Well, if they weren’t eating pet dogs and cats, then they’re killing ducks and geese.
That was the charge leveled by Republicans against Springfield, Ohio’s Haitian immigrants, who are in the U.S. legally on work visas.
A cat did go missing. It turned up alive in its owner’s basement two days later. No dead ducks have been found, but someone did kill two geese at Springfield’s golf course. Thanks to a witness, police caught him, and he’s not a Haitian immigrant.
The perpetrator is Brian Comer, 64, of Springfield, a white man (see police report below; click on image for best legibility). He pled guilty and paid a $200 fine, plus court costs (see story here).
He told authorities he killed the geese because they were a “nuisance.” Some cities, including Seattle, have conducted euthanasia programs to get rid of nuisance geese (see, e.g., story here).
By coincidence, Comer killed the geese on the day of the Trump-Harris debate. In the debate, Trump claimed Springfield’s Haitian immigrants were eating pets, a falsehood that had already gone viral. At a rally two days later, he accused them of “taking ducks and geese from Springfield parks and trails” (read story here).
To date, there’s still zero evidence that Springfield’s Haitians have bothered a single dog, cat, duck, or goose. They work in local factories and warehouses, earn wages, and buy groceries. They’re not impoverished scavengers living off the land. But “telling stories,” as J. D. Vance likes to do, feeds racist anti-immigrant stereotypes.
Maybe some of the people who peddle these bogus “stories” about immigrants have critical thinking abilities, aren’t gullible, and know they’re spreading lies, and are just dishonest and unethical. Those are pervasive Republican traits these days.
Return to The-Ave.US Home Page
