A Harvard visiting law professor from Brazil who told police he was shooting at rats when he fired a pellet gun near a synagogue on Yom Kippur has left the United States after his visa was revoked.
Homeland Security officials described the incident in October as antisemitic, but in a social media post days afterward, Temple Beth Zion in the Boston metropolitan area town of Brookline said it did not appear to be motivated by antisemitism. Police initially told the synagogue that “the individual was unaware that he lived next to, and was shooting his BB gun next to, a synagogue or that it was a religious holiday.
As outrageous as that sounds, I know a lot of professors/PhD’s, and many of them are that clueless. They have a lot of very specific knowledge in their field, but may not have much practical knowledge about the rest of the world.
Still, this is the type of instance where revoking his visa may still be justified, even if he ended up having most of his other consequences suspended.
It sucks to be on the side of history that still tries to be reasonable, even while the other side goes full throttle and wouldn’t give the same rational thinking any thought.
I wouldn’t even say clueless, he’s from Brasil. Name some Candomblé holidays and how they attend. Most tourists don’t know the religious holidays or the practices of the places they’re visiting. The synagogue isn’t saying it was based in bigotry.
That said, a visiting law professor breaking car windows with a BB gun raises enough eyebrows on its own.
Yeah, I think it’s the combination of things. Breaking personal property is pretty much universally frowned upon, and if he’s breaking car windows he was just as likely to hit a person.
Not sure if that’s enough to be deported, but it wouldn’t be an outrageous outcome even in the past.
How subtle… no one would ever refer to Jews as rats, right? Right?
If the synagogue itself is saying it has nothing to do with antisemitism, it’s pretty clear Homeland Security is full of shit and spreading lies.
As outrageous as that sounds, I know a lot of professors/PhD’s, and many of them are that clueless. They have a lot of very specific knowledge in their field, but may not have much practical knowledge about the rest of the world.
Still, this is the type of instance where revoking his visa may still be justified, even if he ended up having most of his other consequences suspended.
It sucks to be on the side of history that still tries to be reasonable, even while the other side goes full throttle and wouldn’t give the same rational thinking any thought.
I wouldn’t even say clueless, he’s from Brasil. Name some Candomblé holidays and how they attend. Most tourists don’t know the religious holidays or the practices of the places they’re visiting. The synagogue isn’t saying it was based in bigotry.
That said, a visiting law professor breaking car windows with a BB gun raises enough eyebrows on its own.
Yeah, I think it’s the combination of things. Breaking personal property is pretty much universally frowned upon, and if he’s breaking car windows he was just as likely to hit a person.
Not sure if that’s enough to be deported, but it wouldn’t be an outrageous outcome even in the past.
art spiegelman say “the neins have it”