Ohio Attorney General Leans Into Pet-Eating Lie While Bomb Threats Close Schools
While bomb threats forced elementary and middle schools in Springfield, Ohio, to evacuate Friday for a second day, the state’s attorney general was amplifying the conspiracy theory that likely prompted those bomb threats in the first place.
Despite lacking any firm evidence, and in the face of clear denials from city officials, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost this week leaned into the lie that immigrants in Springfield are abducting and eating domesticated animals around the city.
“There’s a recorded police call from a witness who saw immigrants capturing geese for food in Springfield,” Yost wrote on social media Wednesday.
“Citizens testified to City Council. These people would be competent witnesses in court. Why does the media find a carefully worded City Hall press release better evidence?”
Yost appeared to be referencing a weeks-old, non-emergency police call from a resident who claimed to see immigrants carrying dead geese.
Springfield’s deputy director of public safety and operations, Jason Via, told NPR that local authorities are familiar with that claim, among others.
“We get these reports, ‘The Haitians are killing ducks in a lot of our parks’ or ‘The Haitians are eating vegetables right out of the aisle at the grocery store,’” Via said. “And we haven’t really seen any of that.It’s really frustrating.”
And even the accusations about local waterfowl are a far cry from the conspiracy theory propagated by Republican nominee Donald Trump during the presidential debate on Tuesday that immigrants are abducting and eating peoples’ cats and dogs.
“In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” Trump said Tuesday night. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country. And it’s a shame.”
Debate moderators immediately debunked Trump’s remark, citing a statement from Springfield City Manager Bryan Heck. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, has also said there’s no merit to the claims.
In the days since, as other GOP politicians nonetheless doubled down on the lie, a barrage of bomb threats has forced schools, government agencies and other buildings in Springfield to evacuate.
The city hall building had to be evacuated on Thursday. On Friday morning, three elementary schools in the city were evacuated due to “information received from the Springfield Police Division,” according to the Springfield City School District. Threats closed a middle school before it could even open for the day.
While the FBI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from HuffPost regarding the particulars of the threats, Springfield Mayor Rob Rue told The Washington Post the threats had used “hateful language” toward Haitians and immigrants.
Asked by the Ohio Capital Journal if Yost believes a 911 call is more credible than public declarations from the Springfield mayor, city manager, police chief and Ohio’s governor, and if Yost was concerned that his actions are inflaming racial resentment, a communications director for the attorney general deflected.
“This is what the people of Springfield are reporting,” she told the outlet. “You can choose to believe them or not believe them. But the indisputable fact is that the heavy influx of immigrants is overwhelming the city’s services and schools.”
