Dai threatened to bring an assault rifle to campus and shoot Jews.

Patrick Dai, a student at Cornell University, was detained and accused of using interstate communications to post threats against the university’s Jewish community.

In an online forum post, the 21-year-old threatened to “shoot up” 104 West, the university’s mostly kosher dining hall, as well as kill and injure Jewish students at Cornell. According to a Facebook post, Dai threatened to shoot Jewish students on campus with an assault rifle.

Following the posting of the threats, the Cornell University police increased patrols and bolstered security for Jewish students and organisations. Additionally, the New York State Police stepped up their security on campus. The Middle East is currently experiencing a war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and the violent threats coincided with a reported rise in antisemitic incidents. According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents in the US rose by almost 400% in the days following the October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel.

The Cornell Hillel organisation estimates that there are 500 Jewish graduate students and roughly 3,000 undergraduate Jewish students, making up about 22% of the student body. When word got out about the posts, Cornell Hillel advised faculty, staff, and students to stay away from 104 West “out of an abundance of caution.”

Given the extreme distress that people are currently experiencing, New York officials are taking reports of hate crimes against Jewish, Palestinian, and Muslim citizens very seriously. These hate crimes must end because they are cruelly causing emotional harm to victims.