The Other McCain

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Report: Police Investigating Eric Clanton in Berkeley ‘Anti-Fascist’ Attack

Posted on | April 25, 2017 | Comments Off on Report: Police Investigating Eric Clanton in Berkeley ‘Anti-Fascist’ Attack

Activists accuse Eric Clanton of attacking Trump supporters in Berkeley.

Last week, Diablo Valley College instructor Eric Clanton was accused of being the masked anarchist who used a heavy bicycle lock to smash the head of a Trump supporter at an April 15 Berkeley rally.

Now the Golden Gate Xpress, a student newspaper at San Francisco State University, has confirmed that Berkeley police are investigating Clanton, and the interim president of Diablo Community College has issued an email statement: “The adjunct faculty member that has been alleged to have committed this crime is NOT currently teaching at DVC.”

An editorial in the Diablo Valley College student newspaper complains:

National news networks from all the way from Florida to New York were calling DVC offices for an explanation or a confirmation of the internet witch-hunting allegations. . . .
4chan is notorious for their past as internet renegades who pride themselves as witch-hunting investigators hunting through the internet looking for clue to unravel internet anonymity. . . .
However, this style of investigating in the open also removes the private and personal aspect to an investigation.
What if the person being targeted had nothing to do with this event? Their reputation has been tarnished without any due process.
What happened to being innocent until proven guilty? Instead, one is guilty until proven innocent.

When did the Left suddenly discover this concern for due process? Too bad leftists weren’t worried about due process when feminist witch-hunters were destroying male students in what K.C. Johnson and Stuart Taylor have called The Campus Rape Frenzy. Oh, but the Obama administration and Democrats approved of denying students due process in those cases, whereas in the case of masked thugs committing violence against Trump supporters, Democrats find themselves on the other side of the “due process” argument. The inconsistency of the Left in such matters exposes the crude partisanship of their politics, which is based on a blind hatred of Republicans, and which justifies any means of advancing the Democrat Party agenda. One can defend due process (and abhor vigilantism) while at the same time recognizing that citizens attempting to identify a masked criminal are on the side of truth and justice.

Let everyone carefully examine the evidence that 4chan compiled about the Berkeley bike-lock attacker and decide for themselves whether Eric Clanton has been incorrectly identified as the suspect. Your opinion in this matter has no force in law, and therefore does not infringe Clanton’s legal rights from a due-process perspective. If it is true that Clanton’s “reputation has been tarnished” by 4chan’s activity, Clanton might undo this damage very easily by issuing a statement denying that he attended the April 15 rally where this criminal attack occurred.

Eric Clanton has not made such a denial.

What he has done instead is to delete much of his online presence in what some might interpret as an attempt to destroy evidence.

Suppose, as a hypothetical, that Eric Clanton is innocent. Are the police in Berkeley doing anything to identify, apprehend and prosecute the person responsible for violently attacking Trump supporters April 15? If an innocent man has been wrongly accused, it is up to the Berkeley police to absolve Eric Clanton by apprehending the real attacker.

In the meantime, Eric Clanton could defend his “tarnished” reputation merely by denying that he was in Berkeley on April 15. The fact that he has not denied being in Berkeley — when six days have passed since 4chan accused him of the bike-lock attack — is rather suspicious, isn’t it?

Again, the evidence compiled by 4chan is publicly available online for your examination, and you have a right to form your own opinion.



 

Category: Crime, Education

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