Kevin Allred, a Rutgers University adjunct professor, was reportedly taken to a New York hospital for a psych evaluation after police claimed he threatened to kill white people on Twitter. The comments — which were reportedly made on Twitter and in class — came just days after Donald Trump won the presidential election.
Allred, who teaches gender studies and made headlines earlier this year for his class “Feminist Perspectives: Politicizing Beyonce,” explained that the comments in question were nothing more than rhetorical political statements, and that school officials were trying to intimidate him for exercising his right to free speech.
“NYPD just came to my house bc [sic] Rutgers Police told them I’m a threat based on political statements I’ve made on campus and on Twitter,” he explained in a late-night Tweet Tuesday. “They’ve forced me to now undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the hospital. They brought me by ambulance tho [sic] I’m not under arrest technically.”
Allred elaborated that the comments he made were about the meaning behind burning the American flag and rhetorical questions about the second amendment. “I said: would conservatives care as much [about] the 2nd amendment if guns killed more white people?” he explained in a Tweet. “A question meant to expose double standard.”
According to the NYPD, campus cops asked doctor to conduct “a wellness check … on the professor based on comments he made in the classroom and on Twitter about killing white people.”
Allfred was loaded into an ambulance Tuesday night and taken to Bellevue Hospital in New York City for evaluation. He told the New York Daily News that he spent two hours at the hospital before doctors agreed that he had no psychological issues.
“The doctors were like, ‘This is ridiculous, why did they bring you here?’” Allred said. “And I said, ‘That’s what I thought, but they told me they had to do it.’”
Here’s his full tweet explanation:
NYPD just came to my house bc Rutgers Police told them i'm a threat based on political statements i've made on campus and on twitter.
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
and this is for exercising my fucking first amendment rights. i'm being labeled a threat and put in a psych hospital
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
ok. they let me leave. this is a shitshow and is proof positive that Trump's crackdown on free speech has absolutely begun.
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
she said politicians say much worse on live television with no repurcussions and they choose to waste resources bringing me in.
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
i said: would conservatives care as much abt the 2nd amendment if guns killed more white people? a question meant to expose double standard
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
https://twitter.com/KevinAllred/status/798752589860851712
¬e it's only a matter of importance when "white people" as a group are "targeted" (their term). acting like national security was at risk
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
jesus fucking christ. not the way i thought my night would go. also not that bad comparatively. but i'm not intimidated. i won't be.
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
Immediately after the election results were announced, Allred tweeted “If I see any Trump bumper stickers on the road today, my brakes will go out and I’ll run you off the road.” Another commenter pointed out that he “made murder threats” with the Tweet, “Will the 2nd amendment be as cool when I buy a gun and start shooting at random white people or no…?”
Rutgers spokesman E.J. Miranda said Wednesday the university’s police department “responded to a complaint from a student and took all appropriate action,” but the school would make no further comment.
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