Hoax Alert: The Middleborough Muddle (2022)
On 26th March 2022 at Middleboro High School in Middleborough, Massachusetts there was some ‘hateful graffiti including a swastika’ spray-painted on the walls of the high school which has been referred to rather ridiculously as ‘extensive vandalism’.
The mention of the swastika and ‘hate’ caused my ears to prick up, so I looked into it.
CBS Boston ran with the following narrative:
‘Police are looking for two suspects who left "extensive" vandalism at Middleboro High School, including a spray-painted swastika and a "direct threat" against the principal.
In a message to the community on Sunday, principal Paul Branagan said the vandalism was left on the school Saturday night. Branagan called it a "deeply upsetting" act.
Messages of hate were sprayed around the perimeter of the school. Among the graffiti was a swastika at the front entrance and a threat against Branagan.’ (1)
Other reports follow a similar vein but usually fail to mention the direct threats against the principal of Middleboro High school instead opting for terms like ‘hateful messages’ but yet mention the swastika. (2) More importantly graffiti tags were included in the ‘hateful messages’/’messages of hate’. (3)
Interestingly there has been none of the usual commentary from jewish groups and perhaps the reason for this lies in the fact that the graffiti clearly wasn’t ‘hateful’ or ‘anti-Semitic’ as so many news outlets tried to imply, but instead resorted to a bland statement by the local police chief condemning ‘hate’ in general.
The other reasons may be the relative lack of jews in Middleborough area and also the fact that the graffiti specifically named Middleboro High School’s principal Paul Branagan – who was the primary party pushing the ‘hate’ narrative and is also a liberal-left activist going by events – (4) as well as contained graffiti tags. This was confirmed by the stills from CCTV footage released of the suspects clearly showing high school age kids as being the likely perpetrators.
So, despite their best efforts; everyone with any sort of sense – including rather surprisingly the local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League - immediately saw through the ‘hate crime’ narrative that was being put out and saw that this was clearly a case of expressed anti-authority sentiment on the part of current or former attendees at Middleboro High School rather than ‘evil anti-Semites’ stalking the school campus at night.
References
(1) https://www.cbsnews.com/boston/news/middleboro-high-school-vandalism/
(2) For example: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/03/27/metro/police-investigate-hateful-graffiti-including-swastika-middleborough-high-school/; https://www.boston25news.com/news/local/cleaning-company-remove-hateful-graffiti-middleborough-high-school/SEREBEIHGRHPBKY73H7CY5QDCM/; https://www.enterprisenews.com/story/news/crime/2022/04/20/middleboro-vandalism-video-graffiti-swastika-anti-semitism-principal-paul-branagan/7321292001/
(3) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/middleborough-high-school-vandalized-swastika-b2045663.html
(4) See: https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/lawyers-for-12-year-old-sue-middleboro-over-schools-refusal-to-let-him-wear-controversial-shirt/3057959/