A former Hunter College professor who attacked students’ pro-life display and allegedly threatened a New York Post reporter with a machete was arrested Thursday on charges of harassment and menacing.
Shellyne Rodriguez, an adjunct professor at the school, was fired after a video of her holding a machete against a reporter’s neck went viral.
Rodriguez told ARTnews that the college “capitulated” to “racists, White nationalists, and misogynists.”
“Right-wing media organizations are weaponizing and sensationalizing this case to further their agenda, and using me as a prism through which to project their attacks on women, trans people, Black people, Latinx people, migrants, and beyond,” she said.
NYC PROFESSOR WHO THREATENED REPORTER WITH MACHETE TANGLED WITH COPS AT BLM PROTEST
Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld joked on “The Five” Thursday that the ex-professor is “clearly a victim.”
“Anybody who objects to somebody trying to kill you with a machete has to be a bad, evil racist. From now on, you must embrace any machete-wielding person, or you are a machete-phobe,” he quipped.
“It’s like we’re in a society now where we have to denigrate citizens while holding up people that try to harm you, whether it’s criminals, and they’re being recast as like victims, and in this case her.”
NYC PROFESSOR WHO THREATENED REPORTER WITH MACHETE TANGLED WITH COPS AT BLM PROTEST
Gutfeld argued Rodriguez “exploits nice, scared, cowardly White folks who don’t want to appear racist.” He added that her actions clearly crossed a line and that if the video had never been caught on tape, her actions wouldn’t have been a problem.
Co-host Dana Perino said Rodriguez should have been fired by the school after she tossed a pro-life group’s pamphlets onto the floor and shouted profanities at students.
The former art professor approached a Students for Life table in early May, telling the group, “You’re not educating s—, this is f—ing propaganda … What are you going to do, like anti-trans next?”
Perino said the students were being “peaceful” and weren’t “protesting.”
“They had pamphlets and brochures for information… and she yelled abuse at them. Is this the kind of professor that you want around your students?” she asked. “I would have fired her for that instead. She uses all of that language because her union is backing her up. She’ll probably figure out a way to stay within the system somehow.”
UNION BACKTRACKS, AXES PETITION AFTER PROFESSOR THREATENS REPORTER WITH MACHETE
Fellow “Five” co-host Judge Jeanine Pirro agreed, adding that students should stand up for their First Amendment rights and not let anyone tell them they can’t say a certain thing.
“This is a problem with people on the right– they’re too polite. Don’t let somebody tell you…’you can’t say this [or] You can’t say that.’ You know, you can go back at her. She has no right to damage your pamphlets,” Pirro explained. “So, she isn’t just terrifying people. The woman is a bully.”
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