Another fake hate crime has come to light, this time at Eastern Michigan University.

Last year, the EMU campus was in hysterics over racist graffiti found on buildings and in restrooms, including “KKK” and the phrase “leave niggers” both spray painted in patriotic red, white, and blue — a color palette surely meant to stir up the most emotion. Finding such vile messages sent angry students marching in the streets, protesting at the home of EMU President James Smith, and “black power” fists flying skyward at a football game.

The administration responded with an offer of $10,000 for any tips that would lead to the arrest of the white supremacist responsible for the crimes. There was also this, according to The Daily Caller:

EMU even created a website to track updates regarding the vandalism. Those updates included holding a day-long teach-on on racism, diversity, and inclusion; creating the President’s Commission on Diversity and Inclusion,  another day-long teach-in called “Know Justice, Know Peace”; promoting a campus-wide unity rally; providing psychological and counseling services to students affected by the vandalism and more.

Smith eagerly reassurhed his damaged community: “The deeper and systemic issues that are behind these incidents continue to be a focus for our student leaders, our faculty, our administration and all who care about this institution and the welfare of our students. These incidents run counter to the values and mission of the University and our actions over the past several weeks and going forth have and will continue to reflect that.” 

After all of that work from the school and through multiple investigations juggled between local and federal agencies, the terrible person who did this was finally arrested on Monday: Eddie Curlin, age 29, and a former EMU student. And, oh, did we forget to mention that he is black?

Curlin is charged with three counts of malicious destruction of property, four counts of identity theft, and one count of using computers to commit a crime. Curlin is no stranger to the law as he is already serving a sentence for receiving and concealing stolen property.

Amazingly, as Hot Air notes, the chief of campus police had a most interesting reaction to Curlin’s arrest: “[I]t was not driven by politics and it was not driven by race. It was an individual item done by one individual.” 

Equally numbing is this response from a current student at EMU: “To know that it was a person of color is hurtful. As a black student, to know that another black person is using the N-word in a negative way is embarrassing.”

Oh, a negative way.

Last but not least, there’s President Smith who just couldn’t help himself when he responded to the arrest with extra assurances to students that no matter who did the graffiti, EMU will continue to uphold all the initiatives set in place because of this fake hate crime.