Hat tip Heat Street and College Insurrection
I originally held off posting this story for a few days because the Facebook posting had supposedly been taken down, and I wanted to be sure it really happened. I see that Inside Higher Education has run with the story. It concerns Ohio State University Residence Life official Stephanie Clemons Thompson, who, under a Black Lives Matter hashtag, expressed sympathy toward the Somali man who attacked several people with his car and a knife a few days ago before being shot dead by a campus cop. She also expressed hostility towards those who did not share her feelings toward Abdul Razaq Ali Artan.
https://heatst.com/culture-wars/black-lives-matter-ohio-state-university-staffer-expresses-sympathy-with-campus-attacker/
Do I think Ms Thompson should be fired? No, I don't. She was exercising her right of free speech on a personal social media website. If OSU could fire her for this, UC Irvine could have fired me years ago for what I write on this blog, much of which I am sure they considered offensive. (Of course, nobody can fire me now because I am no longer employed at UCI.)
Having said that, I strongly disagree with her sentiments. I think she should imagine the pain Artan's victims are suffering. Imagine the pain of their families had any of them died. I have no sympathy for whatever pain Mr Artan may have suffered because he felt uncomfortable praying in open spaces on the OSU campus. That's no excuse to go out and commit mass murder.
And I am not sorry Artan is dead. Unfriend that.
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