RUTHFULLY YOURS

After cop-hating lynch mobs got what they were chanting for – the execution of two New York police officers – there was widespread disgust and anger among decent, sane Americans. Among others, there was indifference, amusement, and even celebration.

Brandeis University student Khadijah Lynch, for example, an undergraduate representative for the Department of African and Afro-American Studies, took to Twitter to express that she found the murders of NYPD officers Rafael Ramos, a Latino father of two, and Wenjian Liu, an Asian-American newlywed, to be hilarious: “lmao, all i just really dont have sympathy for the cops who were shot. i hate this racist f**king country,” read the junior’s illiterate tweet.

Fellow Brandeis student Daniel Mael, a Horowitz Freedom Center student leader and TruthRevolt reporter, took to TruthRevolt.com to publicize Lynch’s tweet and others of hers like it, such as these:

“i have no sympathy for the nypd officers who were murdered today”
“what the f**k even IS ‘non-violence’”
“ya’ll out here waiting for a white messiah, im waiting for Malcolm X to return.”
“the fact that black people have not burned this country down is beyond me”
“I am in riot mode. F**k this f**king country”
“I need to get my gun license. asap.”

Outrage ensued over her militant hatefulness. To curb any excessive anger, Mael wrote on his Facebook page:

Any threats made against Khadijah Lynch are repulsive and morally reprehensible. What Lynch wrote was vile and so to are some of the threats made against her. It must stop. Now. We must overcome vicious hatred through real dialogue and a strong commitment to a better future.

Lynch made her Twitter page private and resigned from her position as an undergraduate department representative. Complaining that her public tweets were her “own personal opinion,” she warned TruthRevolt – illiterately again, suggesting that a $60,000-a-year Brandeis education is failing her or vice versa – that she did not want her tweets “publicized in any form and if you do not abide my wishes i constitute your disregard as slander.”

Apparently she is unaware that slander is spoken, not written (which is libel), and that she was not misrepresented. As Alan Dershowitz put it, addressing the controversy,

Republishing someone’s published words could not possibly constitute slander, libel, or any other form of defamation, because you can’t be slandered by your own words.

Suddenly regarding themselves as First Amendment champions, some Brandeis students leapt to Lynch’s defense. As reported by the Daily Caller, senior Michael Piccione, a member of the student conduct board, was upset that a conservative website had called her out for the tweets. He sent an email to the Brandeis President, administrators, faculty, and students entitled “VERY IMPORTANT: Holding Daniel Mael accountable, and other threats to student safety!” In it he declared that Mael had “potentially violated multiple parts” of a Brandeis code of student conduct including “stalking,” and complained that Mael had “exposed Khadijah” to what Piccione falsely characterized as TruthRevolt’s “largely white supremacist following.” So he condemns supremacism unless it’s black, and libel unless it’s against conservatives.

Another student, sophomore William Amara, spewed obscenities on the Brandeis Class of 2017 official Facebook page:

I am sorry that Khadijah has to put up with these f**king assholes publishing and likely distorting her private opinions to further incite racial hatred and oppression. I hope the university will stand with you if these c**ks**kers cause things to escalate further.

He too described the reporting of Lynch’s tweets as “slander.”

The Brandeis Asian American Student Association proclaimed “sympathy” and a “readiness to stand by” Lynch as well, even though one of the slain NYPD officers was Asian-American. On Facebook, the student group claimed that Lynch “has been wrongfully targeted and harassed.” “We recognize your right to speak freely” they declared, although no one was denying her that.

As Dershowitz wrote:

Welcome to the topsy-turvy world of the academic hard left, where bigoted speech by fellow hard leftists is protected, but counter expression is labeled as “harassment,” “incitement,” and “bullying.” Imagine how different the reaction of these same radical students would be if a white supporter of the KKK had written comparably incendiary tweets.

A Change.org petition adorned with black power fists and black liberation colors was created to “stand with Khadijah.” It charges, with inexplicable capitalization, that Mael’s article was “Libel,” “Defamation of Character,” and “Cyber bullying.” It has 1,220 signatures as of this writing, a week after posting.

On December 28, another Change.org petition was posted – this one in support of Mael and featuring the Brandeis and NYPD logos (the latter with a black mourning band). It demanded that Brandeis President Fred Lawrence end his silence about the controversy, hold accountable any Brandeis student who threatens or intimidates another student, and condemn any Brandeis student or faculty member who expresses support for the murder of policemen. “Students have the right to their opinions,” reads the petition, but “the University has the duty to judge some opinions as beneath contempt.” As of this writing, a day after the petition was posted, it has accumulated 2,253 signatures.

President Lawrence did break his silence. In an email to the Brandeis community, he expressed “deep sympathy and respect for the slain officers and for their families, colleagues and friends,” urged civil discussion, and committed to the free speech and safety of his students. He also, in no uncertain terms, sided with the critics of Lynch’s tweets:

I thus join those who have condemned any lack of sympathy with these officers and with those who mourn their murder.

Meanwhile the backlash against Mael intensified. His condemnation of threats against Lynch didn’t seem to be reciprocated. Human rights attorney Brooke Goldstein of the Lawfare Project noted that:

Mael, as well as his immediate and extended family (including his grandmother), have since received threatening messages and harassing phone calls to their homes…

Campus police have advised Mael that he will be a target when he returns to campus, and that it is reasonable to expect that his tires may be slashed, his car keyed, and that other violent acts may be perpetrated against him. Mael has also been advised not to travel alone on campus during the day or night and to carry a bottle of mace.

When it comes to race, the left always wants it both ways. Khadijah Lynch’s black supremacist tweets are defended, but a conservative quoting them is hate speech. The Black Panthers are preparing for a race war, but the nonviolent Tea Party is scorned as a racist hate group. A black nationalist executing a white police officer has a horde of activists and celebrities petitioning for his release, but a white cop defending himself against a black attacker is a racist murderer.

As the Freedom Center has noted innumerable times, campuses across the United States are dominated by leftist intolerance and racial activism among students and faculty alike. It takes no small degree of courage for a student like Mael to expose some of the radicals poisoning the campus atmosphere, exposing himself to their potentially violent wrath. The Freedom Center is proud to have Daniel Mael representing it and taking a brave and noble stand for truth and against totalitarianism.