The College Fix

Much offensive blather on social media that promises physical harm is too vague to be considered a true threat.

The threat allegedly made by 21-year-old Jabari Dean, a University of Illinois-Chicago student, against any “16 white males” he happened to find at “the campus quad” at 10 a.m. Monday at the University of Chicago was as specific as it gets.

The Chicago Maroon has a full rundown of updates from throughout the day. The threat was posted on WorldStarHipHop.com and read:

This is my only warning. At 10AM Monday morning, I’m going to the campus quad of the University of Chicago. I will be armed with an M-4 carbine and two desert eagles, all fully loaded. I will execute approximately 16 white male students and or staff, which is the same number of time McDonald was killed. I will then die killing any number of white policeman in the process. This is not a joke. I am to do my part and rid the world of white devils. I expect you do the same.

Dean showed up in federal court this afternoon in a “red UIC sweatshirt” and allegedly admitted to FBI agents that “he posted the message from his phone but then soon took it down,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports. A raid of Dean’s apartment allegedly turned up no guns.

His LinkedIn page suggests he’s a model student.

The Washington Times notes the charge against Dean – “transmitting a threat to interstate commerce” (apparently for using the Internet) – carries up to 5 years in prison.

Here’s the federal complaint.

Dean’s alleged threat was in response to the 16 fatal shots fired at teenager Laquan McDonald by a police officer last year:

Video showing McDonald’s fatal shooting was released Tuesday, the same day Officer [Jason] Van Dyke was charged with first-degree murder. Officials had worried that the video’s release, which stemmed from McDonald’s death in October 2014, could ignite violent protests across the city but events were mainly limited to demonstrations blocking some stores in the high-end Magnificent Mile shopping district.

Read the Maroon, Sun-Times and Washington Times reports.

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