A former Cornell University student was sentenced Monday for posting ominous online threats against Jewish students on campus, court documents show.
Patrick Dai, who had been a junior at the Ithaca college, was ordered to 21 months behind bars by Northern District of New York Chief Judge Brenda Sannes. He will receive credit for the 10 months he’s served so far, his lawyer said.
“Antisemitic threats of violence are unacceptable in our society, and we will not tolerate this conduct,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, said in a statement after Dai’s guilty plea. “Particularly at institutions of higher learning, people should feel safe to pursue educational opportunities.”
Dai, a computer science major at Cornell’s College of Engineering, pled guilty in April to posting threats to kill or injure another person via interstate communications, prosecutors said.
Last October, he posted disturbing messages to the Cornell page of an online discussion forum, Greekrank, including posts that warned “gonna shoot up 104 west” — a dining hall serving Kosher food next to the Cornell Jewish Center that provides residential accommodations for students. He added he was “gonna bomb jewish house.”
In another unhinged post, Dai threatened to “stab” and “slit the throat” of Jewish men on campus; rape and throw off a cliff Jewish women; and behead any Jewish babies. At the same time, he announced a chilling vow to “bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews.”
Dai of Pittsford, a suburb of Rochester, had faced a maximum penalty of five years in prison. His lawyer said she plans to appeal sentencing enhancements that made the order longer.
“Patrick is not antisemitic. He is autistic and believed he could expose the atrocities of Hamas and garner sympathy for the Jewish community if he pretended to be part of Hamas,” Lisa Peebles of the Syracuse office of the Federal Public Defender said, adding Dai functions at an “age equivalent” of a child between ages 5 and 10.
“He quickly realized his postings were not accomplishing his intended effect,” she said. “He posted an apology and felt terrible about what he did,” she said.
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