The Price of Political Correctness on Guns in Platteville Wisconsin

Link to video

UW Platteville Student David Kalenga-Kasongo, on Monday, 14 March, the week before spring break, pulled a fire alarm and made allegations that he heard noises and saw the barrel of a firearm inside a stall of a bathroom on campus. Under questioning by reporters, he says that the barrel was a "long barrel", like "an AK 47". From uwpexponent.com:

University of Wisconsin-Platteville Chancellor Dennis Shields closed all public campus buildings at 1:30 p.m. on March 14 due to a security threat in the men’s restroom on the first floor of Ullsvik Hall.

UW-Platteville student David Kalenga-Kasongo was using the restroom when he heard a clicking noise that he interpreted as the racking of a gun. He pulled the Ullsvik fire alarm at 12:50 p.m. and called the Platteville city police. Kalenga-Kasongo later said he saw the barrel of a rifle that he thought was an AK-47.

The week before spring break is crowded with midterm exams at the University of Wisconsin at Platteville. From facebook:

Spring break is fast approaching, and that means midterms for students at UW-Platteville. Check out these last minute tips from The Princeton Review to ace those midterm exams.

Watch the video, make up your mind, then read the rest of the article.  I want your unbiased opinion.

I have interviewed a number of people as an investigator.  I have my doubts about the accuracy of the rendition of the incident as related. But I want other opinions about it. Fortunately, the video is now on youtube.

One retired officer that I talked to said that the "gun on campus" has become the new "bomb threat". Bomb threats became so ubiquitous in the 70's that severe penalties were put in place and enforced, for people calling in fraudulent bomb threats. The cost of institutions being forced to shut down for hours at a time is enormous.

But "Gun!" threats are politically correct. Questioning the validity of such threats is verboten; especially on university campuses, where administrators are desperately attempting to preserve their political power to invalidate the Second Amendment as they see fit.

It is embarrassing to read about Americans acting this way. I used to laugh at the British, and sadly reflect on the high level of nanny state there. Now the same level of insanity is being played out on American Campuses. I have been to the University of Platteville. I once considered attending there. It is a small school at a small town in rural America.

They had a fine mining engineering program with an excellent reputation. I can only imagine the embarrassment of the engineering students and faculty at the level of political correctness being exhibited at their school. Kalenga-Kasongo is himself an engineering student. From uwpexponent.com:

The Exponent made repeated attempts to contact Kalenga-Kasongo for comment, but he did not return phone calls, Facebook messages or text messages. A cursory background check reveals that Kalenga-Kasongo, who has a Madison address, is an honors graduate of MATC, a general engineering major at UW-Platteville, and has had at least one brush with the law.

The campus Chancellor, Dennis Shields,  seems a bit skeptical about the whole affair.  But he acts professionally when asked about it. From the uwpexponent.com:

“I think it is very important not to overreact,” Shields said. “The last thing I want to do is see campus turned into an armed camp.”

Shields and Williams were also asked why the buildings were evacuated rather than being put on lockdown.

Shields said that it was because there was no evidence of an active shooter.

Another attendee asked whether pulling the fire alarm was the right thing to do in such a situation.

“I can’t speak for what [the student] did,” Williams said. “He certainly got everybody’s attention.” Williams also said that the response would have been different if it was an active shooter.

Is this the same David Kalenga-Kasongo that is enrolled in Platteville?

Eventually, universities and schools will have to come to grips with the disruptions and down time caused by these sorts of alarms.  I suspect that sanctions will start to be enforced for fraudulent alarms.  The cost to schools, students, and society is too large.  The current rewards for false alarms, such as avoiding exams, getting a few hours off, and feeling the power of making hundreds or thousands of people jump to your command, are seductive; the costs of doing so are non-existent.

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