The city of Springfield in Ohio evacuated and closed its city hall Thursday due to a bomb threat, days after it became the subject of false claims about migrants stealing residents’ pets.
City officials said in a post on Facebook that an email threat was received just before 8:30 a.m. ET.
“City of Springfield received a bomb threat that has prompted an immediate response from local and regional law enforcement. As a precautionary measure, the building has been evacuated, and authorities are currently conducting a thorough investigation,” the statement read.
Officials did not divulge the content of the specific threat, but it came just days after a baseless conspiracy theory accusing Haitian immigrants of abducting and eating domesticated pets started circulating online — a claim then spread by both Republicans on the presidential ticket.
“They’re eating the dogs. They’re eating the cats. They’re eating the pets of the people that live there,” Republican nominee Donald Trump said during Tuesday night’s presidential debate, in response to a question as to why he influenced Republicans to scuttle a bipartisan bill addressing border issues and unlawful immigration.
After Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump claimed that illegal immigrants were eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio, ABC News Presidential Debate moderator David Muir said the city manager told ABC News ‘there have been no credible reports’ of such incidents.
Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris called Trump “extreme” and laughed after the outburst. Democrats and immigration advocates have accused their opponents of ratcheting up racist stereotypes at the risk of community safety.
ABC moderator David Muir pointed out to Trump that city officials had denied the reports, to which the candidate protested, more than once, about seeing “people on television” talking about having their pets eaten. Trump did not offer specifics.
Springfield police said they have received no such reports.
In response to Trump’s comments, Springfield city manager Bryan Heck said it was “disappointing” to see unfounded claims are being used in the presidential campaign.
“It is disappointing that some of the narratives surrounding our city have been skewed by misinformation circulating on social media and further amplified by political rhetoric in the current highly charged presidential election cycle,” Heck said in a Facebook video posted Wednesday.
The city said Thursday’s threat was issued to multiple facilities throughout the community of about 60,000 people as well as to media outlets.
‘Barbaric, inhumane narratives’
The posts create a false narrative and could be dangerous for Haitians in the United States, according to Guerline Jozef, founder and executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance, a group that supports and advocates for immigrants of African descent.
“We are always at the receiving end of all kind of barbaric, inhumane narratives and treatments, specifically when it comes to immigration,” Jozef said in an interview with the Associated Press.
Springfield started to come under misplaced scrutiny after Sept. 6, when a post surfaced on X that shared what looked like a screengrab of a social media post. The retweeted post talked about the person’s “neighbour’s daughter’s friend” seeing a cat hanging from a tree to be butchered and eaten, claiming without evidence that Haitians lived at the house.
During the ABC News Presidential Debate, former president Donald Trump and Vice-President Kamala Harris faced off in what became an increasingly heated exchange that caused Trump to lash out in response to Harris’s attacks. Andrew Chang breaks down the moments that made Trump go on the defensive.
The accompanying photo showed a Black man walking with what appeared to be a Canada goose by its feet.
High-profile conservative commentators online such as Charlie Kirk and Ian Miles Cheong shared the post, as did X owner Elon Musk.
Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, made multiple posts on the subject, before allowing on early Tuesday that, “it’s possible, of course, that all of these rumours will turn out to be false.” It didn’t stop Trump hours later from amplifying the claim to an estimated U.S. television audience of some 67 million, in addition to online viewers.
Other Republicans shared similar posts like Vance. Among them was Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who posted a photo of kittens with a caption that said to vote for Trump “So Haitian immigrants don’t eat us.”
As part of the misinformation spread, an animal cruelty case from Canton, Ohio, became part of the narrative. The woman charged is an Ohio-born African American with reported mental health issues.
Temporary legal status for some Haitians
Springfield has seen an influx of Haitian immigrants.
Last month the Biden administration granted eligibility for temporary legal status to about 300,000 Haitians already in the United States because conditions in Haiti are considered unsafe for them to return. Haiti’s government has extended a state of emergency to the entire country due to endemic gang violence.
Gov. Mike DeWine held a news conference Tuesday and said he will send state troopers to Springfield to help local law enforcement deal with traffic issues, while earmarking $2.5 million US over two years to provide more primary health care to immigrant families.
DeWine declined to address the bogus allegations, deferring comment to local officials. But he repeatedly spoke in support of the people of Haiti, where his family has long operated a charity.
The influx has seen rumours spread in person at local political meetings, with one man offering an unsubstantiated account of Haitians hunting ducks in local parks.
In their Facebook post on Thursday, the city closed commenting on the matter.
Food-related scorn and insults have been hurled at various immigrant communities in U.S. history, from the Chinese on the West Coast in the late 1800s as they started coming to the United States in larger numbers, and in later decades to other Asian and Pacific Islander communities like Thai or Vietnamese. As recently as last year, a Thai restaurant in California was hit with the stereotype, which caused such an outpouring of undeserved vitriol that the owner had to close and move to another location.
In the past two years, there have been a number of high-profile incidents in the U.S. of businesses and institutions receiving threats, which have been related to controversial issues or world events.
Multiple hospitals that offer gender-care programs have reported receiving escalated threats of violence by phone and email shortly after posts by the Libs of TikTok and other accounts opposed to treatment for transgender youths.
As well, synagogues and other institutions in Jewish communities around the U.S. and Canada have been subject to threats since Israel responded with a forceful and deadly military campaign to an attack led by Hamas militants on Oct. 7.
