A race-baiting fabricator has been sentenced to jail

In the days and weeks following the Ferguson incident, many gullible people fell for the bizarre accusation.

* A White police officer became enraged that a young Black man was walking in the middle of the street.

* The White police officer reached through his vehicle window and seized the Black's neck.

* The White police officer drew his pistol and, through the vehicle window, shot the Black in the shoulder.

* The White police officer chased the Black down the middle of the street and shot the Black in the back.

* The Black stopped, turned around, raised his hands, and pleaded to surrender, but the White police officer shot the Black repeatedly at close range until the Black fell dead.

Such an incident is not impossible, but sensible people felt a healthy skepticism. Throughout the USA, however, millions of gullible people fell for for the yarn. Furthermore, these  gullible people hysterically hurled racism accusations against anyone -- even friends and relatives -- who did express healthy skepticism. The racism accusations were intended to silence the skeptics, who tried to discuss the evidence objectively.

It's important for sensible people to keep in mind that some people in our society are race-baiting fabricators who want to incite racial paranoia and rage throughout our society. Sometimes fabricators falsely embellish actual incidents (e.g. in Ferguson), and sometimes fabricators create completely imaginary incidents.

Gullible people who reflexively fall for race-baiting fabricators and who self-righteously accuse skeptical people of being racists  consider themselves to be intellectually or morally superior, but they are obnoxious fools.

---------

Fortunately, a race-baiting fabricator recently was sentenced to jail and to a large fine for creating an imaginary racism incident. The story was reported by Tom Haydon for the website NJCOM on June 17, 2016.

Kayla McKelvey (right) being sentenced
for fabricating a racism incident.

A Superior Court judge Friday sentenced a Kean University [in Union, New Jersey] graduate to 90 days in jail and five years probation for posting Twitter messages threatening to kill black students on the campus. 

However, Judge Robert Mega expressed his disagreement with the plea-agreement and sentence for the defendant, Kayla McKelvey, an African American woman, who admitted writing the messages because she wanted to bring attention to racism on campus. 

In her statement to the judge, McKelvey apologized for sending the messages, which said black students would be shot. She admitted the tweets were wrong but said her intent to raise awareness about racial issues was correct. 

McKelvey, 25, and a former president of the university's Pan African Student Union, said she "made a poor error in judgement to shine a light on an issue that is important to me. My intent was to expose racism on campus," McKelvey said. She opened her statement by apologizing to the university and Union Township police, and to her friends and family. .... 

The messages were sent during a protest last November about racism on the campus. McKelvey in court today said that during the rally she heard "people yelling white power, calling us monkeys." 

She had pleaded guilty to a charge of creating a false public alarm, and in exchange, the prosecutor's office agreed to recommend the three-month sentence. 

Mega, before announcing the sentence, challenged Union County Assistant Prosecutor Shawn Barnes to defend the plea agreement. 

"Why shouldn't I reject this plea," Mega asked. He said the threats caused mayhem on the campus and could have turned the university community "into a tinder box." 

Barnes replied that it was a third-degree crime, that McKelvey had no prior criminal record, that she agreed to pay $82,328 in restitution to law enforcement agencies that investigated the threats, and that the plea agreement had been discussed with Kean University. 

McKelvey's lawyer, Thomas Ashley, had asked Mega to place his client on probation, with no jail time, saying McKelvey had been an honor student, a homecoming queen, a student leader on the campus prior to graduation in the spring of 2015, and had a history of community service. Ashley said McKelvey once had a bright future but now has suffered, losing her job as a certified personal trainer, and losing nearly all her friends. 

Barnes had previously argued for a three-month jail sentence, saying that Friday was the first time McKelvey had expressed remorse. He said the 10 threatening messages spread panic across the campus, and caused more than half of students to miss two or three days of classes, all because McKelvey wanted to attract more protesters to her rally. .... 

Authorities say that on Nov. 17, 2015, McKelvey, then a graduate of the university, participated in a protest against racism on the campus. McKelvey left the rally midway through, however, going to a computer station located in a university library and creating an anonymous Twitter account to post the tweets. She then returned to the rally and spread word of the threats. ...

Race-baiting fabricators can cause destructive riots and racial animosity in our society. The harsh sentence imposed on McKelvey should discourage other people who contemplate such antics. Perhaps McKelvey herself might have been discouraged if the Ferguson liars had been prosecuted for their perjury.

Although it was possible that some real racist was using Twitter to broadcast threats to murder Blacks at Kean University, such a situation was unlikely and deserved healthy skepticism.