An Instagram post that says “i’m fina go def con 3 on all jewish people” is being investigated by the Evanston Police Department.
The message has been seen by a number of Evanston Township High School students on their Instagram accounts.
While the poster uses the ETHS name in its account name, the account is not associated with the school.
Adam Stock has a daughter at ETHS who saw the post. He called the police and the high school.
“It’s sad that people should be afraid. I think it’s a hate crime,” Stock told Evanston Now.
Evanston Police Cmdr. Ryan Glew said that this is being looked into as a bona fide incident, and ETHS is cooperating with the investigation.
At this point, Glew said, police are trying to figure out who is behind the Instagram post, and whether that person came up with the content, or posted what someone else wrote.
The site owner, Glew said, “appears to be a private person,” as opposed to any organization.
As of now, Glew noted, the posting is being treated as a disorderly conduct, because there were no specific threats against any named individuals. However, if charges are filed, they might change, based on what the investigation turns up.
The Instagram post is similar to one of many antisemitic statements made by entertainer Kanye West, who last year posted on Twitter of going to “death con 3” against “the Jewish people.”
(The military readiness term DEFCON has five levels. DEFCON 3 is regarded as “a standby level of alert, and it is the highest level of alert during peacetime.”)
Jane Charney of the Jewish United Fund in Chicago is aware of the Instagram post.
“We treat things like this seriously,” she said.
Charney, the group’s assistant vice president for local government affairs, told Evanston Now that social media can be “a breeding ground for extremists and radicalization,” and whenever there is a conflict in the Middle East, the number of antisemitic incidents increases.
Additional proof of that took place Thursday night in Skokie, where police said “Stand With Israel” yard signs were vandalized, cut up into pieces, or stolen at eight locations. An investigation into that is also under way.