After giving an interview about his public posts calling for the killing of Christians, a far-left professor believed he could brag about being affiliated with Antifa without consequences. Unfortunately, he returned to campus to find a major change in his schedule.
During a brief interview with KCRG, Kirkwood Community College adjunct professor Jeff Klinzman proudly professed “I affirm that I am Antifa,” while insisting that he stands by his calls to “kill” and “bury” evangelical Christians because of their influence on the nation. Having seen multiple college administrators come forward in support of the far-left militant group without repercussions, the Iowa professor expected that the campus would defend his violent rhetoric and discriminatory leanings.
Klinzman had posted on social media that he wanted to see devout Christians slaughtered, citing an anti-Nazi poem that reads, “Kill them all and bury them deep in the ground.” He then added, “It’s not pretty, and I’m not proud, but seeing what evangelical Christians are doing to this country and its people fills me with rage, and a desire to exact revenge.”
Despite announcing a deep-seated religious bias and incitement to violence, it was looking as if the Iowa college was going to stand by its professor and mislabel the rhetoric as “free speech,” which campuses are notorious for shutting down. However, just when Klinzman thought he had gotten away with threatening a large part of the nation and his student body, he received news he never thought he’d hear.
Just days after Klinzman’s Antifa pledge and defense of calls for anti-Christian hate crimes, he returned to Kirkwood Community College to find that they had made a “decision to remove Mr. Klinzman from the classroom.” Not wanting to appear defeated, Klinzman announced that he was resigning, despite the KCC President Lori Sundberg’s confirmation that his leaving wasn’t voluntary, Campus Reform reports.
“With the safety of our students, faculty, and staff as our top concern, we made the decision this morning to identify an instructor who will take over the one course that Mr. Klinzman was to have taught this semester,” Sundberg stated. “We have spoken with Mr. Klinzman this afternoon about this matter and have accepted his resignation.”
Sundberg assured the public that there was “no evidence that he has espoused those views in his class,” but she admitted that such beliefs endangered students and faculty members. She concluded that the decision was the only logical one and that she has no regrets with removing Klinzman from the classroom.
“Once the news story ran and we had this outcry from the public and what we perceived as threats — at the end of the day for me, if I’m found legally wrong on this, I can live with that. But if I make a wrong decision regarding the safety of the students, and he’s harmed, our students are harmed, or other faculty are harmed, I can’t live with that,” Sundberg said, according to the Gazette.
Still, Klinzman won’t exit the professorial sphere without leaving one final imprint. According to campus officials, the incident involving the pro-Antifa educator has prompted the college to increase security presence, adding that it will also “develop and implement” a special safety plan.
Disturbingly, it seems as though Klinzman isn’t done with the college yet. In a letter addressed to the school, nonprofit free speech organization the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education claims that the former professor’s First Amendment rights were violated when he was forced to step down.
“Klinzman spoke as a private citizen on matters of public concern, and his speech, not amounting to unlawful ‘true’ threats or incitement, is protected by the First Amendment. By constructively terminating Klinzman, Kirkwood impermissibly subordinated his First Amendment rights to the approval of a hostile audience.”
Of course, their argument that Klinzman’s comments are completely covered by the right to free speech is highly suspect. In fact, the organization’s only evidence that his violent and discriminatory rhetoric is legal and within the college’s guidelines is that his call to genocide didn’t amount to “true” threats, a claim that is purely subjective.
For now, Klinzman remains an unemployed far-left activist with only his radical political ideology to guide him. Of course, there’s always the chance that he will be welcomed into the classroom by another college.
While all speech — no matter how vulgar, extreme, or hateful — should be protected as a constitutional right, this doesn’t include calls to violence. Sadly, the only time that these radical extremists like Klinzman are in defense of speech is when it’s their own.
