Death Threats to Biologists “Not Necessarily a Crime”
Jul 30th, 2007 by Will Potter
Apparently making a series of death threats against researchers is “not necessarily a crime”… if you’re a born-again right wing Christian.
From Paula Pant at The Colorado Daily, “CU biologists get death threats”:
Last weekend more than a dozen envelopes bearing the image of skull and crossbones and containing letters threatening the lives of CU-Boulder evolutionary biology professors were slipped under the doors of CU-Boulder buildings.
According to a reprint of the letter posted online, the threat reads: “every true Christian should be ready and willing to take up arms to kill the enemies of Christian society.”
The letters and emails were signed “Michael Korn.”
Pant reports:
Several sources say Korn has distributed flyers on campus and has barged into offices of biology professors and administrators in the past year.
But in recent days the threatening e-mails and letters have occurred with increasing frequency and intensity.
On Friday an e-mail sent to CU-Boulder’s evolutionary biology department bore the subject line “a final CU Boulder EBIO appeal” and repeated the line “every true Christian should be ready and willing to take up arms to kill the enemies of Christian society.”
It’s been going on for at least a year, and Jeffrey Mitton, chair of CU-Boulder’s Ecology and Evolutionary Biology department, has been targeted in particular.
If this were done by an environmental activist or animal rights activist (and similar things have been done by those groups), the university and police would respond with plenty of eco-terrorism rhetoric, calls for rewards, and pleas for new legislation.
But how do the police respond to this?
Police says they aren’t sure it constitutes an official threat.
“Just because you feel threatened, it’s not necessarily a crime,” Wiesley said. “It’s not directed against a specific person, John and Jane Doe. It’s more along a line of ideology - if you believe this, we think you’re wrong, kind of thing.”
Hmm. So let’s get this straight. If an animal rights activist makes sweeping comments about how he feels violence is justified against researchers, then lawmakers and industry groups go through the roof, he has his home raided, and cops are on red alert. If a born-again Christian makes sweeping comments–and targeted death threats–about how he feels violence is justified against researchers, then lawmakers and industry groups don’t have much to say, and cops aren’t even sure it’s “necessarily a crime.”
Hands down, obviously the government, and too many people must just hate animal advocates. Why? - one can only surmise. Are we disturbing their comfortable, “head in the sand”, or HEAD IN A PLATE position and raising moral questions that span the religious spectrum, shaking the accepted perceptions regarding animals for food. AR’s has provided documented proof of animals suffering at “our hands”, but the powers that be continue to gravel and writhe, knowing they are dead wrong, and waste resources and our tax money in their profit driven goal to “boobie trap” animal activists.
i guess now we at least know who the bigger threat is.
What do you mean we aren’t supposed to blindly accept anything the right wing says is ok? I mean, he did do it for God, you know… (much sarcasm)
Argh! This makes me so mad I want to blow something up!*
*This is not a death threat.
[…] US Government Is Justified
« One In Seven | Home |
From […]
it’s true, though. it is not necessarily a crime. the true threats standard is/should be pretty tough to meet. the real problem is the police, prosecutors, judges and juries are happier to try to push the environmental/animal rights speech into the unprotected category when it clearly falls within (previously) accepted bounds.
To be read with much sarcasm:
Religion is a touchy subject right now - those who aren’t Christian are just Un-American, aren’t they? Who do these biologists think they are, teaching & studying a branch of science that for centuries has been a cornerstone of education? It’s a very dangerous subject: it implies that humans are some how related to the animal kingdom.
To be read seriously:
Animal-activism promotes equal treatment of all life, we are not “above” the animal life on this planet, we are part of it. Our exploitation of our kinder, gentler brethren will come back to bite us in the end. Example: Christian ideologues who make death threats against professors. Somehow I doubt God, Jesus, whoever is up there going “Alright! Finally some justice for me!”
[…] e position of dealing with trauma. And burnout. Will Potter writes about an odd case where Death Threats to Biologists “Not Necessari […]