Woke Oberlin Was Scared Of Student Temper Tantrums In Hilarious Court Documents

[The Lawspeaker]

[The Lawspeaker]

The Oberlin Trial Is a Blueprint for Fighting Back An Ohio jury just proved that old laws can remedy new injustices. Late last week, an Ohio jury reached a verdict that sent shockwaves through the American higher-education establishment. It ordered Oberlin College to pay a business called Gibson’s Food Market and Bakery a stunning $11 million in compensatory damages for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and intentional interference with business relationships. And that number will rise, significantly, if it decides to impose punitive damages as well. The case represents an important moment — the moment when the American legal establishment learned that it can potentially impose steep costs on institutions that participate in the kind of cruel, malicious, and vicious mob tactics that have become an all-too-familiar part of the American political landscape. It turns out that the law can indeed offer an answer to the worst forms of illiberal behavior. The facts of the case are egregious. On November 9, 2016, a bakery employee suspected an African-American Oberlin student, Jonathan Aladin, of stealing wine. The employee pursued the student and got in a physical altercation with Aladin and two other Oberlin students, Cecilia Whettstone and Endia Lawrence. Police arrested the three students, and almost a year later — on August 11, 2017 — Aladin pled guilty to attempted theft, aggravated trespass, and underage consumption. Whettstone and Lawrence pled guilty to attempted theft and aggravated trespass. They were not racially profiled. They were guilty of crimes. Yet students immediately organized a protest of the bakery, publishing and distributing flyers that claimed it was “a RACIST establishment with a LONG ACCOUNT of RACIAL PROFILING and DISCRIMINATION,” and that a member of the Oberlin community “was assaulted” by its owner. Evidence indicated that university officials helped publish and distribute the flyer, including by disseminating it to media. This was but the beginning of the bakery’s ordeal. The student senate issued a resolution stating that Gibson’s had a history of “racial profiling” and “discriminatory treatment,” and the resolution was posted on campus for “a period of at least one year.” The head of Oberlin’s Department of Africana Studies published a Facebook post declaring that Gibson’s had “been bad for decades” and that “their dislike for black people is palpable.” He said, “Their food is rotten and they profile black students.” Link to Article: https://thefederalist.com/2019/06/14/... https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/0...