A UCLA official with its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Office has been placed on leave amid an investigation over remarks made on social media concerning the killing of Charlie Kirk, according to social media reports and university sources. <\/p>\n
Johnathan Perkins<\/a>, the director of race and equity, appeared to have published the remarks on BlueSky<\/a>. The posts express satisfaction with as well as indifference to the killing of Kirk, a popular right-wing commentator and activist. <\/p>\n In an emailed statement to The Times, Perkins said the posts were \u201cwritten in my own hand, in my own voice, in no way the echo of my employer, UCLA.\u201d He said the posts are also protected by the 1st Amendment. <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a truly sad day. My livelihood could ultimately be threatened for stating, in the clearest terms, that I felt no grief at the death of an avowed white nationalist \u2014 [a] man who dedicated his life to despising mine, to despising my people, to despising our very existence,\u201d Perkins wrote. \u201cI am devastated to learn of higher ed colleagues around the country, facing similar and much worse consequences, including termination. I admit, I thought UCLA was different. I hope we are.\u201d<\/p>\n The statement came hours after he issued a statement through LinkedIn <\/a> \u2014 which has since been taken down \u2014 stating that he had deactivated all social media accounts with the exception of Instagram and that he had received multiple death threats. He said his home address and phone number had also been made public by critics because \u201cI said it\u2019s okay to be happy when a racist who called for your eradication dies.\u201d <\/p>\n Perkins said the university had placed him on \u201cinvestigative leave\u201d to look into the complaints that Kirk\u2019s supporters had made against him. <\/p>\n \u201cThis is Project 2025,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThis is fascism at work.\u201d <\/p>\n Screenshots of Perkins\u2019 posts have been shared by conservatives on social media.<\/p>\n In one, a BlueSky user wrote that they did not feel sad over Kirk\u2019s death; Perkins appeared to respond with: \u201cWhy shouldn\u2019t he be dead?\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n Another post said: \u201cI\u2019m always glad when bigots die, so.\u201d <\/p>\n In what looked to be back-to-back posts, Perkins, who is Black, appeared to have written: \u201cYou can\u2019t force people to mourn someone who hated us \u2014 no matter how he died,\u201d then, \u201cIt is OKAY to be happy when someone who hated you and called for your people\u2019s death dies \u2014 even if they are murdered.\u201d<\/p>\n In a written statement, UCLA<\/a> said a \u201ccampus employee\u201d had been put on leave and the school had launched an investigation into social media posts made about Kirk. <\/p>\n \u201cWhile free expression is a core value of UCLA, violence of any kind \u2014 including the celebration of it \u2014 is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated,\u201d the statement read. <\/p>\n A university spokesperson did not identify the employee and referred The Times to the above statement. University sources, however, confirmed that Perkins was placed on leave.<\/p>\n Perkins has been outspoken on the issue of systemic racism. He said he fell victim to it in the spring of 2011 when he was stopped by campus police at the University of Virginia, where he was attending law school. Perkins said he was stopped because he matched the description of a person they were looking for. The incident brought public scrutiny to the university\u2019s police department but ended when Perkins recanted the story. <\/p>\n Years later, he said he was pressured by the FBI to recant<\/a> his story. <\/p>\n \u201cDoing so has been my life\u2019s chief regret,\u201d he wrote in a retelling of the story years later.<\/a> <\/p>\n Perkins said his activism and academic work to create a more equal society were rooted in \u201cantiracist allyship and the effects of individual and institutional bias,\u201d according to his website. <\/p>\n Perkins joined UCLA in 2019. He and his sister co-host the podcast \u201cBlack&.\u201d<\/p>\n Perkins\u2019 statements on social media were in contrast with those made by university officials, including James B. Milliken<\/a>, president of the University of California, which oversees hundreds of thousands of staff and faculty across 10 campuses, six academic health systems and three affiliated national laboratories.<\/p>\n In the statement, released the day Kirk was killed, Milliken wrote: \u201cPolitical violence has no place in our society and on our campuses. This wasn\u2019t just an attack on an individual; it was an attack on the very freedoms we as a nation hold dear. This is a very sad day.\u201d<\/p>\n Perkins\u2019 social media posts that have been shared on X appeared to have been made on Sept. 12, two days after Kirk was killed <\/a>while on his American Comeback Tour, which kicked off on the campus of Utah Valley University. Kirk was answering questions about mass shootings when he was shot in the neck.<\/p>\n Two days after the shooting, authorities arrested a suspect in Kirk\u2019s killing, identifying him as 22-year-old Tyler Robinson<\/a>, who is registered as nonpartisan and whose parents are registered as Republican, according to data reviewed by The Times.<\/p>\n Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said a family member told investigators that \u201cRobinson had become more political in recent years\u201d and expressed dislike for Kirk, who Robinson said was \u201cfull of hate\u201d and \u201cspreading hate.\u201d<\/p>\n Perkins is the latest public figure to be mired in controversy over comments related to Kirk. <\/p>\n A University of Mississippi staff member was fired after reposting \u201churtful, insensitive comments on social media\u201d regarding Kirk, according to the university\u2019s statement<\/a>. Matthew Dowd, a political analyst for MSNBC, was also fired after making \u201cinappropriate\u201d statements on air, according to the news network<\/a>.<\/p>\n They are among the many who have been recently targeted by right-wing activists, influencers and government officials over comments made after Kirk\u2019s killing.<\/p>\n Sean Davis, chief executive and founder of conservative media outlet the Federalist, wrote on X<\/a> that it wasn\u2019t enough to contact people\u2019s employers but to also reach out to state licensing boards. <\/p>\n \u201cLawyers, teachers, and medical professionals who endorse or threaten violence violate their license agreements and cannot be trusted to be around clients, children, or patients,\u201d his post read in part.<\/p>\n Free speech experts have expressed concerned about what they\u2019re seeing unfold across the country.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to believe, but somehow we\u2019re back to the \u201950s, but this time with a digital spin,\u201d said Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center, a nonpartisan and nonprofit that seeks to educate the public about the five freedoms under the 1st Amendment. \u201cDuring the height of the Red Scare, neighbors would call the FBI and share the suspicions that somebody was a communist, and today we\u2019re seeing Americans all over, alert public officials and people in power, saying that someone they follow on Facebook has posted something disrespectful or offensive about Charlie Kirk.\u201d<\/p>\n Paulson noted that the U.S. Constitution doesn\u2019t protect employees from being fired or disciplined based on controversial or incendiary comments they make.<\/p>\n \u201cThe 1st Amendment only protects us from government interference with our speech,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t say your employer shall make no law, it says \u2018Congress shall make no law.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Paulson said if people want to argue against what Kirk believed in, they should do so without \u201cdancing on his grave.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s the provocative and outrageous posts that lead to people losing their jobs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile in Indiana, Atty. Gen. Todd Rokita called on residents to report educators or administrators making disparaging comments about Kirk to a portal that his office oversees. In a statement to WTHR, a local news station,<\/a> Rokita claimed hundreds of people have submitted evidence through the Eyes on Education portal<\/a>. <\/p>\n That move raised concerns for Paulson. <\/p>\n \u201cFor any government official to try to use the levers of power to punish someone because of an insensitive post is not just wrong, it\u2019s blatantly unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n Times staff writer Jaweed Kaleem contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A UCLA official with its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Office has been placed on leave amid an investigation…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":232167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,125133,19719,13140,2385,125134,125131,21183,2961,1535,224,5337,464,10655,11004,120674,125132,4280,8572],"class_list":{"0":"post-232166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-campus-employee","11":"tag-charlie-kirk","12":"tag-comment","13":"tag-day","14":"tag-equity-official","15":"tag-johnathan-perkins","16":"tag-killing","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-leave","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-post","22":"tag-social-medium","23":"tag-statement","24":"tag-tyler-robinson","25":"tag-ucla-official","26":"tag-university","27":"tag-violence"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115215897972534171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}