New York police officers took a Rutgers University lecturer to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation Tuesday night after he tweeted a question about the Second Amendment which authorities viewed as a threat to kill white people.
Kevin Allred, who is white, believes the inquiry was the result of him asking if conservatives would care as much about the Second Amendment if guns killed more white people.
An NYPD spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News that threatening language prompted the investigation.
“We were informed by Rutgers PD that he made threats to kill white people and he was subsequently taken to Bellevue Hospital for evaluation,” the spokesperson said.
Soon after, Allred was transported to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, where he was “forced to undergo a psychiatric evaluation," he wrote on Twitter.
Allred wrote that “even the doctors thought it was ridiculous” to have made him undergo the evaluation, and called the process an intimidation tactic.
According to Allred, one of the doctors told him that “politicians say much worse on live television with no repercussions and they choose to waste resources bringing me in."
In a message to BuzzFeed News, Allred admitted that the tweet "was incendiary/provocative for sure, but in my opinion not a threat and it was in the context of a whole bunch of tweets about the election and the issues raised in it meant to show people's reasons as holding double standards."
He added that "obviously it's Twitter so it was curt and meant to provoke for a purpose. and then it got singled out."
BuzzFeed News has reached out to Rutgers Police Department and Twitter for more information.
In 2015, Allred tweeted that there were "no good white people," only less bad white people.
He reiterated the sentiment again in July, urging people to do their part to make the world less harmful for others.
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/2f14UZ4
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