...the incident on Nov. 9, 2016, wherein three college students who are black — Jonathan Aladin, Endia Lawrence and Cecelia Whettstone — were arrested after Aladin attempted to buy wine with a fake ID while also concealing two bottles of wine under his shirt.
When Allyn Gibson, who is white, confronted Aladin about the fake identification and attempted theft, Aladin ran out of the bakery, dropping the bottles of wine. Allyn Gibson pursued Aladin out of the store, and when police arrived, Allyn Gibson was on the ground with all three students punching and kicking him.
http://www.chroniclet.com/cops-and-courts/2017/11/10/Gibson-39-s-sues-Oberlin-College.html
This article seems to be a bit clearer on some details.
It is being reported as fact that one of the three students tried to buy wine with a fake I.D. but also concealed two bottles of wine underneath his shirt. He denied the second part but admits the first part. All three students were charged.
This bothers me a lot:
Allyn Gibson pursued Aladin out of the store
The claim in this thread and other articles is that the students attacked the shop owner, but this article says that the shop owner's son chased after the three students out of the store. Without more detail, it sounds like the students reacted in self-defense after the shop owner's son pursued and assaulted them.
This also bothers me a lot (
different article):
All three students pleaded guilty in August to misdemeanor charges and read statements into the record acknowledging that Allyn Gibson was within his right to detain the shoplifter and that his actions were not racially motivated.
Bullshit he was "within his right" to leave his shop and chase them through town to "detain" them. Unfortunately this sounds all too much like the town circling their wagons against the college and its students. How much is also due to race is hard to tell, but it is not at all unusual in this country to grossly over charge black teens... especially when the white person involved was also in the wrong. So, the students were forced to read prepared statements as part of their plea deal. I do not take that as an admission of their true thoughts on the matter at all.
In response to the accusations of racism, Oberlin police conducted an investigation into arrests at Gibson’s and found “a complete lack of evidence of racism,” the complaint states. In a five-year period, according to police, 40 adults were arrested for shoplifting and only six were African-American.
Note the word "adults". With no direct access to the police data, I would consider this second-hand claim suspect. The three students were not "adults", hence the need for fake I.D.'s.
Moreover and more importantly, if the students at Oberlin are experiencing racial discrimination, Gibson pointing to "adult" arrest records for shoplifting does not actually dispute the students' claims.
Nothing in any of the articles I have read give any support to the claim that the college or its vice president, Meredith Raimondo, participated in any of the protests or posting of flyers.
It does say that the college ended a contract they had with the bakery for products at the college:
Following the protests, Oberlin College canceled its long-standing order with Gibson’s Bakery. At that time, David Gibson met with then-President Marvin Krislov and Tita Reed, assistant to the president of Oberlin College, during which time the college asked Gibson’s not to push criminal charges against first-time shoplifters, according to the complaint.
Per one of the other articles, the college representatives asked Gibson's to refer the shoplifting accusations to the college for internal disciplinary action, but Gibson's refused. This is how they portray it:
“Gibson’s loses thousands of dollars a year due to stolen merchandise and such losses would certainly multiply if students learned they could steal without repercussion,” the lawsuit states. “David Gibson believes the policy would be inconsistent with his core belief that an educational institution of higher learning should be teaching its students not to commit robbery and theft, instead of sheltering and excusing that criminal activity.”
Given this and other background from Gibson's lawsuit, it sounds to me like there HAS been a long-standing problem between this bakery and the students at Oberlin. Again, hard to tell if it is racially motivated, but it definitely seems like Gibson's assumes the worst about Oberlin and its students.
So Gibson is pissed off that Oberlin has cancelled their long-standing bakery order - something Oberlin is well within their right to do for ANY reason - and retaliates by suing the college and the new vice president for $200,000.
Sounds like more of a financial shake-down to me.
