Think Tank Receives Death Threats Over Labor-Related FOIA Request to Universities

Apparently, the Big Labor-related death threats aren’t limited to Wisconsin. Or to lawmakers.

This following email is just in from our friends at The Mackinac Center for Public Policy:

“The Mackinac Center for Public Policy received numerous death threats and bomb threats in the aftermath of national publicity about a Freedom of Information Act request it sent to three public universities.

The messages were left on the Center’s voice mail Thursday night and early Friday morning, but it is unclear at this point if one or two women were responsible for the threats.

Mackinac Center President Joseph Lehman said the Mackinac Center has contacted law enforcement about the threats.

“We, along with the authorities, are doing everything necessary to protect ourselves,” Lehman said. “No threats will prevent us from showing the public how universities spend tax dollars.”

There were five messages left containing death or bomb threats. Four of them appear to be from the same caller. A fifth message was from a woman who left a death threat and, unlike the previous caller, left her name and indicated she lived in a neighboring state. It was unclear if the second caller was the same as the first caller.

A female voice said:

“Scotty Walker is dead. So are you. We know where you live.” The woman then recited the Mackinac Center’s address and said, “We are coming up to destroy you.”

In another message, a female who left her name said:

“You are on Main Street. You are the first place to be bombed.”

In another message, a female voice said:

“We are going to destroy everybody. We are going to destroy all of you. All of you die. Midland, Michigan. Get ready. We are going to destroy all of you.”

The Mackinac Center for Public Policy has been in the spotlight after some national news organizations reported that the Midland-based think tank submitted a FOIA request to Wayne State University, Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. The FOIA asked for specific emails from professors in the labor studies departments that referenced Wisconsin collective bargaining, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker or MSNBC talk show personality Rachel Maddow.

Maddow had made comments on her show critical of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s emergency financial manager act.”


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The Mackinac Center for Public Policy is an organization I’ve written about previously. They are a non-partisan research and educational center in Michigan that focuses on sound fiscal policy based on free market principles. The Center’s Legal Foundation is a public interest law firm that has assisted many residents and business owners in Michigan in protecting their liberties right as individuals. You may remember their role in the lawsuit against the Michigan Department of Human Services in a fight against the state’s forced unionization of private, self-employed home-based child care providers. We also wrote about the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation in a related post that detailed how union bosses and some state governors have abused the tool of Executive Order to move private sector employees under the stewardship of the state government, thereby creating compulsory union membership for previously privately employed individuals and entrepreneurs.

These folks are in the heat of the battle, and it’s going to be a long haul.

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