40 Comments

This seems like a massive overreaction on your part. Residents of Springfield now live in a city that almost overnight went to being 20% immigrants from a country being billed as so dysfunctional and gang-ridden that it would be inhumane to send them back. Many of them can't communicate in English. Native Sprinfieldians feel like their valid concerns are not being heard and allegations of animal mistreatment are one piece of it that everyone is trying to sort through. Despite this, most residents of Springfield that I've seen interviewed still maintain a compassionate stance towards the immigrants. At this stage, I think it would be worse not to shine light on the whole thing. The cat and water fowl stories are a minor element, but there may need to be a discussion about wildlife regulations and public health implications (bird flu?). And it'll certainly not help relations and the image of immigrants if neighborhood pets are being stolen. You point out the historical extreme of mainstream bigotry, but I could also point to Britain's "grooming gang" scandal wherein police and others could not address the situation honestly due to fears of racism. If city officials and the media are afraid of having an open conversation about cats, what else would they bring willing to cover up?

Expand full comment
author

This is what I mean by claiming the charges are “morally right” even if factually wrong. It’s either true or it’s a lie. If someone made a fake rape allegation and then said, “well I’m just trying to bring attention to what a jerk this guy is,” I doubt you’d extend the same benefit of the doubt.

Expand full comment

You don't know what's factually wrong yet. We're still in the information gathering phase. Some elements could be true, others false or overblown. Building trust is essential if you want to rapidly accelerate immigration. Don't you think it would be helpful to find out more so that the NGOs who help with placement and assimilation can say, hey, in America there are certain customs and regulations that would be helpful to follow. Why are you so averse to acknowledging that different cultures might be, well, different? You're the one stigmatizing people by suggesting it's unspeakable.

Expand full comment
author

The woman who started the whole thing admitted she had no evidence for it: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/-just-exploded-springfield-woman-says-never-meant-spark-rumors-haitian-rcna171099

And maybe the time to ascertain whether an outlandish accusation is accurate or not is *before* the presidential nominee and his running mate make the claim publicly, inspiring bomb threats at schools and hospitals.

Expand full comment

It should first be pointed out that tensions were rising before Trump got involved. That said, I agree that his comments at the debate were not helpful and as others have mentioned a distraction from more substantive issues involved in this situation. The national spotlight will likely make it harder to determine the veracity of many claims. The lady in the article you linked mentions being afraid for her family's safety*, so it's hard to imagine that she, her neighbor or anyone else will be forthcoming at this point. Rufo's article mentioned that the AG's office was in touch with credible witnesses and Vance has referenced multiple constituents, so we'll see if that goes anywhere. In a perfect world we could ask questions, raise concerns, have open conversations and feel heard when it comes to massive changes without being labeled bigoted and racist, "driven by contempt and hate", in your words. A similar dynamic helped advance the harms of gender ideology.

*Are you curious who Krista Lee is afraid of and who is making the bomb threats? Go look up some of the disturbing comments being directed at her. Are you concerned that heated rhetoric such as your own could endanger her? A more nuanced piece would be more productive, acknowledging the difficult situation Lee and others in Springfield have found themselves in and condemning Trump for sensationalizing matters and pointing out the dangers of what it could lead to.

Expand full comment
author

A presidential nominee and his running mate publicly accused a specific community of kidnapping and eating people's pets, which has led to bomb threats at schools and hospitals. You characterize that as "not helpful," but call my criticism of it "heated rhetoric" that could "endanger" someone. Amazing.

Expand full comment

Oh, wow, dude, you got me. I wrote that in two sittings interrupted by a bunch of kids and didn't have my sensitivity reader check it for consistency. Do you want to hold yourself to your own standards or not? To me, it came across as "I'll see your cats and dogs" and raise you "lynching". I was trying to call out your hypocrisy. I don't think you're actually going to get anybody killed.

Expand full comment

"OH Gov. DeWine says ALL BOMB THREATS against Springfield schools turned out to be HOAXES that originated from "overseas.""

https://x.com/WesternLensman/status/1835782757609546108

Expand full comment

Leighton, I'm with Chris. How do you view today's assassination attempt? Do you, like NBC News, believe that's Trump's fault, too? The polls show immigration as the top issue for over half the electorate. So he shouldn't talk about it? I agree there is no proof about eating cats in Springfield, Ohio. But in Dayton, proof. There is a 911 call from Springfield about geese.

OK, you don't like his campaign and his stance on illegal immigration. So you criticize legitimate concerns about the level of and results of illegal immigration as fear-mongering. Don't you have compassion for the US citizens of Springfield and the hundreds of other communities dealing with an influx of "migrants"and the impact of this influx on their lives and communities.

And bomb threats. How about another assassination? Whose rhetoric causes that?

Expand full comment
author

Did you read the piece? I said specifically and explicitly that there are legitimate concerns around immigration. And please point me to where I said that Trump "shouldn't talk about" immigration.

Expand full comment

This is a typical, Rino-like, never-Trump, post.

I lean republican, but very independent; I am not desperate. Disappointed, disgusted, disturbed, dismayed, but not afraid.

Can you even imagine living in a small town, and quickly being inundated by 20,000 very alien immigrants, thanks to your federal government?

Put the BBQ’ed cats aside, temporarily, and think about what has happened in Springfield (and could have happened to any of thousands of other small towns - and still can).

Some anonymous federal entity arbitrarily decides to inundate a certain small town in Ohio, at great expense.

Why? , , , Who? . . . give me names!

How much money is this costing? Who authorized the expenditure of the funds?

Why was Springfield chosen? Who made the choice? Why 20,000? Why all Haitians?

Who facilitated the inundation? Was Catholic Charities or other NGOs / non-profits involved? - How much money are they receiving?

What role did the Governor and the various Ohio state agencies play in all this?

Were Springfield politicians and other local vested interests involved in the resettlement planning and decision making?

When did the school system become await of what was about to happen?

How and when were the citizens of Springfield told about what was about to happen?

Why are the Haitians being given driving permits, without being tested?

Who is vetting these immigrants? Were they checked for communicable diseases? Are more coming?

So it isn’t about cats and dogs. If I were living in a small town in Pennsylvania, up-state NY, WVA, Kentucky, Georgia, or maybe N Carolina, I would be concerned, very concerned, that Springfield could come to my town; and if I didn’t have a lot of money, I’d be scared.

The author needs to think about the real world mechanics of Springfield’s problem.

Thank God journalists are so few and far between, otherwise, someone would take this seriously.

Expand full comment
author

How is this a "RINO" post when I'm not nor ever have been a Republican?

Expand full comment

You appear to have completely missed my point, or you’re deflecting & distracting; - hey, look over there at that rhino?

Expand full comment
author

Yeah because I already addressed your entire argument in the second to last paragraph.

Expand full comment

Please be more specific.

Expand full comment
author

Your whole argument is, "the pet-eating stuff is a sideshow that doesn't really matter because there are actual legitimate grievances behind it."

That's just deflection. I'm talking about the specific accusation that a certain community is stealing and eating pets, which is a disgusting claim that you can't hand wave away by saying "yes but some other stuff that's also bad is actually true."

Expand full comment
Sep 16Liked by Leighton Woodhouse

This post boils down to "why aren't you writing about what *I* want you to write about?" To be clear, I agree with you that there needs to be reporting around these questions. That's not the project of this piece. You can complain about that, but the way it was brought up was explicitly about dogs and cats. Why use something that's easy to deny if you want to talk about it? The real facts are dramatic already; they do not require embellishment.

Leighton's piece was more emphatic than I would have been about it; I see it as a classic case of social media poisoning perpetrated by a man who is nearly entirely a product of social media in a political era where politics themselves are largely more responsive to social media than anything else. It will always be the craziest ideas that get amplified. If there's ever a story where there's a very serious side that deserves careful reportage and a very sensational side that seems pretty questionable, our political age will lean on the latter hard and then try to work its way back to the former, but the latter wrecks the former.

Expand full comment

Those are the questions our news media should be asking.

Expand full comment

It’s worth everyone’s while to watch the people giving comments at the public hearings in Springfield. People are going out of their way to be gracious, but also calling out the insanity happening around them. Their local, state and federal governments have failed them and the focus should be there.

Expand full comment

Interesting article and discussion.

Up here in “Canada, eh?” immigration has become a big issue along with cost of living and housing. From 2022 to 2024 my nation is adding over 4 million new residents (international students, permanent residents, foreign workers and new citizens).

Fun fact: Canada has somewhere between 800,000 to 1 million international students. That is more in total number than the UK or the USA. Roughly 40 million people live in Canada.

While I would consider myself pro immigration as I have family members and ancestors from Denmark, England, Japan and Palestine (coming soon: new family members from the Philippines and Taiwan) my opinion has changed. Similar to Canada as a whole as polling shows over 70% of Canadians are unhappy with immigration policies.

Ultimately the problem is managed immigration, which Canada very much was until recently, works. Opening the floodgates is not good. Corporations seem to be the biggest beneficiaries along with virtue signaling bureaucrats and politicians. Canada is similar to a small city like Springfield, Ohio getting 15,000 to 20,000 new residents. There is not enough housing and services for this many people to be absorbed. It is piss poor planning that ultimately harms local citizens and the new immigrants.

Expand full comment

Who cares! Yes it’s tacky and racist but who cares! It’s their country and it’s being destroyed and the native population is betrayed and impoverished: fuck the niceties.

When will Black people start seeing this like uneducated whites? That is the fulcrum of change.

Expand full comment

I don’t know if the historical comparisons are accurate. I feel myself wincing and establishing the same context in my mind, yes. However the other side of that is that when raising a question about the truth of a matter, the best way to shut it down is to call the inquiry itself racist. This is straight from the Covid playbook.

Your point is not lost that jumping to conclusions and highlighting the sensational is a poor political tactic. There is a substantial and real issue in Springfield at a macro and micro level to talk about. The cats on a grill is a sideshow meant to distract. Americans are way too good at taking the bait when it come to stuff like this. We love the sideshows.

The Ruffo story is real, well researched and it’s plausible that it could have happened in Springfield. It’s also a complete waste of effort to verify that at least one person in Ohio ate at least one cat. The real issue is the strain on resources, attack on wages and the working poor, long term plans for amnesty and voting rights, and safety as much as some people don’t want to talk about that for fear of being branded as racist (the reckless driving alone is substantiated and at least 2 people are dead from it). I wish Trump could have talked about that rather than cats on the grill.

Expand full comment
author

If Haitian migrants *actually were* eating pets, and someone called it out and was accused of racism, I would agree with your point. But we also need to be careful not to become blind to actual racism and xenophobia just because some people are to quick to make that accusation. In the Boy Who Cried Wolf, it’s the villagers who end up screwed, not the boy.

Expand full comment

It’s a good point and I think in matters like this, the historical relevance is enough to say “tread carefully and be mindful of how you approach it.” The words we use matter. A thousand yield signs Trump blew through.

This issue has the same pattern and information flow as the boxer controversy at the Olympics. Someone ran with the story that they were trans women. And then it became a finger pointing about people being trans phobic. What got lost in that whole thing was what the actual truth was, which was a lot more complicated. Not to go into that too much, but those people should not have been boxing against women. It was unfair and dangerous and also not an issue of transphobia or woke ideology.

Expand full comment
author

If persuasive evidence comes out that Haitians in Springfield actually have been kidnapping and eating people's pets, I'll eat shit for it, publicly.

But, "a totally different person did do it one time," or "yeah but there's other bad things that have happened in that town" don't cut it.

Expand full comment

Whatever happened to rational, level-headed people thinking in dialectical terms of civil debate, wherein respect for contrarian views is held in liminality until a copacetic resolution is determined? My former US Senator, Howard Baker, R-TN, was known for brokering compromised legislation through his, “Let’s listen to the other side. We might learn something.”

I’ve been reading through the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes at least once per year for over a decade now. Theologians posit that it’s the end-of-life musings of King Solomon who wrote Proverbs without heeding its advice as a younger know-it-all. In Ecclesiastes, Solomon reflects back on his wisdom now having been seasoned and tempered with hard-knock-life trial, temptation and failure. In other words, late in life he’s no longer quite so sure of himself, was not as wise as he thought he was, does not have all the answers, evolved wisdom dictating keeping the big picture of life in perspective such that the wiser we become, the less we have to say.

Perhaps “we might learn something” from Proverbs 17:27-28, “The one who knows much says little. Even dunces who keep quiet are thought to be wise.”

G. Turner Howard 111

Expand full comment

Leighton, a friend pointed this out from Chris Rufo. Thoughts? as it has gone viral.....

https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1834926318883852543

Expand full comment
author

Aside from those not being Haitian and that not being Springfield, those also may be whole chickens on the grill.

Expand full comment

And just saw this....have not read it fully.

https://x.com/realchrisrufo/status/1835354219454533862

Expand full comment
author

I’ll read it, but even if Chris proved decisively that there was one incident of a non-Haitian immigrant in another town who ate a stray cat, are we then supposed to go, ok, I guess maybe there is an epidemic of Haitians in Springfield stealing and eating people’s pets?

Expand full comment

I have no idea.

I think a critical point now is that signifiant portions of legacy media and commentators, etc. called it impossible and a lie.

Expand full comment

Trump lied whether he knew it or not. There is no one, not Trump, not Democrats, no one, who can hold an informed, respectful exchange on the topic of immigration. It turned into abortion. The circus is getting tiresome.

Expand full comment

Pets are stolen and slaughtered for food. Cubans eat horses and it’s an ongoing problem in FL. Check out Animal Recovery Mission’s posts about it on Instagram or on their website. The latest investigation revealed that the police ignored tips from the public for two years.

I doubt that the truth will ever come out in Ohio, because of the high-stakes election. But if it ever turns out that a few people stole and ate pet dogs, they, alone, should be punished and not Haitians as a whole. After all, we Americans treat farmed animals horribly, by the millions, every day.

Here’s link to a story—there are many you can find like this one. https://www.google.com/search?q=pet+horse+stolen+and+butchered+in+Miami+dade+fL&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:bb7c87f7,vid:wRqp6sB9D-M,st:16

Expand full comment