SLO Solidarity leader Matt Klepfer received a death threat over Facebook Tuesday night after the unregistered club’s list of demands to university administrators was made public.
The message, which came from a hastily constructed Facebook account with the name “Mordecai Shekelburg,” included references to hanging Klepfer and an anti-Semitic slur directed at the political science sophomore, who is not Jewish.
It read, “The day of the rope will be coming soon, and you people will be the first to go. If you don’t like how it is in this town, you can all go somewhere else. We have a nice thing going here, and if you fuck with that you’re going to have some pretty angry young white men on your hands. Kike.”
Klepfer logged a report with the University Police Department (UPD), which gave him a ride home in one of their vehicles. He received phone calls and text messages from Vice President for Student Affairs Keith Humphrey and Dean of Students Jean DeCosta as late as 10 p.m. on Tuesday night, he said.
“Hopefully UPD will be able to figure out who that fake profile was made by, by contacting Facebook or whatever they need to do,” Klepfer said. “And then going from there, filing either criminal charges or university-related disciplinary action.
The Facebook profile, which had three friends and used a profile picture of actor Chad Michael Murray, appeared to have been made on Tuesday night.
Klepfer said he thinks the account’s creator was a Cal Poly student because he or she added students as Facebook friends and listed the university as a place of education.
“This message had a very White Supremacist sort of tone to it, and if that sort of thinking still exists on this campus, it really shows that a social justice-oriented movement is really needed,” he said.
Klepfer composed the email containing the list of demands, which was a collaborative effort of multiple SLO Solidarity members.