The father of a boy killed at Sandy Hook gets death threats; some people say the shooting was a hoax
By Susan Svrluga January 13, 2016 In December, parents of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 wrote a letter to the Sun-Sentinel accusing a professor at Florida Atlantic University of harassing them for proof that the murders really happened. The professor, James Tracy, was fired by the […]
January 13, 2016
In December, parents of a 6-year-old boy who was killed in the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 wrote a letter to the Sun-Sentinel accusing a professor at Florida Atlantic University of harassing them for proof that the murders really happened. The professor, James Tracy, was fired by the university earlier this month.
Since then, the boy’s father, Lenny Pozner, has received several death threats.
[University fires professor who says Sandy Hook was a hoax]
Tracy’s alleged harassment was hardly the first, Pozner said. There’s a whole network of people who believe the media reported a mass shooting that never happened, he said, that the tragedy was an elaborate hoax designed to increase support for gun control. Pozner said he gets ugly comments often on social media, such as, “Eventually you’ll be tried for your crimes of treason against the people,” “… I won’t be satisfied until the caksets are opened…” and “How much money did you get for faking all of this?”
A few days after Tracy’s firing was announced, Pozner got several death threats. A woman (judging by the voice) left messages on his phone that sounded like, “You’re gonna die you [expletives and slurs deleted] …And what are you going to do about it? You can do absolutely nothing. … this is coming to you real soon [expletive deleted]. You going to die,” and “You [expletive deleted] look behind you, justice is coming to you real soon.”
A message seeking comment at the number where the call originated was not immediately returned Tuesday.
Pozner said he also got emails with similar threats. “I am concerned for my safety,” he said. “I try to remain vigilant at all times.”
He said he believes the now-daily hateful postings on social media, some of which he documents on the website for the HONR Network victims’ rights group he founded, may have been prompted by news of Tracy’s firing, of President Obama’s recent executive order on gun control, or both. He said people who believe recent mass shootings are a hoax are in a sort of echo chamber, with the same misinformation and theories traded around.
He particularly objected to Tracy, he said, because “some people have a tendency to take his word at face value because he has a Ph.D. at the end of his name. That’s unfortunate, because if they were to simply fact-check his hoax claims, they’d find that they just don’t hold up to scrutiny. Tracy’s theories about Sandy Hook are as ludicrous and unfounded as those cult leaders who fear-monger about the end of the world.”
Tracy said in an email that he moved things out of his office at Florida Atlantic on Jan. 8 and is hiring another attorney.
“Unfortunately, most news media have failed to present a fair and accurate account of the controversy that has led to the termination of my tenured professorship at FAU,” he wrote.
The news of his firing worried some advocates for academic freedom, who said that even controversial research, such as Tracy’s into press coverage of mass shootings, should be protected, and that he should have a fair hearing.
But it was welcomed by others who were shocked that a professor would go beyond questioning events and analyzing the media in an academic setting to seeking out grieving families and demanding information from them.
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