GREENPOINT — A Rutgers University professor who tweeted "threats to kill white people" was taken by police to Bellevue Hospital Tuesday night for a psychological evaluation at the request of the university, police said.
Kevin Allred, an adjunct lecturer and author of the book "Politicizing Beyonce," defended his statement on Twitter, saying it may have been "incendiary" and perceived as a threat, but it was intended as a "hyperbolic question posed to show a double standard" about how gun violence impacts white people.
He went further to interpret his own hospitalization on Tuesday as evidence that "Trump's crackdown on free speech has absolutely begun," he wrote.
Allred — who has since been released from the hospital — took down the original tweet because Twitter threatened to boot him off if he didn't, he wrote.
On Tuesday night at around 10:27 p.m. police showed up at Allred's Greenpoint home to do a wellness check, according to police and his tweets of the account, the Daily News first reported.
Officers at Greenpoint's 94th Precinct had been contacted by the Rutgers Police Department to do a "wellness check, make sure this guy's OK," according to Captain Peter Rose, head of the precinct.
"His tweets were alarming them," he said.
Wellness checks at the request of other law enforcement bodies or family members are a regular thing, Rose said.
"It's really routine," he said. "He was cooperative. He wasn't combative."
But Allred claimed the encounter went far beyond a wellness check as he was hospitalized. He took it as an "intimidation" tactic and tweeted much of the incident as it unfurled.
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
they've forced me to now undergo a psychiatric evaluation at the hospital. they brought me by ambulance tho i'm not under arrest technically
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
even the doctors thought it was ridiculous to take me to a psychiatric hospital and force me into evaluation. it was fucking intimidation.
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
THAT IS WHAT THEY DEEMED A THREAT ENOUGH TO SEND POLICE FROM 2 DIFF STATES AFTER ME & FORCE ME INTO A PSYCH HOSPITAL. wow. 👀
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
He also took to Twitter to explain what he'd meant by his earlier remarks.
that tweet was not a threat. it was a hyperbolic question posed to show a double standard-look at context/tone of most every tweet i make.
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
i said: would conservatives care as much abt the 2nd amendment if guns killed more white people? a question meant to expose double standard
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
and this is for exercising my fucking first amendment rights. i'm being labeled a threat and put in a psych hospital
— Kevin Allred (@KevinAllred) November 16, 2016
Allred couldn't be reached for further comment immediately. Rutgers didn't respond immediately to a request for comment.
