Bicoastal School Bomb Threats Were Sent From an 8Chan-Linked "Cockmail" Service
The public school systems in New York and Los Angeles both received bomb threats today, but only one city took it seriously. So why did 640,000 California kids get the day off while New York’s youths had to spend a lovely 60-degree day in class? Credulity.
Though neither email has been made public, it appears both school systems received similar—if not identical—emails, threatening a multi-pronged, jihadi attack on multiple schools, using bombs and nerve gas. But there were plenty of details to indicate the threat was a hoax. Among them:
- Both emails were sent by Cockmail—an email host affiliated with the gutter image board 8chan that boasts decidedly non-halal domains like “nigge.rs,” “horsefucker.org,” and “goat.si,” as well as multiple variations on the phrase, “dicksinmyan.us.” (The NYPD has since subpoenaed “Cock.li Email Hosting,” and California state Rep. Brad Sherman confirms the LA email came from a “pornographic” address.)
- Both emails spelled the word “Allah” with a lowercase “a”
- The author of the Los Angeles email, at least, claimed to be a victim of bullying.
“There was nothing credible about the threat. It was so outlandish,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Tuesday.
“It is very easy in hindsight to criticize a decision based on results the decider could never have known,” LA Police Chief Charlie Beck said at a different news conference Tuesday.
Perhaps. But it’s also apparently very easy to shut down a school—or many schools, in a major American city— by pretending to be an ISIS fighter using an email with the word “cock” in it.
