An inaccurate social media post about Haitian immigrants eating cats in Springfield, Ohio, has led to real-life problems for two local women.
Erika Lee and Kimberly Newton are neighbors in Springfield, which has between 15,000 and 30,000 Haitian immigrants. After a backyard conversation, Lee posted on Facebook that Newton had informed her that a daughter’s friend saw her lost cat butchered and hanging from a tree, where Haitian neighbors “were carving it up to eat.”
A mural is displayed in an alley downtown in Springfield, Ohio. Springfield, home to a large Haitian community, was thrust into the national spotlight after former President Donald Trump accused members of the immigrant community of eating the pets of local residents. Photo taken on Sept. 16, 2024. Luke Sharrett/Getty Images
Newton set the record straight in an interview with The Epoch Times, saying that she had simply warned Lee about second-hand information she heard; she also said Lee misquoted her.
“I didn’t tell her anything about the cat hanging in the tree, being butchered like a deer. I didn’t say that to her. Those were not my words,” she said.
The woman with the missing cat was also an acquaintance of a friend, not her daughter’s friend, she related. Newton said she has been called racist over the Facebook post, her employer was contacted, and she has had to dye her hair to evade recognition.
Lee declined an interview with The Epoch Times, but later told NBC News that she didn’t expect the now-deleted Facebook post to garner attention outside of Springfield. But screenshots of the post were shared to X on Sept. 5, and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) said on X that his office had received similar reports.
The situation was further amplified when former President Donald Trump brought it up during the presidential debate on Sept. 10. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost echoed the story on X, citing recorded police calls.
Retired Honda automotive engineer Mark Sanders told The Epoch Times that he received an alarming report from Springfield utility workers earlier this year:
“They were replacing water meters in homes, and they told me that, in several houses occupied by Haitian migrants, there were dead geese, ducks, and cats hanging from pipes.”
He relayed this information to the Springfield City Council at a meeting last March. Other residents alleged the same thing during an Aug. 27 meeting.
The City of Springfield has not responded to requests for comment from The Epoch Times, but it continues to reject reports of Haitians eating pets and wild animals.
Pastor and social media figure James Desvallons self-describes as a Haitian-born, naturalized American citizen. He posted a Youtube video with an alternate explanation.
“In voodoo worship, sacrifices to their gods are required, and those sacrifices have to be eaten because it is eating those sacrifices that they receive power, supposedly, from their gods,” Desvallons said. “I can tell you, there are voodoo priests and practitioners in Haiti.”
—Jeff Louderback, Stacy Robinson
US RESEARCH BOOSTING CCP MILITARY
Communist China has secretly gained access to developing U.S. technology through cross-cultural academic partnerships, according to a new Congressional report.
Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) said the findings were “alarming,” since the research had widespread implications in nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence, lasers, and nanotechnology.
“The Chinese Communist Party is driving its military advancements through U.S. taxpayer-funded research,” he said.
The report, put out by Republicans on the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the House Education and Workforce Committee, cited 8,800 research papers with Chinese co-authors; more than 2,000 were linked to China’s military-industrial system.
The report also highlighted an unnamed individual called “Researcher 4,” who, over decades, managed to obtain $22 million in federal funding from agencies like NASA, the Air Force, and the Department of Energy, but was simultaneously affiliated with a number of Chinese medical institutes and universities, and worked at “problematic” institutions such as the state-owned Chinese Academy of Sciences.
This researcher filed hundreds of patents in China between 2012 and 2024.
“Many patents appear to directly leverage concepts developed during Researcher 4’s U.S. tenure, suggesting the transfer to [China] of expertise and applied capability likely funded by American taxpayers,” the report says.
In 2014 the researcher received an award from China’s leader Xi Jinping and the Central Military Commission for their contributions to Chinese scientific institutions.
To close the technology leak, the report recommends the Deterrent Act, a House bill passed in Dec. 2023 that increases scrutiny on foreign gifts to universities, and restricts their interactions with foreign entities. The Senate version (S.3362) has not been brought up for a vote.
—Frank Fang, Eva Fu, Stacy Robinson
BOOKMARKS
President Joe Biden on Sept. 24 called for a Hamas-Israel ceasefire deal, and urged a strengthening of the United Nations in the face of escalating global tension. “Full-scale war is not in anyone’s interest,” he said during his farewell address to the U.N. General Assembly.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee will move to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress, after he failed to appear on Sept 24 before a committee investigating the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The committee had subpoenaed Blinken, but he sent a letter on Sept. 22 saying he would be attending the U.N. General Assembly, and requesting a raincheck.
China’s languishing economy has prompted a series of rate cuts and stimulus efforts, but critics say the measures may be inadequate. China is still recovering from an economic downturn caused by its COVID-19 policies, and a faltering real estate development industry.
The Department of Justice is suing electronic payment monolith Visa over its monopoly of the debit card industry. Visa’s network runs more than 60 percent of debit transactions, allowing it “to extract fees that far exceed what it could charge in a competitive market,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.
Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen has abandoned his push to change that state’s electoral system to a “winner take all” model, after facing pushback from Republican state Sen. Mike McDonnell. McDonnell said the current system is more representative of Nebraska’s different districts, and that “right now, 43 days from Election Day, is not the moment to make this change.”
—Stacy Robinson
