Alex Knepper Contacts My College in Campaign of Workplace Harassment

I have not spoken to or communicated with Alex Knepper since last Saturday night. As I reported earlier, I called out Knepper as he crashed the bloggers' lounge at CPAC. It turns out that a woman named Amy Miller came to Knepper's defense on Twitter yesterday. It got heated. Miller blocked me by the end of the exchange. And she may have sent tweets to Knepper, and here's one of his replies:

Somehow Knepper's gotten the idea that he's being "cyberstalked."

Today he e-mailed my department chairman with a long and desperate rant, I'm told, alleging cyberstalking by me and David Swindle, Editor of NewsReal Blog. And once again, while I have not received a copy of the complaint, it's been indicated that outside contacts of this nature constitute threats to freedom of speech and are simply intolerable. Frankly, this is what leftists do. They can't defend themselves in the public realm, so they launch campaigns of workplace intimidation. This happened with David Hillman of The Swash Zone, E.D. Kain of Ordinary Gentlemen, RepRacist3 of AmericanNihilist, and now Knepper, who was formerly a premiere blogger at faux-conservative David Frum's website.

That said, Knepper's complaint was apparently so unhinged that it raised questions of campus safety. I notified my division dean, and I sent Alex Knepper a request for a copy of the e-mail. Here's the exchange, in personal off-campus communications:

Alex:

Please send me a copy of the e-mail you sent to my department chair. Send it to me directly.

You are making false allegations of "cyber stalking". On the contrary, by contacting my college you have launched a campaign of workplace intimidation that threatens my First Amendment rights, my safety, and the safety of the students, staff, faculty, and administration at my college.

Send the e-mail directly to me. I will respond to your allegations. And if necessary I'll take appropriate legal action.

Donald

*****

apkkib@aol.com to me
show details 3:23 PM (34 minutes ago)

Donald,

If you swear to me today that you will never contact me again, never write another post about me in your entire life, and remove all posts about me that you have written on your blog, I will cease my attempts at working through your employer to make you leave me alone.

It is absolutely preposterous to claim that a private e-mail sent to your department head threatens your First Amendment rights or the safety of you or your students. This is clearly an attempt to intimidate me out of taking the action necessary to stop you and your NewsRealBlog colleagues' cyberstalking of me.

I am under no legal or moral obligation to show you anything that I sent. You know what your actions are, and if you have done nothing illegal or unethical, then you should have nothing to worry about. Right?

Again: if you vow to never write another word about me, and to remove the posts that you have previously written, I will cease my actions. If not, I have no choice but to take this route. I feel like I have no other way to make you leave me and those I care about (including my mother, who you also made a remark about) alone.

Alex

PS -- It's not legal to take pictures of other people without their permission and post them to the Internet. Just sayin'.

*****

Alex:

I blog as a private citizen and you're facing legal consequences if you continue to contact my college. You are not the first to do so. The attorneys for the college have already been involved. What happens between you and me is a private matter. The college wants nothing to do with what I do as a blogger and citizen journalist, and the college has no power to compel me to stop reporting on you or anyone else. On the other hand, YOU are engaged in workplace harassment and intimidation. The administration will have you investigated and charged if you continue to harass me, the faculty, staff or students, and I will personally file a cease and desist order with the police. Security precautions with respect to you are being taken on campus at this time, so this is very serious.

All communications are to be with me. And you should educate yourself on the law. You have no expectation of privacy in a public place, and no permission is required to photograph you or publish your pictures.

So, again deal with me directly. And either way, if you persist in any attempt to threaten my employment or quash my First Amendment rights you will subject yourself to legal action.

Donald

******

This isn't about your politics. This doesn't have anything to do with your so-called "journalism" or your politics. We agree on more issues than we disagree on; why would this be about your blogging? This isn't about "reporting." No...this is about your continued harassment of me -- libeling me as a "pedophile," making nasty comments about my mother, calling my friends "pedophile conservatives," posting my Facebook pictures and correspondence without my permission, taking secret photographs of me and posting them on your blog (legal or not, it's incredibly disturbing, given your voyeur fetish, which you admitted to on your blog), publicly confronting and intimidating me (and earning the scorn of several of the other bloggers there). This is ongoing, and it has to stop.

Your legal threats are baseless and are meant only to further intimidate me. You know as well as I do that it is utterly preposterous to claim that I, living 3,000 miles away from you, pose any threat to anyone on your campus for reporting your harassment of me. And speaking of needing to be educated on the law: your 1st Amendment rights end when it comes to libel, Douglas: there is an actual legal and psychiatric definition of 'pedophilia,' and I do not meet the criteria. You have objectively libeled me, and continue to do so -- and I have received an offer from a DC-area lawyer to file suit. It's a slam-dunk case.

This doesn't need to escalate. I am willing to agree right here, right now to never utter another word about you in my entire life if you are willing to do the same. Vow to never write another word about me, and I will never contact you, your employer, or your affiliates ever again.

Alex

*****

Alex

My college has indeed taken action, risk preventative and police/security services, to protect against your threats to the safety of the institution. Your e-mail to my department chairman was desperate and hysterical. It goes to your state of mind and has resulted in a heightened state of alert on campus. DO NOT DISCOUNT MY WARNINGS. Your distance is irrelevant. You could hop and plane and obtain a weapon in California. That is the possible contingency. You are disturbed. You pose a risk to others. And you will cease and desist from involving my place of employment, which is workplace harassment. Be prepared for legal consequences if you ignore these warnings. And if you're proceeding with a libel suit, then have your attorneys contact me directly. You are attempting to suppress legitimate speech, and your frivolous claims are of personal nature, against me, not my public place of employment. This is a campaign of harassment with a deleterious public effect. You are now infringing on the lawful function of a public California college and you must stop.

Donald