Month: December 2018

Harvard graduate student Leyla Pirnie was asked to move out of her apartment after her roommates discovered she possessed legally owned firearms.

The Washington Free Beacon reports that Pirnie’s roommates allegedly rummaged through her belongings while she was away from the apartment, discovered her guns, and emailed the landlord to complain. One of the roommates told the landlord: “We discussed with Leyla that all of us are uncomfortable with having firearms in the house, and that their presence causes anxiety and deprives us of the quiet enjoyment of the premise to which we are entitled.”

The landlord, Avid Management’s Dave Lewis, then emailed the apartment residents, including Pirnie, to say he had checked with local police, who verified the guns were “being safely and legally stored under lock and key.” Despite Pirnie’s compliance with the law, Lewis then cited the roommates’ discomfort with firearms as grounds for Pirnie to move out of the apartment.

He wrote: “Since it’s clear that Leyla wants to keep her firearms, it would be best for all parties if she finds another place to live.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

In mid-November, a Drake University student told school officials she had received four racist notes in one of the residence halls, at least one of which was addressed to her.

After a police and school investigation, the student, who has not been charged or named, admitted to writing one of the notes. The Des Moines Register reports that Drake officials “are confident the four notes reported by the female student were hoaxes.”

The student who sent the four hoax notes now faces harassment charges, according to Sgt. Paul Parizek, a Des Moines, IA, police spokesman (whether she will actually be charged remains to be seen and is unlikely). Drake spokesman Jarad Bernstein told the Register that the student also faces a campus discipline procedure, which could result in her expulsion. Again, this is unlikely, as most hoaxers claim they were trying to “start a dialogue” and get a pass.

On Friday, Drake University President Marty Martin sent a statement to students and faculty saying the notes reported by the student on Nov. 13 and 15 were “copycat hoaxes of an initial campus incident.”

The original note – separate from the four hoaxes – was found in early November by freshman Keith Walker. Walker wrote about the note in a now-deleted Facebook post, saying he was going to leave Drake on Nov. 9 for “mental health reasons” but would return. Drake sent a statement to the Register saying after Walker reported the note, he was offered a new place to live, academic support, counseling, and security. Bernstein at the time couldn’t tell the Register if Walker accepted any of this.

The Register also reported Walker did not return multiple interview requests and police have said the student is not cooperating with the investigation.

“Right now, we don’t have a suspect we can charge,” Sgt. Parizek said.

Parizek told the Register on Friday that they’re still investigating the note Walker found, even after the other notes were proven to be hoaxes. Based on how these investigations always seem to go, it’s probably safe to assume we already know who sent the note to Walker.

Despite the fact that every incident of racist or sexist notes turns out to be false, about 3,000 Drake students still took the opportunity to get out of class and hold a rally. One speaker, according to the Register, claimed she “felt her life was in danger” at the university.

Drake President Martin addressed the rally in his statement on Friday, standing up for the students who claim to feel threatened despite no actual threat existing.

“The fact that the actions of the student who has admitted guilt were propelled by motives other than hate does not minimize the worry and emotional harm they caused, but should temper fears,” Martin wrote.

Martin said 250 students, faculty, and staff received robo calls containing white supremacist language after the notes were reported. So, a non-hate incident masquerading as a hate incident, rather than leading to an actual conversation, led to an actual hate incident. So much for “starting a dialogue.”

The student government at the University of California Berkeley unanimously passed a resolution that allocates $1,500 to the migrant caravan at the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana.

According to the resolution, “In Support of Central American Refugees in their Pursuit of Asylum,” the allocated $1,500 will come from commercial revenues and will be distributed to a student organization, Central Americans for Empowerment, which will donate the allocation to the non-profit Freedom for Immigrants to help the caravan.

The resolution also tasked the student government’s Office of the External Affairs Vice President with “phone-banking and lobbying in support of both emergency and comprehensive immigration reform as part of their national advocacy agenda.”

In the resolution, the sponsor and co-sponsors claim that the migrant crisis is the fault of the U.S. government because foreign policy “fueled by corporate greed” has “strategically intervened in Central American politics and warfare; thus strengthening the U.S. economy and further disregarding the livelihood of citizens in these countries.”

“[S]ince 2009 the U.S. government has given Honduras two hundred million dollars in police and military aid intended to help lower the migration rates from Honduras to the United States,” the resolution says. “[D]ue to inadequate intervention on the United States’ behalf, the Honduran government has abused and misused money intended to aid the Honduran people consequently making Honduras one of the most dangerous countries with the highest murder rate in the world.”

A student associated with the Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC) and familiar with the process told The Daily Wire that there “are three different sections for new bills to get sent to,” but typically new bills get classified as “New Business” and get sent to a committee until the next meeting.

“Senator Nick Araujo, rather than putting it into ‘New Business,’ put it into ‘Immediate Consideration,’ and some senators were upset about that because they thought it needed to go to ‘New Business’ before being considered to be passed,” said the student, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “What Araujo was doing was putting it into the agenda to be immediately considered before it would go to the committee or be given to the public. Six senators thought it should go to the committee, and 14 said that it should go to ‘Immediate Consideration.’”

Before voting on the resolution, several students voiced why they support the resolution, but some used harsh rhetoric to pressure their peers into voting for the resolution in the four-hour meeting.

“Y’all are being really f****** ridiculous having us be up here,” one student said. “I now have had to have the same f****** conversation that is being ignored at the federal level. I’m honestly like— I would of thought people who claim to be— like say they’re our representation— I would’ve thought y’all have the audacity to like pass this f****** bill but of course y’all prove time and time again that y’all don’t give a f**** about students of color.”

According to Campus Reform, other students called the debate over allocating money “damn petty,” told their fellow senators to “get your sh**” together, and that voting no would be “ignorant and violent.”

Tijuana is currently spending around $35,000 a day on the caravan according to authorities, The Daily Wire’s Emily Zanotti reported. Additionally, MSNBC reports that many migrants feel misled and claim that they were promised crossing the border would be easy and that they would be eligible for work programs in the United States. Now the Mexican government is reportedly helping migrants return back to Honduras and Guatemala.