Leftists on Twitter, hell-bent on punishing the MAGA-hat wearing student who came face to face with Native American protester Nathan Phillips, wrongly identified and targeted a Cincinnati, Ohio teenager, and doxxed and threatened his family.
The Washington Examiner reports that social media users, going off publicly available photos of Cincinnati high school students, noticed a resemblance between the student pictured with Phillips and Michael Hodges, a high school junior who was, reportedly, not present at the incident in Washington, D.C.. Taking the photo at face value, members of the Twitter mob began trying to get the hashtag “#MichaelHodges” trending, to “name and shame” the “racist” teen in the video.
Its not clear Hodges even goes to Covington Catholic High School.
But small things like facts were too difficult for the outraged mob who, according to Hodges’ brother Andrew, quickly doxxed Hodges’ parents and relatives, “spamming” them with threats of violence. The group also contacted Cincinnati University, which Hodges is expected to attend after high school as a culinary arts major, demanding the school rescind Hodges’ acceptance.
Andrew Hodges detailed the situation in a tweet-storm late Sunday.
1) Yesterday was supposed to be a day of celebration for my middle brother Alex, who got married last night. Instead my family had to deal with the fallout of my youngest brother #MichaelHodge being falsely accused for standing & smiling in front of an indigenous man with a drum
— Andrew Hodge (@PikePlaceTechie) January 20, 2019
2) People then proceeded to spam my family with harassments and threats of physical violence. We then find out our parents address was posted online. If that wasn’t enough, our family operated business has been slandered and attacked.
— Andrew Hodge (@PikePlaceTechie) January 20, 2019
3) No one reviews evidence or does any due diligence, they immediately escalate things to a state of frenzy over much of nothing. The zealots scream for the head of #MichaelHodge knowing that their will be zero consequences to them if anything happens to him
— Andrew Hodge (@PikePlaceTechie) January 20, 2019
4) My parents, uncles, & aunts, receive messages stating they are pieces of shit parents and won’t be able to protect #MichaelHodge forever… seriously what kind of behavior is this?
— Andrew Hodge (@PikePlaceTechie) January 20, 2019
Andrew Hodges then vouched for his brother’s good character before revealing that social media users had discovered Michael’s aptitude for and interest in the culinary arts and formed a plan to ruin Michael’s career in the food service industry before it even began.
6) People then started circulating articles of him regarding his dreams and goals of being a chef, finds the college he plans on attending and proceed to blow them up encouraging them to rescind offer and calling him a racist POS…
— Andrew Hodge (@PikePlaceTechie) January 20, 2019
Andrew then had some harsh words for his family’s critics and the pitchfork-wielding mob that formed around such wrong information.
7) You reach out saying how “terrible” of a family we are, defame us, threaten us, and you know nothing about us. Yet you circulate the information and spam us like it is the only “truth” that has ever existed in your lives
— Andrew Hodge (@PikePlaceTechie) January 20, 2019
8) You condemned my parents for being horrible role models, yet you jumped to conclusions and were ready to string up an innocent dude? Is that what you are teaching your children/family? I sure hope not….
— Andrew Hodge (@PikePlaceTechie) January 20, 2019
9)It saddens me people have nothing better to do on Saturday then scour the internet for drama & then dig up info on a family & rile up an army to attack them.Hold yourselves to a higher standard, set a better example for your sphere of influence, we will all be better off for it
— Andrew Hodge (@PikePlaceTechie) January 20, 2019
The student at the center of the “controversy” is actually Nick Sandmann. Sandmann released a statement late Sunday detailing his experience with Phillips and Phillips’ group and defending his decision to remain in place and try to “diffuse” the situation as protesters taunted the Covington Catholic students from all sides.
In his statement, Sandmann revealed that he and his family have also received death threats.
“I am being called every name in the book, including a racist, and I will not stand for this mob-like character assassination of my family’s name. My parents were not on the trip, and I strive to represent my family in a respectful way in all public settings,” Sandmann said.
“I have received physical and death threats via social media, as well as hateful insults. One person threatened to harm me at school, and one person claims to live in my neighborhood,” he continued. “My parents are receiving death and professional threats because of the social media mob that has formed over this issue.”
Local law enforcement have also tried to diffuse plans on social media to organize a protest around Covington Catholic High School, telling Twitter users that they take threats seriously and will not tolerate targeted violence.
