21 months in prison for US student who threatened Jewish classmates

A Cornell University sign is seen on the Ivy League school's campus, Jan. 14, 2022, in Ithaca, N.Y. Patrick Dai, a former Cornell University student arrested for posting violently threatening statements against Jewish people on campus last fall after the start of the war in Gaza was sentenced to 21 months in prison Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (AP/File)

• Attorney General Merrick Garland highlighted the case at the time of Dai’s arrest as part of “a significant increase in the volume and frequency of threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities across our country”

NEW YORK: A former Cornell University student was sentenced to 21 months in prison on Monday for threatening Jewish classmates.
Patrick Dai, who was suspended by the Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York, posted the threats anonymously on an online campus bulletin board three weeks after the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
Dai pleaded guilty to one felony count of making threats and was sentenced to 21 months in prison and three years of supervised release by District Judge Brenda Sannes in Syracuse, New York.
“The defendant terrorized a campus community for days and horrified the nation at a very volatile time,” prosecutors said in their sentencing memo.
Lisa Peebles, Dai’s lawyer, told the court her 22-year-old client is “autistic” and is actually “pro-Israel.”
“In a misguided attempt to highlight Hamas’s genocidal beliefs and garner support for Israel,” Peebles said, he “made several posts on a campus-related website in the guise of an anti-Semite Hamas extremist.
“He believed, wrongly, that the posts would prompt a ‘blowback’ against what he perceived as anti-Israel media coverage and pro-Hamas sentiment on campus,” she said.
According to the Justice Department, Dai said he was “gonna shoot up 104 west,” a dining hall that mostly caters to Jewish students, and “stab” and “slit the throat” of any Jewish males he saw on campus.
Cornell canceled classes for a day in November following the threats.
Attorney General Merrick Garland highlighted the case at the time of Dai’s arrest as part of “a significant increase in the volume and frequency of threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities across our country.”
Colleges across the United States were rocked for months by protests over Israel’s war in Gaza.