To his students at UCLA, the warning signs about lecturer Matthew C. Harris seemed abundant and longstanding. By the spring 2021 quarter, the philosophy lecturer had gained a reputation as odd and quixotic, speaking haltingly, changing his syllabus willy-nilly and spending the first four weeks of his “Philosophy of Race” class without once showing his face over Zoom.
Things got weirder as the term progressed, students said, leading up to a final exam that included an essay question about the hate-filled manifesto of Christopher Dorner, a former LAPD officer whose 2013 shooting rampage killed four people and wounded three others. Students were asked to consider the “oppression, disrespect and loss of dignity” suffered by the homicidal ex-cop. Eventually, one student said she reported Harris to campus authorities and the FBI, after he directed another student to his YouTube channel, which included disturbing references to sexual perversion and bomb threats at Los Angeles International Airport. UCLA removed the post-doctoral fellow from his post last spring, after emails he sent to his mother uncovered even more graphic, and specific, alleged threats.
What galled and frustrated some UCLA students Tuesday was what they deemed a slow and nebulous response by university administrators to threats of mass violence, allegedly made by Harris, that surfaced a day earlier. It was a delay they said left them anxious and under-informed for long hours through the night and up to Harris’s arrest Tuesday in Boulder, Colo.
Though the indications of potential violence arrived Monday afternoon, it was not until more than eight hours later, just before midnight, that UCLA tweeted all classes would be held remotely “out of an abundance of caution.” Campus police were “actively working with out-of-state & federal agencies,” the tweet said. At the time, UCLA did not release information about the location of the person of interest.
High anxiety on the university’s Westwood campus finally began to dissipate around noon Tuesday, when police and prosecutors in Boulder announced that they had arrested Harris, 32, for unspecified state charges. Boulder Police Chief Maris Herold called Harris’ manifesto “very violent” and “very disturbing.” But the relatively quiet ending felt far from certain around the Westwood campus Monday afternoon and night, when students got the first signals of the troubled former instructor’s alleged violent threats — some included in more than 300 YouTube videos, most of which were uploaded that day.
Messages began circulating about 3:30 p.m. Monday, when Sherrilyn Roush, philosophy department chair, sent an alert to department members that Harris had begun directing threats at UCLA. She said campus police and behavioral specialists were “investigating with urgency.” By 6:30 p.m., someone posted on Reddit a department alert recommending that professors hold classes remotely, as the material included a video titled “UCLA Philosophy Mass Shooting” and an “800-page manifesto with specific threats toward some members of the department.” Several emails from philosophy department leaders and multiple instructors, obtained by The Times on Monday night, alerted students that in-person classes would not be held.
At 9:25 p.m., the first campus-wide message went out, saying that campus police were aware of the “concerning email and posting.” Police were engaged with out-of-state law enforcement and would keep the community informed, the tweet added. That created an instant backlash on Twitter. “What @UCLA and @UCPDLA are failing to inform students and staff of is that this ‘concerning email’ is a major mass shooter threat at UCLA,” one person tweeted.
It was not until 11:57 p.m. that UCLA canceled in-person classes for Tuesday. The alert said campus officials “do not have specific information that this individual is in CA,” adding: “Out of an abundance of caution, all classes will be held remotely Feb 1. We will keep you updated.” By Tuesday morning, UCLA sent another notice, saying that the individual who had made the threats was outside the state and “under observation.”...
Full story at https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-02-02/ucla-shutdown-mass-shooting-threat-warning-signs.
Editorial Comment: While there are undoubtedly good reasons not to circulate the so-called "manifesto" and videos produced by the individual involved, the target of the threat seems to be omitted from both the university and the otherwise detailed LA Times reporting. As we noted yesterday:*
An email from the UCLA Hillel provided additional information:
..."The person in question had posted several antisemitic videos of himself playing an active shooter game while ranting about Ariel Sharon, Bar Mitzvahs, Jewish control over the media, and other threats directed towards our community... Within minutes, police arrived and our building was locked down while the threat was investigated..."
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*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2022/02/update-on-campus-threat.html.
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