The investigation continues.
That’s the official word from the University of Massachusetts about their very thorough investigation of some racist emails, a probe that was announced with such fanfare and righteous indignation earlier this fall but now appears to be sputtering out, with no suspects.
No suspects? How can that possibly be?
Most people had forgotten about the racist emails at ZooMass until the Jussie Smollett trial fizzled out the way you always knew it would — the “crimes” exposed as an utter fraud and hoax.
But Jussie’s scam reminded everyone of the recent UMass emails and the endless publicity they initially got. I started mentioning the “probe” daily on my radio show.
Apparently I wasn’t the only one inquiring about the investigation. On Friday, just as I was getting ready to file a FOIA request for information, I saw that ZooMass had decided to get ahead of the curve with “An Update into the Investigation of Racist Emails.”
“To date no perpetrator has been identified,” the statement read. “It is not uncommon for the results of a cyber inquiry to be inconclusive and it is possible that, despite their exhaustive investigation, they ultimately may be unable to identify the source of the racist emails.”
How anticlimactic is that? The next thing you know, they’ll be telling us there was nothing to that Russian collusion deal with Donald Trump.
The UMass update was signed by Christopher Misra, the $248,100-a-year vice chancellor for information services and chief information officer, and Nefertiti Walker, the $252,483-a-year vice chancellor for diversity, equity and inclusion.
Do you know what you call UMass administrators who make a quarter of a million bucks a year?
Middle management.
I mention this only because of the great fanfare with which the initial investigation was announced in September. It was even reported in The New York Times: “UMass Amherst Hires Cybersecurity Firm to Investigate Racist E-Mails.”
It was one of the Times’ biggest stories about a hate crime since their slobbering coverage of Jussie and how he “was attacked in Chicago by two assailants who yelled racial and homophobic slurs.”
No qualifiers like “allegedly” or “reputedly” or “according to police reports.” Everything was just credulously accepted as The Truth because … Jussie.
The racist UMass emails were anonymously sent to Black students and groups on campus. They were described as “disturbing” by administrators. The ensuing investigation was announced by Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy, who makes what is considered a moderate wage at UMass — $534,748 a year.
To assist the campus cops, the chancellor announced the hiring of “Stroz Friedberg Digital Forensics, a leading national firm in cyber security.”
That seemed to indicate that the school would spare no expense to hunt down the racists. So Friday, I asked how much ZooMass has actually paid this leading national firm to get to the bottom of this outrage.
Here was their response:
“The firm has been paid $9,821.25 related to the investigation into the racist emails. The work is being done under a service agreement between UMass Amherst and the firm to provide IT forensic services on an as-needed basis.”
Less than ten grand? Are you kidding me — this is ZooMass, where money (taxpayers’ money) is no object. This is a school that paid its last football coach close to $2 million to run up a gaudy 2-23 record over the last three seasons.
This is the same former agricultural college — Mass Aggie — that now routinely makes multi-millionaires out of any unemployable Democrat hack who needs a job (as opposed to work).
Just ask former Democrat U.S. Rep. Marty Meehan, now pocketing $642,015 a year as president, or his $354,742-a-year executive vice president, Jim Julian, erstwhile State House coat holder to Whitey Bulger’s little brother, or the bust-out ex-district attorney of Middlesex County Gerry Leone, who is now “general counsel” for $283,289 a year.
And yet these same fabulously wealthy Democrats can’t even spring for 10K to find out who sent the racist emails. You’d almost get the idea they aren’t interested in finding out who was really behind these horrible emails.
When the investigation was announced, the chancellor also bragged about other “action steps” being taken, including, as you might expect, “increased funding for the Center of Racial Justice (CJR).”
But now, 10 weeks later, the school’s flak-catchers complain about the “potential challenges … including the numerous free email accounts offered by providers, privacy rules and encryption software.”
But fear not, Social Justice Warriors — UMass remains willing to “follow up on any data or leads if and when they are discovered.”
Like O.J., they pledge to spend eternity chasing down the real killers. But so far, apparently, not a single MAGA hat or Let’s Go Brandon! T-shirt has turned up at the scene of the crime. Not even a discarded pay stub from a real job.
The snowflakes of Amherst are, as you might expect, baffled.
It’s certainly discouraging, isn’t it, how few of these campus white supremacists are ever brought to justice. In fact, usually they’re never even found. They seldom leave behind a single clue.
Remember the incident a few years ago at Harvard Law School where the portraits of Black professors were taped over — not spray-painted or slashed, just taped over.
Odd, wasn’t it, the racists’ solicitude for the portraits of prominent African Americans?
The usual uproar occurred — candlelight vigils, nonnegotiable demands, groveling apologies by clueless administrators, vows to prosecute… somebody.
A nationwide manhunt was promised to drive those racist miscreants from the People’s Republic of Cambridge. That was in 2015. The last update on the dragnet was in January 2016, reporting the customary no progress. I guess you could call it a cold case now.
And now UMass follows in the tradition of campus hate crimes.
The investigation continues.
