A Rutgers University professor said police arrived at his Brooklyn home Tuesday (Nov.15) and took him Bellevue Hospital’s psych ward at the request of campus officials due to his anti-Trump tweets.
NYPD just came to my house bc Rutgers Police told them i’m a threat based on political statements i’ve made on campus and on twitter.
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
“Rutgers police told them I’m a threat based on political statements I’ve made on campus and on Twitter,” Kevin Allred later tweeted after the authorities arrived. “And this is for exercising my … First Amendment rights. “I’m being labeled a threat and put in a psych hospital. Trump’s crackdown on free speech has absolutely begun.”
Allred, who teaches gender studies and has merited national attention because of his Beyonce course titled “Feminist Perspectives: Politicizing Beyoncé,” told the Daily News he was placed in a van and sent to the hospital. Allred said he stayed at Bellevue’s psych ward for two hours before it was deduced he doesn’t have any mental health issues.
“The doctors were like, ‘This is ridiculous, why did they bring you here?’” Allred said “And I said, ‘That’s what I thought, but they told me they had to do it.’” In a Tweet posted to Allred’s account the day after Donald Trump was elected, Allred speaks of what he would do if saw a Trump supporter.
“If I see any Trump bumper stickers on the road today, my brakes will go out and I’ll run you off the road.”
Rutgers University spokesman Jeffrey Tolvin released an official statement defending their actions.
“The Rutgers University Police Department … took all appropriate action,” Tolvin said. “We have no further comment.”