A university in Ohio is to pay $36.6 million to a local bakery after students and staff falsely accused it of racism because an employee chased and restrained a black student he had seen shoplifting. The Times has the story.
On Thursday Oberlin College’s board of trustees said it would pay damages awarded by the Ohio Court of Appeals, ending a five-year dispute that triggered a nationwide debate over race, criminal justice and free speech. The court upheld a jury verdict that Oberlin was liable for libel, intentional infliction of emotional distress and interference with a business.
Oberlin College students staged demonstrations outside Gibson’s Bakery in November 2016 a day after three black students were arrested and accused of attempting to steal from the store. Allyn Gibson, a grandson of the owner, said he saw one of the students, a young man, hiding two bottles of wine in his coat. Gibson chased him across the street and tackled him. Two young female students then attacked Gibson, according to a police officer.
All three students were arrested and later pleaded guilty to misdemeanour charges. At his sentencing Jonathan Aladin, who pleaded guilty to attempted theft, read a statement acknowledging that Gibson was justified in trying to restrain him and that his actions had not been racially motivated.
However, his initial arrest, which came the day after Donald Trump was elected president, caused outrage on a campus with a long, proud history of progressive activism. Students and staff believed the trio had been attempting to purchase alcohol under-age with fake identification.
If only every piece of woke defamation and attempt at cancellation could be so successfully litigated.
Worth reading in full.
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