I obtained the front sheet of the police report filed Monday from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office (redacted to protect Mirecki's personal information):
Posted on 12/08/2005 8:26:48 AM PST by PJ-Comix
Kansas University's Paul Mirecki, the controversial religious studies professor whose planned course on creationism and intelligent design was canceled after he derided Christian conservatives as "fundies," was allegedly beaten on Monday morning by two unidentified white men who he claims targeted him for his views. The Lawrence Journal World reported:
Douglas County sheriff’s deputies are investigating the reported beating of a Kansas University professor who gained recent notoriety for his Internet tirades against Christian fundamentalists.
Kansas University religious studies professor Paul Mirecki reported he was beaten by two men about 6:40 a.m. today on a roadside in rural Douglas County. In a series of interviews late this afternoon, Mirecki said the men who beat him were making references to the controversy that has propelled him into the headlines in recent weeks.
“I didn’t know them, but I’m sure they knew me,” he said.
Mirecki said he was driving to breakfast when he noticed the men tailgating him in a pickup truck.
“I just pulled over hoping they would pass, and then they pulled up real close behind,” he said. “They got out, and I made the mistake of getting out.”
He said the men beat him about the upper body with their fists, and he said he thinks they struck him with a metal object. He was treated and released at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.
“I’m mostly shaken up, and I got some bruises and sore spots,” he said.
Douglas County Sheriff’s Officials are classifying the case as an aggravated battery. They wouldn’t say exactly where the incident happened, citing the ongoing investigation.
The sheriff’s department is looking for the suspects, described as two white males between ages 30 and 40, one wearing a red visor and wool gloves, and both wearing jeans. They were last seen in a large pickup truck...
If Mirecki was indeed the victim of this alleged crime, it is a travesty and a shame, and the alleged assailants should be prosecuted to the fullest extent.
There is, however, another possibility: It could be a hoax. Mirecki's reticence, lack of specifics, and odd behavior are raising some doubts. Says one skeptic:
If a pickup truck was driving behind you in the early morning in a deserted rural area, and two men got out holding a large metal object, and you were still in your car, would you get out to go talk with them? ... How did those in the pickup truck find him? Were they waiting at his house? In that case Dr. Mirecki should have noticed them right away. How would they just randomly find him in the middle of the country?
Asking such questions may seem mean-spirited, but given the prevalence of staged hate crimes since the Tawana Brawley hoax two decades ago, skepticism is warranted. Just last year, an assistant visiting professor at Claremont McKenna College was sentenced to prison after she staged an anti-Semitic hate crime against herself. Earlier this year, a lesbian student at Mt. Tamalpais High School in Marin County, Calif., faked several anti-gay incidents to garner attention and sympathy.
Curiously, earlier Wednesday, Mirecki resigned the chairmanship of KU's religious studies department. (Resignation letter here.) According to Barbara Romzek, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Mirecki resigned on the recommendation of his colleagues. Strange. Do they know something we don't?
***
I obtained the front sheet of the police report filed Monday from the Douglas County Sheriff's Office (redacted to protect Mirecki's personal information):
As you can see (click for larger view), there's not much there. In a phone interview, sheriff's spokeswoman Lt. Kari Wempe could not provide much more detail. She did tell me that Mirecki could not recall where the incident took place. And she said that 20 minutes ensued between the time the incident allegedly occured and when Mirecki reportedly contacted authorities. "It seems like a long time to me," Wempe noted, but declined to elaborate.
More weirdness via the University Daily Kansas.com: Officers clarify Mirecki attack details.
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office initially labeled the attack on Professor Paul Mirecki a hate crime.
But the office removed the title today, calling the labeling a mistake.
Lt. Kari Wempe said that the error occurred Monday morning when the attack was reported.
Officers wrongly transmitted the information over the police radio, she said. It is not classified as an aggravated battery.
So what exactly is it?
I contacted the Lawrence Memorial Hospital for more details on the nature of Mirecki's injuries. Citing HIPAA regulations, a hospital spokeswoman declined to provide any more information. She did state that Mirecki was not hospitalized, as many MSM reports have claimed, but came to the emergency room and was "treated and released."
Mirecki told one reporter that he had "got the hell beat out of me,” but now the once-accessible professor is clamming up:
On Wednesday, Mirecki said he would no longer be giving interviews to the media.
"I've got too much of backlash from the reporting," he said.
One of Mirecki's colleagues, professor Timothy Miller, who once headed the department, said members of the faculty talked with Mirecki about his options before he made his decision to resign.
"There's been lots of conversations about what's good for professor Mirecki and what's good for the department," Miller said. "I hope this new development will be positive on both fronts."
Miller said he hoped Mirecki and the department could put the controversy behind them. There are students to teach and finals are coming up.
"We're living under quite a cloud and quite a burden these days," Miller said. "Paul has had a pretty rugged two weeks, and we've got work to do."
Interesting, no?
***
Bloggers covering the story from all sides:
Brainster's Blog is skeptical. So is Sean Gleeson.
More from The Moderate Voice and Classical Values.
Telic Thoughts boils down what's known and not known and rounds up the outrage of bloggers/commentators who have accepted Mirecki's version of events wholesale.
Stay tuned...
***
Update: Conflicting information about Mirecki's physical appearance the day of the attack in this article (hat tip: Verum Serum):
[Margaret] Rausch [an assistant professor of religious studies] said she last saw Mirecki at the religious studies department’s monthly faculty meeting on Monday [the same day as the alleged attack] and noticed “big swollen spots” on his face.
“It transformed his face,” she said.
Jesse Plous, New York senior, and Tiffany Jeffers, Shawnee senior, are enrolled in Mirecki’s Dead Sea Scrolls class. They said they didn’t notice bruises or scratches when they met for class at 12:30 p.m. Monday [about six hours after the alleged attack].
Lindsay Mayer, Holbrook, Ariz., junior, another student in the class, said she might have seen a small bruise on the side of his face, but said injuries weren’t extremely noticeable.
Mirecki didn’t show up for class on Wednesday. The students said Mirecki had never mentioned the controversy in class.
“It’s a good class, it really is,” said Plous. “It’s too bad he’s been steeped in controversy. I hope it pans out for the guy.”
Meanwhile, a Daily Kos diarist claims the attack is a "terrorist act as defined by the Patriot Act" but backs down from his claim that the alleged beating left Mirecki "within [an] inch of his life."
***
Related:
Hate crime hoax at Ole Miss
Colleges perfect milieu for hate crime hoaxes
Unhinged: The Mugshot Collection [scroll down to Kerri Dunn]
Another hate crime hoax
Crimes of the phantoms
Tawana Brawley goes to college
Muslim "hate crimes"
Myth of the Muslim hate crime epidemic
I'm sorry, but if Bubba and his buddy beat him, they sure would NOT have left his LOWER body alone, if ya get my drift!!!!
We stay above this sort of drivel, as we are ONLY concerned with showing the C's the error of THEIR ways....
--EvoDude
You oughta see what we do when we are pi$$ed!
He's not out of a job. Just out of a chairmanship--he's got tenure, and will be a problem for his school's admin for some time to come.
If it turns out that this indescreet professor of "religion" invented this thuggish beating tale, then we may be able to conclude that evolutionists are equally good at creating false hate crimes as they are at creating fraudulent feathered dinosaurs (committing a hasty generalization at this point, in the spirit of VadeRetro and Darwin Central, would conclude that..."They're all liars!!!!").
Maybe you can ask the grand master about that?
Given the outcome of this story, will you post Mirecki in the List-O-Links Hall of Shame?
(This "fundy's" above statement in no way condones or supports actual violence/hate toward any individual person or persons.)
your god speaks directly to you? and through you?
hmm...interesting
So who says silence condones violence? Silence might just mean absence from the computer for one of various reasons: busy schedule, illness, vacation. Do you seriously expect all FReepers to be online all the time? Some of us do have lives and things to do besides sit on FR all day. That's a pretty broad brush you're using to condemn everyone with. How open minded and tolerant of you.
It should be noted that he was beaten to within an inch of having to eat a hospital meal.
He resigned as department chair only, he still has tenure. He resigned under pressure from his colleagues, it should be noted.
I've suggested that the Women's Studies department should seek out a misogynist.
There were lots of people posting on that thread, including those I'm addressing. They weren't absent. Nor were you. I saw you objecting to people calling the perps Christians. I didn't see you object when your fellow Christian Publius6961 said I hope they catch those two incompetent rednecks for not even doing a simple assault properly!
On the same theme, from kimosabe31, who also likes to quote the BibleWhatever Mirecki got wasn't bad enough.
kimosabe31 was so excited at his own wit (or maybe his ability to type an entire sentence, period and all), he posted the same thing twice
Wherease F.J. Mitchell opined the cause was Dr. Miercki's appearanceA face almost everyone would love to stick a fist in. Questioning suspects will go something like this: Did you beat up the Proffessor? No but I would love to do so
Another helpful suggestion from Muzzle_emToo bad they didn't break his knees.
Some FReepers, like wardaddy, were distressed at their lack of empathyI'm supposed to feel bad I know. The fact that I don't makes me a long knife right?
FReeper Go Gordon opined that Mirecki got what was coming to him.
I don't know that I wish him well. If he is spewing and spreading anti-religious hatred, I say he deserved it. Yes we have free speach. But all that means is you won't get arrested. That doesn't entitle you to not pay a price for your actions.
FReeper LK44-40 compared Miercki's beating to another famous incident that brought joy to his heart.I am about as concerned about this fellow's little scrape as I am about that queer that got beaten up and tied to a fence on a chilly Wyoming night.
As a result, I refuse to interpret silence. In particular, the accusation I referred to was something like accusing, in post 678 about the lack of response to post 461.
SOMA is a student group for which Mirecki is faculty advisor. Apparently they quite like him. So I'd expect they would tend to take him at his word. I tend to take my friends at their word too.
Religious people make much worse comments about "godless atheists" every day: I'm really surprised that you have to be so old to remember "opiate of the masses" and all of the fruit that it bore.
Marx was an atheist.
Marx brought about bad things
Therefore atheists bring about bad things.
With a command of logic like this, you must be a mathematician!
I remember a very recent post where you loudly and self-righteously decried "bigotry" against atheists. And yet this blogpost is praiseworthy.
You must have missed the qualified 'often'. Yes, fundamentalists are often stupid bastards. Atheists are sometimes - I wouldn't say often - stupid bastards too.
F.J. Mitchell's was in bad taste but intended to be a bad joke. Muzzle_em's was beyond the pale, wardaddy was expressing a very reasonable attitude toward an event which was quite obviously a hoax to him and resulted in the man suffering nothing more substantial than an extraordinarily short stay in the hospital. Go Gordon's post was uncalled for.
I note you quoted LK44-40. Well this is pretty low of you. First, the post was pulled. Second, the poster signed up on...Nov 23, 2005.
Do I have to spell out what that means or did you figure it out on your own?
I believe that "often" isn't enough to soften the bigotry. I could give you a parallel example with race, but I think you are smart enough to understand the point.
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