her arms and “screaming” in her face.

“Now I am not just afraid but terrified of him. I feel scared because there is no way to know when or where he will erupt at me next,” Bohling wrote in her petition for an order of protection.

Heineman, who had appointed Heidemann to office, said in his own statement Tuesday that the lieutenant governor’s resignation was “a sad day for the state of Nebraska,” calling Heidemann an “outstanding public official.”

“Last night, Lavon and his wife met with me in my office at approximately 9:30 p.m. He apologized for what occurred and told me he would be resigning,” Heineman said. “I have said many times that as public officials we are held to a higher standard of conduct and we should be. This is an unfortunate situation, but Lavon is doing what is appropriate by putting his family first and stepping down as lieutenant governor.”

A spokesman for Ricketts, Heidemann’s running mate, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Photo via WikiCommons

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