Get A Grip: There Was No Hate Crime At The University Of Delaware

On Monday, Townhall’s news editor, Katie Pavlich, went to the University of Delaware to give a speech about the Second Amendment. University of Delaware’s student group–Students for the Second Amendment–had invited Pavlich to speak about the issue, which was open to the public at the cost of three dollars. Yet, Pavlich criticized the Black Lives Matter (BLM) for their atrocious “pigs in a blanket” chant - and the overall movement - as one that promotes violence against police officers. Well, surprise; that didn’t bode over well with some folks on the left and a protest was organized during her visit to U-Del.

There was a heavy security presence at the event, and it ended without any major incidents. Yet, reports of nooses being hung in some trees on campus one day after Pavlich gave her speech got everyone freaking out about hate crimes. There was only one problem: these weren’t nooses, thus no hate crime:

University of Delaware police say what was originally believed to be “nooses” hanging from a tree on campus were actually leftover lantern decorations.

Officials say a hate crime investigation ended when it was determined the items were paper lantern decorations leftover from an event that was held on campus on September 16.

The items that were left in the tree were part of a decoration from a paper lantern that was used during an event held on The Green that was a UD-sanctioned event,” University of Delaware Police Chief Patrick Ogden said Wednesday morning.

It was determined that the paper lantern decorations were removed from the tree, but the strings were never taken down, leading to them being mistaken for nooses.

The issue should have ended right then and there, but nope–not a chance. We need to meet and discuss this non-hate crime for reasons that escape logic. On Wednesday, the acting president of the University of Delaware, Nancy Targett, encouraged students to meet her at The Green for a dialogue about what happened.

Can we at least agree that we should be happy that these aren’t nooses? Could we come to that consensus? Of course, if such an incident had occurred, it does deserve the wrath of disgust and anger over what is a blatantly racist act. This incident didn’t carry any of that–and having some un-serious discussion about events that are the figments of some people’s imagination isn’t helping anyone, it’s enabling one’s disconnect with reality.

The worst part of this whole fiasco is how the media tried to link Pavlich’s event with the discovery of the nooses. In their minds, the timeline went like this: a prior student event featuring paper lanterns is held before Pavlich speech on Second Amendment, said event ends with improper cleanup procedure, Pavlich arrives for speech on Second Amendment, Pavlich leaves, “nooses” are found a day after Pavlich speech, liberal freak out about racism, police conclude that the nooses are just left over paper lanterns, Pavlich (according to the media) might be linked to nooses that are really paper lanterns because she was there 24 hours prior to their discovery (aha! a connection!*), and acting college president holds event to have a dialogue about a racially insensitive incident ... that never occurred.

Alas, a huge lesson from the left: the narrative always trump the facts. Always.

Racist speaker @KatiePavlich comes to UD last night. Tonight nooses on our campus @UDelaware @ABC6 @DeniseSawyerTV pic.twitter.com/E9JHpeaWLj
— Christian Mills (@Christiannmills) September 23, 2015

And by the way, to the reporters who tried to somehow tie me to the "nooses," aka metal lantern hangers, shame on you http://t.co/aFoOtX4j6a
— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) September 23, 2015

Again, it’s good that this wasn’t a hate crime incident–and I’m sure all the American Studies majors will have a field day debating about things that don’t exist. We’ve entered an End of Discussion era, where nothing can be debated because we can’t agree upon what is real. Granted, conservatives have their own little freak-outs over inane issues, but they’re usually not as successful as the left, given how progressives have an institutional mindset, which makes them more organized from the get-go. Nevertheless, in the search for unicorns, there’s nothing more entertaining than watching liberals crow about racism and hate crimes where there is no evidence. Better yet, evidence that's been proven 100 percent to not be associated with any such crime. At the same time, it can be incredibly annoying since the new media keeps recycling misinformation to the point where people begin to believe it a la Ahmed’s piece of junk clock.

*If you're on bath salts...