Update on the Situation

UPDATE #4

"John Casper" still refuses to answer any questions I have about his identity.  All I know is that I am being harassed by someone named "John Casper."  My attempts to discover his identity have been limited to determining whether he is the same "John Casper" who posts on FireDogLake.  I have made these attempts because, should it come to that, I do not want to accuse the wrong person of harassment.  What do I mean by harassment?  Since he sent the first email to the UCI community, he has sent five more. 

The second concerned my apparent disregard for UCI disciplinary policy, and included material from a private email I had sent "General JC Christian, Patriot," which the General shared with "John Casper."  I wrote:

He's decided to contact my employer because of some civil debate on the Gilbert thread.  I'm not likely to get in trouble for this, but it will annoy people (myself included), through the creation of unnecessary meetings/conference calls/&c.  As he's your commenter, his actions will reflect on you, so I thought I'd give you the heads up. 

To "John Casper," the act of wanting to avoid entangling my university in an online disagreement constitutes my "assessment of UCI's disciplinary policy."  When I informed him that I had written this:

Although it will cause me personal inconvenience, I do hope the people who received this email take it seriously.  Accusations of hate-speech and race-based discrimination should be investigated, so that when the complaints are legitimate they can be dealt with accordingly.

He then forward that to half the UCI community.  By this point, I had sent him three emails. He has responded to none.  Now he believes I have committed a crime against him.  He learned of my desire to discover his identity from the General.  Here is my email (to which the General never responded):

Would it be possible to get the IP information for the Ghost of Adolph Rupp? He's stepped up his behavior and is now bordering on harassment. I have his name, but I need to know which "John Casper" he is.

When "John Casper" asked whether the General would share that information, the General responded:

not going to do it. stay off the comments for awhile so i can say there's no way to find your ip.

I'm considering revoking my opinion of the General.  I no longer think he's a classy guy.  So at this point I still do not know the identity of the man who is threatening my career.  Moreover, he is conspiring with others to hide his identity from me.  You can read the complete text of his letter below the fold.  As to why I am publishing this information, the first reason is because I have absolutely nothing to hide.  The second is that he is copying his emails to news outlets, and in so doing indicates that he wants people to read them.  (He includes the General's email in an attachment, and I assume "John Casper" sought the General's permission to do so.  If he did not, I will remove the General's words from this site.)

What does "John Casper" want?  According to the first email, he wants me "to make substantial restitution to people who have been injured by the kind of of refined white supremacist language that he wants posted on an ABC affiliate."  (That I do not, in fact, want such language posted on an ABC affiliate is apparently immaterial.)  According to his latest letter, he thinks that my requests to discover his identity are "compelling evidence of a crime" which he believes "grounds for discipline up to and including termination."  I'm not sure how my knowing the identity of my harasser is a crime, maybe you can enlighten me?

Any way you cut it, it seems like a large portion of the liberal blogosphere is conspiring to get me fired.  As a liberal, I find this all quite baffling.  And distressing.  Every time an email message arrives, I feel physically ill.  Will it be another email to my superiors from an anonymous person demanding I be fired? 
 

 

The forwarded email below confirms that Mr. Kaufman just emailed this to patriot boy:

"Would it be possible to get the IP information for the Ghost of Adolph Rupp? He's stepped up his behavior and is now bordering on harassment. I have his name, but I need to know which "John Casper" he is."

I am pretty sure that Mr. Kaufman’s request of patriotboy is excellent evidence of a crime. My guess is that it’s grounds for discipline up to and including termination.

Dr. Quanbech, Mr. Kaufman has received no emails from me that have not been copied to you, Congressman Waters and the NAACP.

Since Mr. Kaufman has accused me of "behavior" that "borders on harassment," I have no choice but to forward you his second email. This is it in its entirety:

“Never heard back from you, just wanted to make sure you got the General's email.  [The email in question is the one the General sent to me, in which he claims to have sent "John Casper" a note encouraging him not to contact UCI. Given that "John Casper" never received that note, I can only assume it was never sent.]  Hope it clarified the matter. You may be hearing again from me soon, just so you know.”

I will also forward you Mr. Kaufman’s third email. This is it in its entirety:

“I am still waiting to hear back from you. If I don't hear from you soon, you'll certainly be contacted again in the near future. Just so you know.”

These both completely contradict the calumny that Mr. Kaufman so casually wrote to patriotboy. [They in no way contradict what I wrote "patriotboy."  They indicate that I am considering my legal options.]

After, receiving Mr. Kaufman’s third email, I forwarded his first email to everyone under the subject line: “Mr. Kaufman's assessment of UCI disciplinary processes.”

As everyone already knows,  Mr. Kaufman then emailed me: 

“You really are an amoral liar, aren't you? Why not send this instead: […]”  [The information he so carefully redacted is my statement that I hope UCI takes all allegations of hateful language seriously.]

As the time stamps confirm, after I followed Mr. Kaufman's suggestion, he then became very interested in my IP address and "which John Casper,"  I am.  [Because he has now sent five emails to random members of the UCI community demanding my dismissal on the false pretense that I am a white supremacist or that I support the dissemination of white supremacist speech.  I believe I am being harassed, and would like to know the identity of the person harassing me.]

I have a lot of very serious questions for Mr. Kaufman. The first question is, where’s the evidence? I would ask that someone you designate, Dr. Quanbech, email me about how best to obtain answers from Mr. Kaufman. I'll be happy to submit them in writing if that helps. [Perhaps he can try answering any of the emails he quotes in this very letter.]

Careful readers I am sure have already noticed that Mr. Kaufman’s first emails to patriotboy and me contained his English Department signature from the University of California at Irvine. Mr. Kaufman deleted that signature in his last emails to patriotboy and me. [I did not delete the signatures.  I sent those emails through Gmail on my wife's computer, and I only have my signature set up in Outlook.]

Comments

[brittney]

I'm so sorry. This is insane. Surely no university would take serious the deluded rantings of an anonymous person. Head up, okay?

[Tom]

This is awful behavior by your harasser. I wonder whether it's libel. I wonder whether he understands how rapidly his anonymity would dissipate in the face of the legal process.

Anyway, I can't imagine what you are going through. Apparently just because you stuck up for a member of the press who, in turn, quoted someone who expressed horrid views.

Please know that you have plenty of well-wishers.

[Rich Puchalsky]

I also ran across the "John Casper" / "Ghost of Adolph Rupp" connection, googling the same comments that Anonymous turned up. That gives essentially no new hard information. The guy could simply have a second pseudonym that sounds more like a real name -- both have a ghost theme -- or it could be a real name. There's a John Casper who's a sportswriter, so if it's a pseudonym it could be a sports fan.

In any case, a fairly common name plus a hotmail Email address, with no other contact information, is a reasonably good pseudonym even if it's a real name.

This also doesn't really answer the question of what kind of person it is. Their behavior puts you on a predictable collision course with JD and FDL. That could be more of the same weird acting-out that is there on the surface, or it could be provocation.

I'm sorry that this is going on, Scott. I'm not sure what to advise. If it's a disturbed and dysfunctional person, you have nothing to gain from it, not even that they'll leave you alone. You're actually better off if it's a cruel person who is still functional enough to have something to lose.

[Karl Steel]

All I can do right now is offer my support and consolation. What a friggin mess.

[Dan Collins]

As per the update to my post at PW:

My guess is the name’s taken from Johnny Casper, aka Giovanni Gasparo, from Miller’s Crossing. So, we’re probably looking for someone of Italian-American stock who fancies himself a mob boss and who is fixated on cosa nostra concepts of ethics.

[todd.]

Did "Casper" forward to you an exchange with the General, which included the General telling him not to comment? If so, that's really my favorite part of the whole saga. His friend says, "Let's collude to keep your identity safe," and he says, "Hey, look, we're colluding!"

Anyway, have you tried to extract his IP from the headers of his email? I've never tried this with Hotmail, but it works great for people who use rich clients.

[Karl Steel]

So, we’re probably looking for someone of Italian-American stock

Given the rather parochial enthusiasm for the final episode the The Sopranos, your profiling makes perfect sense.

[Rich Puchalsky]

I guess that my best advice (given via comment box, not Email, because I don't want to contribute to making you ill) depends on what your greatest need is at this time. If you decide that this is serious / legal, then probably the first thing I'd guess that your lawyer is going to tell you is to stop making public statements about it -- including publishing Emails, characterizing what he's doing, etc. (Note: I am not a lawyer of any kind.) If you decide that it is not serious to the point of involving the legal system, then you have to decide what your purpose is. It may not actually help, directly, to find out who "John Casper" is, for most of the nonlegal goals that I can imagine. If the guy is a stalker, then continuing to post about it provides needed feedback -- I note that his new Emails seem to start with your new posts. There's always the chance that if you don't mention it, he'll get bored and do something else. On the other hand, not posting about it means that you don't get expressions of sympathy, which can be very cheering to someone caught in this kind of thing.

Sorry that I don't have anything better to offer.

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

I've figured out the IP addresses. They all originate from either Irvine or the same somewhere else. I'm reluctant to reveal where at this time, but know that I've forwarded that information to the appropriate authorities.

[todd.]

He may be from Irvine, eh? How long until we find out that he once got caught with his pants down in a faculty member's office?

"Foiled again! But don't worry, I'll have my revenge yet, Kaufman!"

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

I believe the Irvine ones are all routers on the UCI campus, so that's on my end. Curiously, though, remember how he said in first letter that it was possible I was commenting on blogs on company time? Well, I test the General's Haloscan, and it appears to be on Eastern time. The "John Casper" in question lives in the Central time zone, which means that on Thursday he was commenting at:

8:54 am

1:54 pm

3:25 pm

4:08 pm

6:18">http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patriotboy/3947160929673603317/?a=13259#422875">6:18 pm

Perhaps he had Thursday off. On Friday he commented at:

7:34 am

8:35 am

9:32 am

10:35 am

2:27 pm

3:05 pm

3:28 pm

3:56 pm

I could continue, but you see my point. Was he commenting on blogs on company time? (For the record, I wasn't. I work at home, and am currently on leave.) Would he like to have his superiors alerted as to what he does on their time?

He's lucky I'm the better man here.

[R.L.Page]

We have never met, Mr. Kaufman, but, having often read your work here, I am confident in thinking that you are, indeed, 'the better man' in this situation.

Unfortunately, this is America, and this is "the internetz," and being 'the better man' may be a disadvantage.

If you are correct that the e-mails you are receiving originate from your neighborhood, have you considered the possibility that this person may be a former (or current) student ?

[richard mcenroe]

You're learning some hard lessons about the people who profess to share your beliefs, Scott. Don't take this problem lightly. Duke isn't the only place with a Gang of 88.

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

Can't we all feel sorry for the real victim in this? By which I mean, the General. Look at what I've done to him, despite not having commented over there in days. Granted, he sent me an email saying that if I contacted again he would consider it harassment. This in response to a polite, civil request for information about "John Casper." He also forwarded the message to "[email protected]," because I am the one abusing matters here.

I hate to say it, but this says a lot about the General, none of it good. If I had more clout, I'd say we press him to explain why he's protecting someone clearly harassing a fellow liberal, but I doubt it would do much good. After all, despite the parody, he seems to believe that no man -- no matter how despicable his lies -- should be "left behind."

[Steven Bobker]

I'm sorry to see what is happening to you. The attacks are sick.

I think Rich P. is giving you excellent advice.

I have real concerns about anyone giving IP information to anyone. If the need arises a subpena is the only reasonable course and then the data should only be given to law enforcement authorities investigating what they consider a valid complaint. However nothing would prevent you from posting the long header to one the offending emails here. Then a lot of folks with decoding knowledge could confirm your work.

I suspect that you have far moe support in the liberal blogging community than you think have in regard to this matter, even on JG. I do know that a bunch of truly odd messages appeared over there recently and have caused the shutdown of the commenting system there.

[CR]

For years, haven't we all been incredibly frustrated with Luntz/Rove/Howowitz/Limbaugh co-opting left tactics - especially those of identity politics - for nefarious use. "I'm a white male republican, and my voice is drowned out by all the powerful and institutionally emboldened black voices" etc etc. Now, the counterstroke, where the left starts running plays from the playbook of the right. This really does feel like a good old fashioned DHo stomping party. Except these guys are the good guys, right? Someone dares to argue with you, and you notify the media, deploying all the right keywords and talking points. Combine a slow news day in Southern California and the words "white supremacist academic," and we'll go quickly from the news at 11 to SEK's career dangling from the flagpole.

And the more we see, the less it looks like the fact that this is simply the work of a single deranged individual. Notice the way the same language echoes from Casper to JG himself...

This is insane, and really one of the darker moments I've seen in my blog time. Worse even than Bitch's - at least that guy was "on the other side." This is even more frightening...

[Dan Collins]

Steven,
Well, that's cause for celebration, if its true. As sickening as the first wave of nonsense was, it was understandable. What's happened since has been purely nauseating, beginning with his self-defense and lauding of Brittney's apology, and the refusal to call the attack morons off here.
Disgusting.

[R.L.Page]

Strange, strange bedfellows ...

[Gordon]

You know, what started as a left/right thing has truly turned in to a sane/insane one.

Most of us can put the politics and ideology aside for basic human decency.

I'm afraid you have a Ted Kazynski-caliber loose nut on you.

Perhaps a restaining order?

Again, you have my deepest sympathies. You are a class-act.

[Lesley]

Having watched all this unfold from the comfort of my Nashville home (I connect via my employer's firewall, so disregard the IP address info and oops, it's now 8:01am), I have to say that at first, I thought it was all a joke. There's a lot of contention between those of us who are liberals and those who are not here in Nashville, so it was par for the course. But when the whole situation blew up, I was taken by complete surprise. I'm still not certain how it all happened.

But now that I read stories like this (and some others), I'm starting to wonder if "liberals" are really this nasty or if, perhaps there's some right-wing conspiracy to create a divide in our little online community. Call me crazy, but those right-wingnuts are some crafty people. Is John Casper a plant? I think it's a possibility. As for patriotboy, that's just sad.