An Ohio jury has ordered Oberlin College to pay $11 million to a bakery which said it was libeled and wrongfully accused of racially profiling students.
The case stems from the November 2016 arrests of three black Oberlin students at Gibson's Bakery and market near the college's campus in Oberlin, Ohio. One student, Jonathan Aladin, was accused of attempted robbery for allegedly trying to "steal wine or otherwise illegally obtain wine" from the bakery, according to a defamation lawsuit. He would eventually confess in a written statement to buying alcohol illegally. Two other suspects, Cecelia Whettston and Endia J. Lawrence, were arrested and accused of misdemeanor assault, court documents state.
After that, Oberlin staff members tried to discredit the family-owned bakery, the lawsuit says. Oberlin College staff -- including deans and professors -- and students engaged in demonstrations in front of Gibson's Bakery following the arrests of the three students, the lawsuit stated. The suit also said Oberlin Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo and other college staff members "handed out hundreds of copies" of a flier to the community and the media stating that Gibson's Bakery and its owners racially profiled and discriminated against the three students.
A mass email sent by Oberlin College's Vice President and General Counsel to school alumni criticized the decision of the jury, despite the trial not being over. The email was sent ahead of a punitive damages hearing, which may triple the amount Oberlin College has to pay.
Also at Inside Higher Ed.
Update: Bakery suing Oberlin College for libel wins $33M in damages
Oberlin College hit with maximum PUNITIVE DAMAGES (capped at $22 million by law) in Gibson's Bakery case
(Score: 5, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 10 2019, @07:32PM (1 child)
meet the real world!
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday June 10 2019, @10:06PM
Snowflakes don't stand a chance when confronted with the power of black ice [youtu.be]! Or the other way around in this case. Something like that.
(Score: 2, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @07:34PM (7 children)
"Man bites Dog" racist dogwhistle article?
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @08:01PM (3 children)
And look who came running in with his Lilly white tail wagging. Runaway just can't shake his KKK roots.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @08:36PM (2 children)
^Found the SJW^
Real justice is sweet! Fuck the SJW's.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @11:45PM (1 child)
I've worked alongside non-whites, every time they don't get what they want they pull out the race card. Every. F'ing. Time.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @12:18AM
As you just did, again, AC! White privilege much?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by epitaxial on Monday June 10 2019, @09:58PM (2 children)
Is the dumbest fucking term I've come across lately. If everyone can know the clear intent of something then how is it a "dog whistle"?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday June 11 2019, @12:12AM (1 child)
It isn't. It's more of a dog bite.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday June 11 2019, @12:17AM
Explains the drooling and aversion to bright light and truth. Rabies! Alt-rabies!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @07:35PM
Forget about World Wart III . . . we are now fighting the Third-World War.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @07:40PM
The blacks and the college dean have no morals.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @07:40PM
A good example of extremism. Glad this time they got what they deserved.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @08:08PM (6 children)
That is probably more than a single bakery can make in a lifetime, they can all retire, especially if they get the triple amount
(Score: 2, Funny) by DECbot on Monday June 10 2019, @08:23PM
I see a future with a franchise bakery outside of every university.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 10 2019, @08:26PM (4 children)
You might be surprised at how much a bakery can make. Note that the elder of the two owners is in his 90's. He has devoted a long life to the bakery. All the dollars the bakery has made in that lifetime, adjusted for inflation? The net profit may well exceed 10 million of today's dollars.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 11 2019, @01:53PM (3 children)
Oberlin is for better or worse the alma mater of both myself and my mother, and I've shopped at the establishment in question (it's really as much a convenience store as a bakery).
For what it's worth, the employees and owners weren't particularly rude to me, but then again I'm a white dude who would occasionally stop in for donuts, not a black guy trying to illegally buy alcohol. Gibson's has been a solidly established local business for decades, but never much more than that. The Gibsons also own a bunch of properties that they rent out to college kids, which causes a bit of conflict in town because many of the college kids are heavily from much more expensive rental markets and thus tend to overpay, which leads to rents that are about 50% higher than nearby towns and that causes all kinds of problems for the local town residents. There is also quite a bit of racism in the area around the college, so it wouldn't surprise me if Mr Gibson had knowingly or unknowingly hired someone with those tendencies.
The campus activists types are on average complete fools who are almost never effective in their often-ridiculous protests. My impression from the ones I knew was that they were mostly looking to either (a) get hired by a political non-profit organization after college, or (b) impress potential sex partners. For instance, a group tried to shout down a visiting speaker with chants of "Free Speech", which didn't go over well at all even though the speaker in question was a jackass who is nowhere near as smart as he thinks he is (Larry Summers, Bill Clinton's Treasury Secretary at the time and an architect of "free trade" agreements like NAFTA and the TPP). They do not normally have the support of most of the student body: The only actions they were involved in that I ever saw getting more than a few dozen participants were a rally opposing the Iraq War and a counterprotest to the Westboro Baptist Church. I get the distinct impression that a lot of the political activists got the impression Oberlin was a hotbed of activism based on its real history of abolitionist and anti-Vietnam efforts, and are rather disappointed to find that modern-day students tend to be less supportive of that than they anticipated. Also, the classes aren't remotely as left-wing as you might think: My econ classes covered Keynes, but also covered Friedman and Mankiw, for instance.
So with the more-insider take on this:
1. The students in question were wrong, although the crimes they committed were rather petty.
2. The activist types were probably right that racism played a role in the incident: White students have almost definitely tried to commit the same crime many times before and either succeeded or at the very least weren't arrested for it.
3. However, the activist types also overreacted because it was something they could do to make a big show of accomplishing something.
4. The real damages were probably not $11 million or even close to it, and there was likely an element of "owning the SJWs" in that number.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday June 11 2019, @02:10PM (1 child)
Informative - thank you.
I would like to point out one detail from the PDF. In the past x number of years, Gibson's has had either 50, or 60 people arrested for theft in the store. That figure is thrown out within the complaint. Of those roughly five dozen people arrested, the claim is that only six of those people were black.
Given those numbers - do you A. believe it B. disbelieve it C. accept that it may be accurate, but it is probably exaggerated, or D. other?
Oh, the rent situation? Isn't it the same in almost all college towns? Probably less noticeable in a real city, but any time you put a captive population into an area, they are going to affect real estate costs. Those effects seem to be less noticeable here, locally, where we only have three community college extensions. Closer to the main campuses, it can get crazy.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday June 11 2019, @02:38PM
The ~10% number does seem reasonable based on the racial makeup of the area in question, both college and town population. As for the total numbers, Gibson's is smack dab in the middle of town, and the nearest available source of booze for most students, so I'm not surprised that there have been a bunch of attempted thefts by idiots. As I said, it wouldn't surprise me in the least if somebody at the college overreacted big time based on a lot of unwarranted assumptions about who they were dealing with, although the $11 million number sounds excessive as well.
And yes, the rent thing is a pretty common feature of college towns. Hint to college kids and their parents from New York City, Boston, Seattle, Silicon Valley, and other high-rent areas: Check for nearby town rents and negotiate a bit before thinking you got a good deal. I know you're used to paying $3000 / month for a crappy studio, but that's over 5 times the going rent for larger 1-bedroom apartments in much of Ohio. Or if you're attending Oberlin, know that on-campus living is quite decent, and if you want a more independent situation you can consider moving into one of the very egalitarian cooperatives.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @06:05PM
#2. Yeah, let's assume it's whitey's fault, b/c some dumb monkeys, only in college because of affirmative action, in one way or another, subsidized by stolen tax money, are stirring up shit in a fucking bakery/store.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @08:23PM
Students: commit crime. Pretty much undisputed.
College faculty get in on a politically-correct hatefest against the crime victims.
College faculty, among other people, make unsupported, strongly negative statements against crime victims.
Some folks in a jury say this ain't right.
Guess all the jurors are just evil racist white supremacist KKK holocaust deniers. Or something.
(Score: 5, Informative) by ElizabethGreene on Monday June 10 2019, @08:28PM (9 children)
The Tennessee Star looks like a local newspaper, but it's not. It is a news aggregator/opinion site with significant bias and unknown ownership.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @08:34PM (1 child)
I think covered on John Oliver a few weeks/months back. I forget who the central owner is, but they have 'local newspaper' websites all over the US pushing stories like these to foment discord between ethnic groups, locals, and other people who don't factcheck.
Take it with a grain of salt until you can verify the court cast, local news coverage, and other details.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @09:05PM
ftfy:
Your entire first paragraph is superfluous.
(Score: 4, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Monday June 10 2019, @10:03PM (3 children)
Oh yes, I get it.
So the source is a sister website.
Who the hell are they?
So, who is he?
OH, OK just some sort of click-bait designed to manufacture outrage. It worked too.
Also:
Gmail.com? Seriously? Amateurs.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday June 10 2019, @10:26PM
Gockowski - polish IMAGRUNT!
froth, foam, froth, foam!!!!
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @02:34AM (1 child)
Jesus Fucking Christ! You deniers are incredible. It was on the front page of CNfuckingN a couple days ago.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/06/09/us/oberlin-college-bakery-lawsuit/index.html [cnn.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @05:07PM
(Score: 4, Informative) by FatPhil on Monday June 10 2019, @10:41PM
https://www.snopes.com/news/2019/03/04/activists-setup-local-news-sites/
"""
Hiding in Plain Sight: PAC-Connected Activists Set Up ‘Local News’ Outlets
Star News Digital Media, Inc. may look like a media company that produces local news, but a Snopes investigation reveals deep, undisclosed connections to political activism.
Published 4 March 2019
On 6 February 2017, a website of uncertain origin named “The Tennessee Star” was born. At the time, it was unclear who funded or operated this “local newspaper,” which was largely filled with freely licensed content from organizations tied to conservative mega-donors. After some prodding by Politico in early 2018, the Tennessee Star revealed its primary architects to be three Tea Party-connected conservative activists: Michael Patrick Leahy, Steve Gill, and Christina Botteri.
..."""
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Informative) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday June 10 2019, @10:44PM (1 child)
Your opinion of the Tennessee star is valid IMVHO. But in this case, link to the story in the NY Times [nytimes.com], unless they got duped.
This sig for rent.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday June 10 2019, @11:06PM
Yes, and note the links in the summary right here to CNN and Inside Higher Ed. Plenty of other info about this case out there.
(Score: 3, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @08:45PM (1 child)
It's something, eh? It isn't enough for rich spoiled rotten SJW fucktards who hate America, but it's something. When the school adds a fee to cover the fine, some Antifa might have to skimp on the high-fashion designer assault costumes.
Basically the reaction was: "How dare you hold persons of color to a standard of behavior that is non-criminal!!!" Plain and simple, it is a racist assumption that lawful behavior is a white thing.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @10:40PM
Don't worry, they will raise tuition and Snowflakes will beg Uncle Bernie to wipe their College Debt clean.
(Score: 1, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Monday June 10 2019, @09:01PM (2 children)
That's what I said when it happened in New York. In Central Park in New York. Lady goes Jogging in Central Park. And the Rapists, the Murderers & the Muggers got her. Raped her. Beat her. And left her for dead. She wasn't dead. But, she didn't remember what happened -- Brain Damage. I said, I want to hate these murderers and I always will. I am not looking to psychoanalyze or understand them, I am looking to punish them. Our hard working NYPD caught them, they confessed, they were convicted. Sounds great, right? It wasn't so great, believe me. Because this was 1989. They didn't have the DNA test in those days. Because it hadn't been invented yet. And when they got the test another guy confessed. He confessed and when they did the test his sperm matched. This guy possibly was the only one that didn't use a Rubber. Or the other ones did the beating and he did the rapeing. Or the other guys were too young to have sperm. I don't know and nobody knows except the ones that did it. I know it wasn't just one guy -- the damage to that woman was incredible. I know they all confessed. And then the first 5 changed their stories, they said they didn't do it. Who am I supposed to believe?
Incredibly, they were all released. And Bill DeBlasio payed them $41 MILLION of Taxpayer Money. So disgusting and it's something that wouldn't have happened if we had the Death Penalty. Which Governor Mario Cuomo (RIP!!) vetoed at the time of the horrific crime in Central Park. And Andrew Cuomo (the son) continues to veto. He wants to take Death Penalty off the books entirely. Which he says he's doing "in solidarity with Pope Francis." But, what about Late Term Abortion? Otherwise known as, doctors killing babies that have just been born. The baby's coming out, it's alive, it's crying. And it's too much for the mother, she says, "oh I changed my mind, do the Abortion." The Doctor snaps the baby's neck. Puts the baby in the trash. And get's payed double. Once for the Delivery and again (2nd.) for the Abortion. That's now 100% legal in the "great" State of New York. Very sad what Andrew and the Dems did with that one. They've become the Party of Infanticide. Andrew, if you're listening. Ask the Pope about that one. About innocent babies getting murdered by the barrellfull. While confessed Rapists -- would have been Murderers -- walk the streets with millions of dollars of Taxpayer Money. Unfair!!!!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @11:48PM
WE NEED A ROBOCOP.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @01:42AM
According to Netflix they were Innocent
Who are we to believe? Some person posting on an internet news site or Netflix (hint: Netflix winz)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by gawdonblue on Monday June 10 2019, @09:27PM (5 children)
... dog whistling.
Disappointed and sad.
(Score: 3, Touché) by epitaxial on Monday June 10 2019, @10:02PM (4 children)
Oh go fuck yourself with this dog whistle bullshit. Explain exactly what racist thing occurred.
(Score: 5, Informative) by PartTimeZombie on Monday June 10 2019, @10:11PM (3 children)
The problem is probably the source.
As pointed out above The Tennessee Star is not a local news site, but is one of many carbon-copy sites made to specifically appear to be local news sites.
They purposefully run stories designed to foster outrage.
It's a real shame you Americans are so frightened of each other.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday June 10 2019, @10:28PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 4, Insightful) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Monday June 10 2019, @10:46PM
True. In this case, however, the New York times has repeated the claims outlines in the story (see above under ElizabethGreene's post). Maybe sometimes a cigar is just a method of killing yourself?
This sig for rent.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by AthanasiusKircher on Monday June 10 2019, @11:11PM
What source? Sorry, but look at the freakin' summary, which is a quote from a CNN article, with the link to the CNN article at the top. The only Tennessee Star link is near the bottom of the summary, which just gives the further detail about the email, which is also mentioned in the CNN article and the Inside Higher Ed article linked at the end of the summary here.
I agree that the Tennessee Star is a bad source to link to, but it's not like this story wasn't covered in multitudes of mainstream media outlets.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @09:28PM (1 child)
SJW administration goes back to their tenured gender study "research", students get a tuition increase to pay off the judgment along with some donations made by alumni.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @10:43PM
SJW must write a paper. Title page: "_____ is Racist", I'll fill that out later, once I get more of an idea of what I can libel.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by cmdrklarg on Monday June 10 2019, @09:31PM (5 children)
These assholes took an incident of someone attempting to purchase booze with a fake ID and getting caught, and blew it all out of proportion just to get "street cred" after firing some crackpot professor who happened to be be black.
Read the PDF in the second link; it is astoundingly clear that there was completely malicious behavior on the part of the college. I hope they get taken to the cleaners.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @09:57PM (3 children)
The people truly responsible for this won't pay a single penny from their own pocket. The "college" will pay, which means every single student, including the black ones, present and future, and the teachers with their paycuts; that is for those who won't get fired to balance the budget.
That's justice for you.
(Score: 3, Touché) by FatPhil on Monday June 10 2019, @10:29PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @11:27PM
The students will be saved from attending a bad college.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @02:41AM
Hopefully, Oberlin will earn themselves a nice big enrollment plunge for their idiotic shenanigans just like their tone deaf SJW cousin, Evergreen State College. Then only the true believers will have to pay for their lapse in judgement.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday June 10 2019, @11:14PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 10 2019, @11:18PM (9 children)
So from what I read in the complaint, the Gibson Three went to the bakery (which apparently doubles as a convenience store) and one of them wanted to purchase booze with a fake ID. Common among white students. The clerk recognized the fake ID, and apparently the only act of violence here was a struggle between that guy and the clerk to get the fake ID back that the clerk was trying to confiscate. He was later restrained by an elderly owner of the bakery and handed over to the police.
Police decided to charge him with a felony, common among black arrestees, for robbery, and his entourage got charged with misdemeanors. Backroom deals are made, and everyone agrees to downgrade the charges to theft, but a judge feels the bakery may be coerced to agree to the plea deal, and nixes it.
The complaint then goes into the university's libel case against them, but what ended up happening to the original Three?
(Score: 4, Touché) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday June 11 2019, @12:38AM (2 children)
From the CNN article linked at the top of the summary (and which the summary is derived from):
So, in typical U.S. Court fashion, they were overcharged, and subsequently pled down to lesser charges.
Amazing what you might find if you actually RTFA.
(If you want more details: Other articles indicate that they were given no jail time, only community service and restitution. They also gave statements at that time saying the events were not racially motivated. Interestingly, some articles merely mention that fact -- implying it was strong evidence that the students didn't believe racism was involved, but other articles say they were required to make said statements as a condition of their plea deal. I don't have time to sort out what's true there... honestly I don't care that much. If you want to know, do your own research.)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @01:54AM (1 child)
But the complaint said that a judge had invalidated the pleas.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Tuesday June 11 2019, @01:06PM
Seriously? Learn to read and comprehend. From page 4 of the complaint PDF linked in TFS:
The judge invalidated the pleas on December 14, 2016. Then on page 20 of the complaint:
The complaint goes on to note the statements they submitted at that time (8 months later). Basically, it sounds like the judge invalidated the pleas the first time around because he felt that the publicity and Oberlin's position might be exerting undue influence on the bakery's willingness to accept the reduced charges. The judge felt if the bakery (and perhaps the prosecutors) didn't go along with supporting such a plea, they would potentially be subject to further retribution from the college and students (e.g., implying that the bakery was racist for pushing for overcharging).
It sounds like they were later able to come to a plea agreement that satisfied the judge if those charged willingly signed statements saying they didn't believe the crime was racially motivated, thereby relieving some of the tension and absolving the bakery of the racial accusation.
At least, that's what the complaint timeline seems to imply (as well as some news coverage). If so, it's important to recognize that the statements mentioned in TFA from those involved in the shoplifting incident about how the crimes weren't racially motivated were likely made under pressure -- if the students didn't make said statements, they likely could have gone to trial (one on felony charges). Not that that should have absolved Oberlin from its egregious behavior at all -- it's just not like the students freely offered a statement saying racial motivation didn't play a role as a neutral commentary on the case.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @01:27AM (1 child)
https://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-08/mohamed-noor-sentenced-for-murder-of-justine-damond-ruszczyk/11184162?pfmredir=sm [abc.net.au]
A black male muslim convicted for killing a white female? Racism!!!
'Outside court, a large group of Somali Americans protested the verdict, calling it an aberration of justice and an attack on Muslim immigrants. '
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @02:04AM
In a way, because even though by what little I know about this trial this guy should be going to prison, previous example in that fair city has shown that when the victim was black, the cop that executed him skated.
It is an example of another aspect of American institutional racism. Only because his victim was upper middle class white female, the state prosecuted a real case against him, not one set up to fail.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @02:19AM (3 children)
Looking at additional news reports about the case, apparently the trio had gone to the store, the Brother entered and the Sisters stayed outside. Brother pulls out his fake ID and when that doesn't work, he tries to steal two bottles of wine. Shopkeeper tries to film him, and Brother slaps his phone hand away. Brother then runs out, smashing the bottles in the process, followed by Shopkeeper. Once outside, shopkeeper tries to restrain Brother while the police are on their way, and Sisters come to Brother's aid and start assaulting Shopkeeper.
Stereotypically black. Make a dumb attempt at stealing from their victim, then escalate to violence when it gets noticed. Robbery charges were absolutely justified.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @04:59AM
Oh no, you didn't!
*snaps fingers while moving hand in a Z-shaped motion*
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @05:45AM
Not what happened! Fake Racist news! You need to cite a small town astroturf right-wing nutso website!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 11 2019, @05:11PM
"Make a dumb attempt at stealing from their victim, then escalate to violence when it gets noticed. Robbery charges were absolutely justified."
Gee, I've never heard of any other ethnicity doing such things. What an insightful comment that is in no way racist! Yee haw maw, I found myself a real one!
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday June 14 2019, @02:08AM
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/448464-bakery-suing-oberlin-college-wins-33-million-in-damages [thehill.com]
https://legalinsurrection.com/2019/06/oberlin-college-hit-with-maximum-punitive-damages-capped-at-22-million-by-law-in-gibsons-bakery-case/ [legalinsurrection.com]
Punitive damages at more than maximum, expected to be reduced by court. So a minimum total of $33 million, possibly $44 million.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]