A Kean University graduate was sentenced to 90 days in jail, followed by five years probation and an agreement to repay more than $80,000 in damages caused by her fake tweets threatening to kill black students.
Kayla McKelvey, an African-American activist who claims she sent the fake tweets to “shine a light on an issue that is important to me,” received the sentence after admitting she left a campus protest last November to create the fake Twitter account and send the messages. She then returned to the protest and told everyone about the alleged threats.
She pleaded guilty to a charge of creating a false public alarm, and will have to repay $82,328 to law enforcement for the investigation of the tweets, which caused a panic on campus. More than half of Kean students missed two or three days of classes due to fears that they would be targeted for violence.
Union County Assistant Prosecutor Shawn Barnes accepted the plea agreement, noting that this past Friday was the first time McKelvey expressed remorse for what she had done. He added that she only sent the threats to increase turnout at her protest.
“To say that these threats were made for the greater good is disingenuous. It was selfish. It was for her rally,” Barnes said, according to NJ.com.
McKelvey sent the tweets from an account she created called @keanuagainstblk. The account stated: “I will shoot any black person I see at Kean University” and “Kean University Twitter against blacks is for everyone who hates blacks [sic] people.”
Judge Robert Mega called McKelvey’s crime “heinous” and rejected her defense that she had sent the tweets for the greater good of calling out racism. Another thing: Faking racism to call out racism doesn’t make people believe racism is more prevalent. Instead, it makes them think twice about believing future accusations.
This is why hoaxers need to be punished as harshly as possible. It’s important that those who create a panic such as this aren’t allowed to just receive a slap on the wrist. The more hoaxes there are, the less people will believe actual racism exists at all. A person shouldn’t be able to perpetrate a hoax, cost law enforcement (and taxpayers) tens of thousands of dollars for investigating and create a moral panic without suffering consequences.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
