Neal Hutchens, an education professor at the University of Kentucky, summarizing the lesson learned, quoted in "After a Legal Fight, Oberlin Says It Will Pay $36.59 Million to a Local Bakery/Gibson’s Bakery said the liberal arts college had falsely accused it of racism after a Black student was caught shoplifting" (NYT).
The incident that started the dispute unfolded in November 2016, when a student tried to buy a bottle of wine with a fake ID while shoplifting two more bottles by hiding them under his coat, according to court papers.
Allyn Gibson, a son and grandson of the owners, who is white, chased the student out onto the street, where two of his friends, also Black students at Oberlin, joined in the scuffle. The students later pleaded guilty to various charges.
The highest-rated comment (by a lot) quotes "Archaic chase-and-detain policy" and asks "What should a storekeeper do about a shoplifter?" Good question. Is the answer that what's not archaic is not to have any sort of shop that is open to the public?After the 2019 jury award against Oberlin, Carmen Twillie Ambar, the college president, said that the case was far from over and that “none of this will sway us from our core values.” The college said then that the bakery’s “archaic chase-and-detain policy regarding suspected shoplifters was the catalyst for the protests.”
Anyway, I'm glad the bakery is getting its money, and I hope colleges learn how to support student speech without joining the speech. Only join the speech if you stand behind it. Your speech is your speech. You're not absolved from your lies because you were echoing what somebody else said. That should have been obvious all along.
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101 comments:
The Commie-Pinkos at Oberlin tried to destroy the bakery twice. Once with the initial racist claim and secondly, dragging out the payoff. Just like a deadbeat. Sadly, Oberlin still maintains righteous posture. Scumbags.
More people/institutions need to be willing to stand up to the bullies on the left; but that requires a willingness to sacrifice your career, social life, and family if necessary. It's a tough choice.
Justice served...
The Left can afford ten times that piddly amount. Does anyone seriously think the hivemind will refrain from smearing the next Nick Sandman even after they got spanked for his treatment?
I wonder about Oberlin's legal counsel. Either they were incompetent in encouraging the Board to continue with these appeals or else counsel recommended settling but the Board incompetenly chose to continue the fight.
Can't imagine the college's legal bills from this fight.
Any thoughts from our hostess law prof?
Support student speech?
This wasn't some free speech case. There wasn't any "cause." This was a dangerous, months-long riot following decades of lawlessness, with Oberlin College teaching and leading the lynch mob.
This was the rank destruction of good and hard-working people and what they built over generations.
Let's not pretend the thug professoriate has learned anything. Those who weren't right in the middle of the mau-mauing quivered in shameful silence.
The viciousness and callousness that have characterized Oberlin's behavior in this whole affair are sickening. News accounts generally don't provide the details of the college's disgusting conduct regarding Gibson's Bakery. When the shoplifting student and his accomplices were convicted, an assistant dean at the college stated that “this is the most egregious process” and that “I hope we rain fire and brimstone on that store.” After a retired professor wrote a letter criticizing Oberlin's behavior, the dean of students replied “Fuck him. I’d say unleash the students if I wasn’t convinced this needs to be put behind us.” The same dean allowed a written statement to remain posted in a common area at the college for a year, stating that the store was a “RACIST establishment with a LONG ACCOUNT OF RACIAL PROFILING and DISCRIMINATION.” There were no facts behind this assertion, but all the while the college has maintained that the whole affair was simply students exercising their rights of free speech.
There has never been a hint of contrition for what the college and its students did to the owners of Gibson's. The heart of the social justice warrior knows outrage and righteousness, but it does not know how to apologize.
Since I balk at NYT's paywall I haven't read Mr. Hutchens' piece, but it sounds like neither Oberlin nor Hutchens have taken the most obvious lesson from this particularly nasty episode in the ongoing decline of American education.
Thievery is thievery, a base and ignoble human proclivity that lies at the heart of so many other evils. Higher education ought to enlighten and uplift its pupils, but Oberlin chose to encourage the debasement of its charges. In loco parents begins the maxim. Ha! In this case, Oberlin College is an abusive parent -- the Ma Barker of the academy.
If those millions bankrupt Oberlin it will probably be for the best, but one assumes the school will muddle through with an injection of the Soros foundation's extremely filthy lucre, which will be unfortunate. What ought to happen is a wholesale revocation of tenure of each and every faculty member connected in any capacity in the demonstrations and calumnies against the bakery and the Gibson family. Tenure isn't so ironclad that Oberlin's Board of Trustees must tolerate the moral turpitude.
Anyway, I'm glad the bakery is getting its money, and I hope colleges learn how to support student speech without joining the speech
Aren’t the colleges originating the speech? Or how do you feel about instill?
Your speech is your speech. You're not absolved from your lies because you were echoing what somebody else said. That should have been obvious all along.
Not to mention the disparity between some random students calling the place racist and the university doing so. The effect on the other students and the community is much larger.
Too often, individuals use their position to speak for the organization rather than themselves. If this leads to a greater clarity in those situations, the bakery’s lawsuit will have done a great public service.
Epilogue: No one in the university gets fired, no apology is given, and the charge of racism is not formally or informally retracted.
Because, slavery.
I would think this might cause resignations at Oberlin. I know the Dean who was most into it has gone elsewhere. But what about all the others who pushed this foolish idea? Where is the accountability?
If I were in Gibson's shoes, I would endow a couple full scholarships at a nearby University.
This shoplifting case set the stage for the attitude/response to the George Floyd case and utter destruction of the downtown economies of San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, NYC, etc. as they defunded the police in 2020.
These folks went into hard denial and got everything they wanted for several years. Was it a pyrrhic victory? Is it better to rule in hell than be civil/collaborate in heaven? Just tell me. Will our country become a series of gated communities with local militias, lynchings, and lawsuits when members of other tribes cross into security zones?
Mad Max is filling up his car and loading his guns. US urban planners now look to Rio de Janeiro as a model city.
And I take issue with this statement at the Times: Gibson’s Bakery said the liberal arts college had falsely accused it of racism after a Black student was caught shoplifting
It's very clear that the Liberal Arts college falsely accused it of racism. But it's not a He Said/She Said thing like that mealy-mouthed statement from the Times says. So sure, Gibson's Bakery said it happened. But everything else suggests that any thinking person would say the same thing.
Oberlin College falsely accused Gibson's Bakery of Racism. Go ahead, NYTimes, embrace the truth.
I've known about the case since Gibsons sued and didn't think I could be more angry, but this Bari Weis podcast did the job. Oberlin was hoping the bakery would go out of business before they paid them.
Honestly podcast
Apparently it's racism if you treat Black people like you would white people.
Oberlin, no surprise, is lying.
Oberlin, aka Meredith Raimondo, tried to get Gibson's to not call the police but turn students caught shoplifting over to her.
As part of this alleged pressure Oberlin was feeling, Gibson’s alleges Oberlin tried to get Gibson’s to offer what the Complaint calls a “FIRST-TIME SHOPLIFTER’S PASS”:
69. In a subsequent meeting between Raimondo and David Gibson, Oberlin College also insisted that Gibson’s Bakery call Raimondo when students are caught stealing rather than informing the police.
70. David Gibson believed the policy would be inconsistent with his core belief that an educational institution of higher learning should be teaching its students not to commit robbery and theft, instead of sheltering and excusing that criminal activity.
71. Again, David Gibson did not agree to such a request and Oberlin College continued to attempt to steamroll and intimidate Gibson’s Bakery and refused to retract its defamatory statements or reinstate its business with Gibson’s Bakery.
“none of this will sway us from our core values.”
...which is protecting shop lifters and trying to destroy people's lives and livelihoods with false accusations of racism.
The latter seems to be a core value of all liberal colleges and universities in America.
False accusations of racism is just now a thing. A new norm.
"I hope colleges learn how to support student speech without joining the speech. Only join the speech if you stand behind it. Your speech is your speech. You're not absolved from your lies because you were echoing what somebody else said. That should have been obvious all along."
Pick a lane. You want colleges to support student speech without joining it. But also think it's okay to join it if you stand behind it.
Oberling clearly did stand behind it. And are paying the price.
Yes, schools should not join student speech, but this is a case where they should not have supported the speech either. Universities have a responsibility to teach their students how to engage with ideas, not rant and scream at every perceived slight. Oberlin failed on every level and deserves what it got.
Aggressive stupidity in high administrative positions is not a good idea even without court cases.
Archaic chase-and-detain policy"
Archaic like a university?
The highest rated comment beat me to it. As to your own comment and that in the title of the post, that only works when there is a distinction between supporting student speech and joining the speach. As Oberlin's president's quote suggests, I believe the core values of students and college were congruent, hence the verdict.
Colleges supporting the student victims? Colleges supporting the student perpetrators
How about the colleges supporting the rule of law, including due process?
This is a great example of governance by the rule of law, vs, governance by the rule of man.
Education is a HUGE proponent of decision making by rule. Zero tolerance rules, put in place to provide a safe port in the storm, by just deferring to the rules they created about zero tolerance. No examination required, no nuance considered, no hands get dirty making judgements, when Zero tolerance does all the heavy lifting.
Here Oberlin clearly made the decision to ignore the rule of law, in favor of following the desire of people in power. Of course the driver of the desire is where tyranny gains root.
"Oberlin was hoping the bakery would go out of business before they paid them."
Even if the bakery went out of business, Oberlin would still have to pay, correct?
The biased language of the NYT account is hardly surprising, but the overwhelmingly pro-Gibson's commentary is actually quite shocking. I read the NYT daily and, like many others, have learned to tolerate and filter its irrepressible bias, but I normally avoid reading the comments because so many of them are truly batshit crazy. Not this time.
A good source on this story is the recent post on Bari Weiss's podcast, "Honestly". Oberlin College and Gibson's
There's much to this. The University not only illustrated what not to do, they doubled down, tripled down, on their bad leadership and direction. They showed the students exactly what the Left is all about: Cause over Truth. Cause over Reality.
The U promoted the protests, supplied the protestors, and took part in the protests. The business, operating for 137 years, was a foundational piece of the town and worked daily with the University. Their relationship was long and benefited everyone. But, being the Lefty Dems that they are, the U decided that you cannot stop people stealing from your business. You just have to accept it. Especially- and this is the hard reality- if the perpetrators are Black. You cannot accuse a Black person of this crime, even if you watched it happen.
So then what? What kind of society do we have? Well, the U said screw society. We have a Cause. They withheld payment, even when they lost the initial case. The U was looking to outlive the Gibson's and drag this out to multiple appeals. The Gibson's have lost almost everything. The two elder Gibson's both died during this hold out. But now, finally, the U has to pay.
But they still won't apologize and they are still running an in-university boycott of Gibson's. Students don't go there. New students coming in are taught to boycott Gibson's. So, in the end, they are ruined. Because the Leninists have a Cause.
Any parent sending their kid, paying that exorbitant rate to send their kid to Oberlin are fools. Their kids will never recover from that indoctrination.
How does this analogize with treatment of Professional Athletes?
The athletes are employees, not students. Athletes are a party to a negotiated contract.
But Team management wrestles with wayward atheletes untoward behavior all the time. Often deferring to due process.
How many Oberlin students does it take to borrow $36.59 million?? Let go with the "after aid" annual costs of $34,777. A four year degree is then $139,108
We divide $36,590,000 by $139,108 and get... 263 four year degrees.
Somewhere out there in America 263 Oberlin graduates are trying to pay off $139,108 so Oberlin professors and administrators could wag their woke fingers around and try to shut down a local shop making chocolate bismarks and selling strawberry wine.
Well worth the price of admission.
"Only join the speech if you stand behind it." Which they obviously do. They have kept repeating it. Brainless idiots.
Who would send their kids to be educated by brainless idiots, paying vast amounts of money in the bargain?
As for dealing with shoplifting, you just use the system I saw everywhere in San Francisco recently: most merchandise behind locked glass. And since the "chase-and-detain" policy is not available in SF, I saw them use the "scream-at-them-and-punch-them" policy instead. The bakery should have tried that!
richlb raises the Serious Question, when he said...
Archaic like a university?
can somebody (anybody?) tell me WHY you'd want to go to a place like Oberland?
The certainly Can't be any economic reason for spending a could of hundred thousand dollars there?
So, why? Anyone?
Tina Trent at 6:35 AM nailed it.
Would Oberlin have supported student speech if the students were demanding that the student be expelled from the school for shoplifting? You can be certain that is only left-wing speech they will support.
Universities have a responsibility to teach their students how to engage with ideas, not rant and scream at every perceived slight.
But Universities are actively engaged in teaching students to rant and rave.
The latest Smollett event at Duke Women's Volleyball, had the university cancelling Women's basketball games over the next two years.
It is clear Universities are leading by example to ignore due process. Rewarding accusations lacking merit. After all, reputations will be ruined, but that in now way means they aren't racists slobs anyway.
Only two problem with the $36M settlement. It didn't bankrupt Oberlin. The college is continuing operations while Gibson's Bakery is/was(?) teetering on bankruptcy. The college was a big customer of Gibson's and Oberlin stopped buying from Gibson's.
The other problem with the settlement is that it was the College that paid the settlement, but not any of the executives of Oberlin. They get away with slander and never feel the pain of even $1. Part of any settlement like this should include physical punishment, if only a spanking, of the losing executives. How else will they learn what they did was wrong? A deeply, sincere apology to Gibson's would be acceptable in lieu of the spanking, but Oberlin's president, et al, are still defiant and have learned nothing.
The NYT said “Oberlin agreed to pay” for things “Gibson alleged happened.”
So instead of trying to side with Oberlin, how about saying “A jury found Oberlin guilty” or “after multiple failed appeals, Oberlin finally complied with the courts order.” There, fixed it for you.
"Barkley said..." yet nowhere can we find the term "alleged insurrection" in any reporting. One side gets that benefit only, they make it sound like Oberlin's accusation was probably true and that Oberlin was the real victim.
The Modern Democrat Party - and all its various forms - stand shoulder to shoulder with crime and criminals.
See: Biden and Hillary for the top spots.
See also - the Trickle down Crime in your neighborhood. The white left are thrilled when other skin colors do crime. Makes them feel good.
College also insisted that Gibson’s Bakery call Raimondo when students are caught stealing rather than informing the police.
"We're college students. We can do anything we want!" -Senator Blutarski
"Such a large amount ..."
Well, Oberlin College certainly didn't think this was a large amount. It announced that it's exemplary money-management practices ensure that the award will have ZERO INFLUENCE on how it proceeds in its mission.
That's how paltry $36.5 million is to the university. The jury didn't award enough to HURT them. Everybody who will be on future juries needs to understand this.
The vast majority of the money was NOT PAID by Oberlin College. It was paid for by the insurance premiums of OTHER colleges, which have banded together to help pay each others' court costs for their civil crimes.
Shorter collective left: Shoplifting is OK.
If Hillary and Biden can be open criminals - what's a little shoplifting?
Shorter collective left: Shoplifting is OK.
If Hillary and Biden can be open criminals - what's a little shoplifting?
Mike of S has it right at 7:51AM. I believe Oberlin has a $1,000,000,000 endowment. This is a pittance for them and it's not even remotely a punishment. Almost all of the people who were involved with this are still employed and are paying no penalty. They feel no shame or remorse. It's the white collar equivalent of a remorseless rapist getting no bail and no sentence.
This started with Lois Lerner paying no price for her abuse of the IRS audit process and continued through Trump to the FBI faceless bureaucrats. As many have said, there are two sets of laws. It's not D's vs. R's. It's bureaucrat vs. citizen and the bureaucrats administer the laws.
This will only stop if an R House and Senate hold serious investigations and people actual pay a personal price for their little administrative misadventures. Our elected representatives at all levels must have the balls to go after these creatures of the hallways and make them pay.
A full description of Oberlin’s conduct throughout this sorry and utterly unnecessary affair can now be found in the revised Oxford English Dictionary at the entry for “contumacious.” See also, “bloodyminded.”
The right action, yes; but done late; only under duress; and with an ill grace.
The stain on Oberlin’s escutcheon is not so much from the original misconduct in the heat of the moment. The real disgrace was and continues to be this attitude of unrepentant anger and self-pity. I can only conclude that the school has been captured, perhaps irretrievably, by Woke zealots.
I guess $36 Million —a fair chunk of their endowment— does not represent “rock bottom” in the necessary work of acknowledging a problem and starting to fix it. …Their beg letters to alumni should make for very interesting reading as they try to explain this trainwreck —or, no less tellingly, omit to do so.
Mike of S.
Good point. The executive jack-wads who run Oberlin should be out of their jobs, too.
This just goes to show the two-tiered justice system we now have in corrupt Banana Republic Biden-Clinton land.
"Oberlin agreed to pay"
Translation: They wired the funds before the banks simply took the funds out of their accounts under court order.
Gusty, Temujin and Hawkeyed show how many of us have been following this closely and are disgusted by Oberlin’s lack of contrition or any sense of fairness. My take is WHERE ARE THE TRUSTEES? Did no cooler heads counsel putting $26M in escrow after the first verdict? Not even as a feint towards a “good faith effort” to settle while appealing? Now added interest drove the cost up above the original (justifiable) award. Is this not an alleged for-profit enterprise?
MadisonMan said...
"I would think this might cause resignations at Oberlin."
Hah. Promotions, more likely. The former counsel at Oberlin has moved on to Cornell. The dean has a job at another college. It doesn't matter how much money Oberlin is forced to pay. There is no public record of any current administrator or faculty member or trustee acknowledging that the college has done anything wrong. ANYTHING.
"Sometimes you have to take a step back."
We are in deep trouble as a society when our institutional leaders need that reminder.
Oberlin not only defamed Gibson's, the college cancelled a lucrative contract with the bakery in retaliation. Gibson's is willing to renew the contract. Oberlin, not so much.
It isn't just the vile actions of Oberlin,it is their obdurate refusal to accept that they did wrong that is so annoying.
Oberlin's actions are no different than the corrupt FBI-KGB, Joe Biden and Hillary Clitnon.
Racist pro-crime above the law jackals.
Oberlin college had an opportunity to teach critical-thinking skills.
* For example, what was the evidence that the store was racist?
* How should that evidence be evaluated?
Instead of teaching such critical-thinking skills, the school pandered to Black students who feel they have a right to shoplift and to fight with store clerks.
Temujin nails it.
What a despicable and disgraceful college. The real boycott should targeted towards the college itself.
Oberlin's President Ambar is a graduate of Columbia Law School. How could she, of all people, not see what a catastrophe Oberlin's handling of this case was creating for the institution?
The Legal Insurrection blog has followed every sordid attempt by Oberlin to blame Gibson's for this.
There is a lot of detail to be gleaned over there, but two important points to note are; (i) Gibson's sought to cool things down by seeking an apology - the righteous "lived experienced" mentality of Oberlin has cost millions in legal fees and it will now have the pitiless litigation machine of the insurance company that provided the bond for the damages coming after it, but (ii) like so many of these indoctrination centres, Oberlin charges astronomic fees, yet has massive assets. Oberlin has an endowment of about $1bn. Some of this my be tied up in illiquid assets or ring fenced, but the sad fact is, the college won't go bankrupt and I doubt that even a single sub-dean of diversity will be let go.
One can only hope that student enrolment will fall dramatically: in the long run, that would kill it off. Maybe Hillsdale College could then buy the assets in a fire sale....
If Oberlin has learned any lesson from this, it was the wrong one. I doubt that few other institutions (if any) will learn the right lesson from Oberlin's example.
More critical-thinking skills that Oberlin might have taught its students:
* Does a student have a right to shoplift because he is Black?
* If the student is detained while shoplifting, then how should he behave?
* Should a local store be persecuted by a local college because the store tries to prevent the college's Black students from shoplifting?
=======
In the good, old days, each college had a so-called "Dean of Students". If, for example, a student was caught shoplifting at a local store, then the student would be summoned to the Dean of Students for a discussion. The Dean might impose disciplinary measures, including suspension or expulsion from the college.
Such discussion and discipline was part of the college education.
Oberlin and elite democratics:
"If a black person commits a crime- you are a racist if you dare care, or if you dare try to stop it."
More insane White Left Guilt... but it's not for nothing - the Soviet left cheer over their destruction of a once great nation.
What balderdash. The Oberlin endowment won't miss the paltry $30-odd million and they are quite vocal about saying so. They've taken every legal obfuscation and delay tactic that the law allows, and even tried some that the law didn't. They've failed to apologize at every quarter, with the only concession being to admit they can't do anything more to fight it.
So tell me: What's to stop Oberlin from doing it again? There is no downside, no personal penalty for the administrators that have embarked on this Woke journey - they'll show up for work and collect a paycheck as always, until the next Woke opportunity raises its head. And the Oberlin oversight board will simply allow it - because $30-odd million is chump change. There is no real penalty, so there is no incentive to change - just as the fund managers at Vanguard and Fidelity and Blackrock are perfectly happy to vote your shares for imposing their Woke principles into great corporations in order to bring them under Woke control.
The law should allow for charging the individuals that use the strength of institutions to wage culture wars, at the same time the institutions are being charged. Skin in the game is what stops the nonsense.
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
Oberlin and elite democratics:
"If a black person commits a crime- you are a racist if you dare care, or if you dare try to stop it."
More insane White Left Guilt... but it's not for nothing - the Soviet left cheer over their destruction of a once great nation.
It has nothing to do with guilt.
They are using criminals to destroy their enemies.
Their enemies are small business owners specifically.
Temujin said...
So then what? What kind of society do we have? Well, the U said screw society. We have a Cause. They withheld payment, even when they lost the initial case. The U was looking to outlive the Gibson's and drag this out to multiple appeals. The Gibson's have lost almost everything. The two elder Gibson's both died during this hold out. But now, finally, the U has to pay.
You need to break this down. When you ask what kind of society do they want they make it clear.
The University of Oberlin was the dominant institution in the local economy. What they wanted in the local area was to be the lords of the area.
That means the ability to crush a small uppity family.
They used the students as pawns in a power struggle. Everywhere the leftists go they just want to use their power to destroy their enemies.
Everywhere in every situation democrats/progressives are fascist shitheads.
Very Related.
Please watch - best speech on racism I've seen.
BYU-Duke volleyball issue is another example
Achilles said...
"Their enemies are small business owners specifically. "
No argument from me.
Last time I checked, the college had yet to apologize.
Archaic detention policies...are those like archaic chase and pursue policies that are being abandoned in many liberal cities?
Essentially, commit whatever crimes you want and we won't stop you.
And if you happen to pass out on the steps of the police station, we will grudgingly arrest you but you'll be out in an hour with no bail.
Althouse said…"I hope colleges learn how to support student speech without joining the speech. Only join the speech if you stand behind it."
I think you've misanalysed this. This was Oberlin's speech. They were saying what they believed. The only question is if they would have supported shoplifting if it had been a white student. And even that isn't much of a question.
Speaking of universities and charges of racism,
In response to a charge against a university by student-athlete of another university, BYU has just issued this statement.
As usual the NYT extract is confusing and badly written. We're told "Friends" joined in the scuffle. I assume it was black friends of the Gibson's but then it could've been friends of the Shoplifters. We're also told the Shoplifters were arrested. For what? Attacking the Gibsons? Or just shoplifting?
And what does it matter that the shoplifters were black and the owners were white. Are we supposed to believe these elite college students who pay $50,000/year in tution, are victims?
Oberlin College makes it clear it hates declasse whites and will screw them over every chance they can. That is their "Core value". The Rich making class war on the middle class, and disguising it as support for "The poor black man".
Oberlin, no surprise, is lying.
Oberlin, aka Meredith Raimondo, tried to get Gibson's to not call the police but turn students caught shoplifting over to her.
As part of this alleged pressure Oberlin was feeling, Gibson’s alleges Oberlin tried to get Gibson’s to offer what the Complaint calls a “FIRST-TIME SHOPLIFTER’S PASS”:
In a school with an honor code- and there still are a few besides the 5 service academies and a few military colleges, the first time shoplifting would result in expulsion for violating the honor code.
Perhaps that's what colleges and unversities should bring back to life- and honor code that students must abide by or be thrown out. No appeals.
Activist University has a student activists lab assignment: go out and destroy a bourgeoisie family’s business using nothing but demonstrations and pure lies. The students got an A. But a trial lawyer and a sane jury nailed the SOBs. Thank God for trial lawyers with guts.
Activist University has a student activists lab assignment: go out and destroy a bourgeoisie family’s business using nothing but demonstrations and pure lies. The students got an A. But a trial lawyer and a sane jury nailed the SOBs. Thank God for trial lawyers with guts.
If a black person commits a crime- you are a racist if you dare care, or if you dare try to stop it.
Remember when LeBron attacked a cop on Twitter for shooting a Black girl who was trying to knife another Black girl? They tried to argue that Black girls attacking each other with knives was part of Black culture and cops shouldn't interfere.
I actually went to high school with Meredith Raimondo. There was nothing radical or belligerent that I can recall about her back then.
Thievery is thievery, a base and ignoble human proclivity that lies at the heart of so many other evils.
The political left has exempt the black youth from such concepts. Oberlin has a long history of being far left. There are a number of alums who are far left "activists." This attitude by Oberlin is no surprise. I expect that every student applying for admission knows exactly what the atmosphere there is like.
Chik-Fil-A did really well financially when the gays went after them passing KFC even though they are only open 6 days and have fewer restaurants.
Memories Pizza did really well out of gays going after them for not catering gay or any other weddings. They wound up with $800m or so.
Now Oberlin gets $38mm. They get perhaps half after the lawyers get through? Not a bad exit strategy. Assume this hoorah had not happened and Gibsons wanted to sell out. What would the business be worth? $500m? A million? Certainly worth much less than they are getting from the settlement even after the all the costs.
Perhaps other businesses should consider this kind of thing as an exit strategy. Piss off the right kind of people, make sure it is widely publicized, collect big bucks, retire to Florida.
John stop fascism vote republican Henry
Ohio colleges don't have much luck. Antioch almost went out of business. Kenyon was sidetracked a century ago when a student was run over by a train in a fraternity hazing ritual gone terribly wrong and had trouble getting its mojo back. People are always confusing Ohio University and Miami University with Ohio State and the University of Miami. Akron and Toledo have financial problems. And of course -- Kent State.
I wonder what the abolitionists who founded Oberlin and Antioch would say if they could see those institutions now. Would they be appalled or would they be leading the politically correct charge?
Rabid diversity [dogma] (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry), Inequity, and Exclusion (DIE) advocacy and activism for-profit, but not this time.
The bakery sells wine? We're all outraged by the free speech issue, but, excuse me? One of the most elite colleges in the world is having a contretemps with one of the most elite-sounding businesses in the world. I honestly don't care. Eat each other alive.
$36.6 million divided by 2,942 "students" equals over $12,400 per student. I wonder if the "students" realize that they will ultimately bear the burden of the judgment?
Oberlin students majoring in shoplifting…getting training for the big cities.
"one of the most elite-sounding businesses in the world"
Gibson's Bakery?
The Left has followed the pattern Iowahawk famously described;
1 - Identify a respected institution.
2 - Kill it.
3 - Gut it.
4 - Wear its carcass as a skin suit, while demanding respect.
The people running Oberlin (into the ground) could not care less about the welfare of the institution. It is a resource they exploit as they pursue their own ends.
"I wonder if the "students" realize that they will ultimately bear the burden of the judgment?"
The Biden regime has assured them that the government will ultimately assume that burden.
“none of this will sway us from our core values.”
Their core values stink.
John Henry said:
Perhaps other businesses should consider this kind of thing as an exit strategy. Piss off the right kind of people, make sure it is widely publicized, collect big bucks, retire to Florida.
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Yeah, that's it! Arrange for a racial incident that destroys your business, then hope like hell you'll make Big Bucks down the road, even if it takes years and years.
Just hang up a big poster saying "We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to ANYONE", and hope for the best!!
snort
I liked BYU's statement except for the repetition of that silly canard "feel unsafe."
Own it, accusers of racism: what you mean is "feel aggrieved." There is no way the black population of the United States fears lynching today. Where that kind of racism, the kind that could actually inspire fear, exists here, it exists only in the minds of a few impotent, benighted individuals, and if they ever try to act on it, all of American society rises up against them and punishes them severely. Far more dangerous to black Americans is the dismissive "soft bigotry of low expectations" kind of racism that the left deploys in the name of cultural reparations.
Or maybe it would be more accurate for the accusers of racism to say they "feel gleeful about the gotcha - real, imagined, or invented - they're about to drop."
Remember the Duke lacrosse player trial? It was all a lie and one student was even on video at an ATM across town but they still put him on trial. They were acquitted and the prosecutor was actually disbarred (wow, let's have more of that) but the faculty (100 of them) who signed a letter asking for the heads of the players never said sorry or suffered any punishment. The letter came out before any proof of guilt.
ccscientist
A real Duke student, Katie Rouse, was really raped at a real Duke frat house. You'll be gobsmacked at the reactions. If you can find any. Took some time for the U to officially notice it in order to dismiss it, blow it off. No biggy.
Check it out. See if you can figure why the diff.
Money talks and bullshit walks. What everyone commenting here including our hostess has overlooked is the effect on insurance and bonding carriers and agents. Right now as we speak, some of the best attorneys in the respective fields are reworking their policies and what they will exclude from coverage or what they won't issue a bond for. That will apply to all colleges and universities. The next Oberlin is going to be funding and paying out it's funds. Although if I were the Gibson family member who would decide on further litigation I would seriously consider suing Oberlin again for their continuing effort to destroy the business and seek a huge punitive damage award along with the prospective loss of revenue and if possible join in personally those decision makers currently at Oberlin and those who are no longer there. The pain needs to be personalized as well as maximilized.
The back... black hole... whore h/t NAACP incident.
“none of this will sway us from our core values.”
Diversity (i.e. color judgment, class-based bigotry), Inequity, and Exclusion (DIE) dogmatic policy exercised under the nominally secular Pro-Choice ethical religion adhered to by the progressive cult (PC) and aligned sects. #HateLovesAbortion
Gee, Kate: why don't you just leave your door open and let strangers ransack it? How about someone "Karens" you and destroys your life and renders you unemployable? How about hundreds of shrill rioters surround your home and family for months and drive you into the ground while threatening violence and falsely accusing you of racism?
Do people also deserve to be carjacked, raped and killed, like that heiress grade school teacher, because they're "elite"?
Do you think the shops and homes of the political set in DC have to worry about shoplifters? Ever been to Union Station?
Building a family bakery business, or any food purveying, is damn hard, endless work. And selling wine and a few other grocery store items is entirely ordinary. Do you think grocery stores that sell wine should be subject to lawlessness? Do you eat in restaurants that sell wine? Do you think bodega owners who sell wine are elite?
I'd hide behind a fake name to spit up this dumb bunny garbage too, Kate.
The bakery sells wine? We're all outraged by the free speech issue, but, excuse me? One of the most elite colleges in the world is having a contretemps with one of the most elite-sounding businesses in the world. I honestly don't care. Eat each other alive.
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It's Ohio, so wine is sold in plenty of stores, and it makes sense to sell it in a bakery, as a good portion of your customers will be looking to buy a bottle for dinner when they're out picking up bread or a cake or what have you.
Alexthechick over on Twitter has a good rant about this. To sum up: the money might be nice, but it doesn't repair the bakery's reputation. It doesn't change that Oberlin cut all contracts, or that students no longer buy from them because the students are told, "they're racists." Oberlin got what it wanted: the bakery was destroyed. The money just means it might take a while longer for them to close their doors. And no one at Oberlin will be punished.
Somebody is going to look at the new insurance premiums and possibly new exclusions. Won't go unnoticed.
Nothing more fully than this case sums up the social chasm dividing the enlightened elites from the ordinary working and middle class of this nation. The blindness of Oberlin, its students, its teachers, its administrators appears total.
I don't really want Trump to run, seriously. I long for a competent leader with a real plan for dealing with this divide, which is deep and very entrenched. But it is cases like this one that tell me I may well have to vote for Trump anyway.
The Gibsons should brick up the building and post a big sign on it explaining why it's now abandoned. The "students" can do their shoplifting elsewhere from now on.
Cubanbob @ 2:25: excellent comment. All the schools will be paying (forever) for Oberlin’s idiocy, in the form of higher premiums for a less-protective policy. Will they notice? Maybe. Will they care? Doubtful; why would they, when they will just pass the costs on to their customers?
Owen. With respect, I think you're using the wrong model. Colleges' mark ups don't require such costs be passed along. What's passed along is whatever they think they can get away with, their individual differences one from another reducing competition on pricing.
Eventually they max out, tuition times enrollments. Then, extra expenses come out of the revenues which cannot be passed along.
Did they promote the idiot activist administrator whose policy this was?
"Universities have a responsibility to teach their students how to engage with ideas, not rant and scream at every perceived slight"
This wasn't a perceived slight. It was actual shoplifting. And Oberlin supported it and pretended it was racism.
I want to know who's carrying Oberlin's insurance now. Any underwriter who would take them on is an idiot.
-jcr
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