HARTFORD, Conn. _ Trinity College said Wednesday it would "close the campus until further notice" in response to threats made after a professor's Facebook post.
"Given the threats to campus and upon consultation with the President's Cabinet, the decision has been made to close the college until further notice," the private liberal arts college in Hartford stated in an email message. "All employees and guests are to leave campus for the day and stay tuned for updates."
The Facebook post by Johnny Eric Williams, which spread quickly on social media, was made in reaction to a fatal police shooting in Seattle. The conservative website Campus Reform suggested that Williams was instead writing that victims of the congressional shooting in suburban Washington should have been left to die.
"They are thinking I'm talking about a congressman," Williams said, referring to the shooting last week of several members of Congress. "That's not at all the case."
"I'm calling for the death of a system, white supremacy, not the death of white people," Williams said.
Hartford Deputy Chief Brian Foley said Police Department "analysts and detectives are assisting Trinity College with an investigation regarding nonspecific, noncredible threats from around the country. He said the threats are "related to potential alleged comments being attributed to a (Trinity) staff member."
"We don't believe any students or staff are in any danger. We will continue monitor the situation and work with trinity on the investigation," Foley said.
He acknowledged that the threats were coming in through multiple platforms, but did not go into specifics.
Kathryn Andrews, Trinity spokeswoman, said in an email: "I can confirm that Trinity has received multiple threats and, out of an abundance of caution, we have closed campus for the rest of the day. Our president is working on a statement, which we anticipate issuing soon."
The school has faced a barrage of online criticism since Williams posted comments online earlier this week.
Williams, a sociology professor, said Wednesday that the campus was closed because of a bomb threat that was made in reaction to media misinterpreting his Facebook posts made three days ago. He said it was initially a conservative online publication called Campus Reform that misconstrued his comments but then other publications followed.
The posts, which Williams said were not meant to be public, were made in reaction to the fatal police shooting of Charleena Lyles three days ago. Lyles was a 30-year-old black mother of four in Seattle.
Williams' posts on June 18 said, "It is past time for the racially oppressed to do what people who believe themselves to be 'white' will not do, put end to the vectors of their destructive mythology of whiteness and their white supremacy system."
Williams also said he was fed up "with self-identified 'white's' daily violence directed at immigrants, Muslims, and sexually and racially oppressed people."
Williams says Campus Reform twisted his words when it said that Williams "appeared to endorse the idea that first responders to last week's congressional shooting should have let the victims ... die because they are white."
Williams' comments _ as interpreted by various media _ also drew condemnation from Connecticut House Republican leader Themis Klarides and GOP state Sen. George S. Logan, who wrote to Trinity President Joanne Berger-Sweeney on Wednesday saying that they were appalled at Williams' comments "in the aftermath of the attempted assassinations in Alexandria, VA."
"We are calling upon the school to immediately, and permanently, remove Mr. Williams from the ranks of the school's faculty," their letter reads, adding that Trinity "has fallen well short of the mark of what should reasonably be expected" in its initial response.
Williams said he was shocked to see what Campus Reform and other publications had said about his posts and that he has been receiving many death threats.
His point, Williams said, is: "We've got to confront these people who are racists."
"This is about free speech as well as academic freedom," Williams said. "From my perspective, I'm considering whether I should file a defamation against these guys."
He added: "The black community is beside itself all over the country with the constant killing. It doesn't matter what we do, we still be killed, we still go to jail. Just being black and living is a crime. That's what seems to be the problem."
As a scholar, he said, he feels it's his obligation to "speak up about the kind of destructive behavior that white supremacy is dealing on people on a daily basis."
