(Article by Nick Monroe republished from ThePostMillenial.com)
"Although false reporting of racial and bias incidents is isolated and rare, this case should remind every member of our community how important it is to preserve and protect due process and fairness in our procedures and communications. Seeking and confronting the truth and acting in accord with the facts must be at the heart of a just community," wrote SIUE when sharing the news.
This incident also involved an "anonymous text message thread from 2021" that is said to have racist content, but this isn't mentioned in the final charging documents that the hoaxer now faces.
Back on Friday, per The College Fix, black female college student Kaliyeha Clark-Mabins now faces three disorderly conduct charges for filing a false police report over the matter. The two white students falsely accused were cleared of wrongdoing after an investigation that involved the Madison County State’s Attorney’s office, as well as US Secret Service.
According to the charging documents, the summary of the incident is that she falsely reported on "January 23, 2022, she was the victim of a Hate Crime, in that she reported that two notes were posted on her dormitory room door, located at Room 119, Woodland Hall, SIU-E Campus, Edwardsville, Illinois, saying 'BLACK PEOPLE DON'T BELONG' and 'DIE B*TCH' and Kaliyeha Clark-Mabins knew at the time of this transmission there was no reasonable ground for believing that such an offense had been committed."
Chief of police for Southern Illinois University Edwards told the outlet that the Secret Service's involvement included analysis of the handwriting on the notes in question. The variations on the three disorderly conduct charges entail the fact that she lied to police in the first place, as well as making a false accusation against two others for the apparent staged act.
The initial incident, when students thought it was a white person who did it, led to a racial justice protest on campus where demonstrators raised awareness for protecting black students. David Daniel of the Black Student Union at the time said the person being accused of putting up the notes and sending "racial slurs and threats" via text message shouldn't even have been allowed on campus.
A now-closed change.org petition calling for the expulsion by "some white teens on campus" garnered over 1,800 signatures before the hate hoax situation was realized. In addition, SIUE police had increased their patrols on campus during that time of initial investigation because they were under the impression there was a potential threat.
The SIUE hate crime hoax situation is the latest in recent months. The most prominent in terms of media attention was the Jussie Smollett trial last year where the "Empire" actor was found guilty for his high-profile fabrication of being assaulted by "MAGA country" racists on a cold winter morning in Chicago.
Read more at: ThePostMillenial.com