Derek Reeve's take on "middle eastern students"

     As you know, we've been keeping track of plagiarist, Islamophobe—and Saddleback College Poli Sci instructor—Derek Reeve. Reeve is a noisy right-wing member of the San Juan Capistrano City Council (and a doctoral student at Claremont Grad School). We first noticed the fellow when, as a City Councilman, he proposed changing a city ordinance to allow residents to carry guns in city parks.
     That seemed loony. Irresponsible.
     A few months later, he drew more attention when he boasted, during a City Council meeting, that he had named one of his dogs "Muhammad" (Muslims often regard dogs as "unclean").
     He's a lout. He refused to apologize, insisting that the naming was some sort of teaching opportunity with his children (and, I suppose, his dogs) and not an attempt to ridicule Muslims. That sounded mighty implausible.

This image appears on Reeve's
"Patriots of Troy" Facebook page
& blog

     The next chapter was a real stunner. Soon, it came to light that he had plagiarized much of the content of several political posts for the San Juan Capistrano Patch. In response to the predictable outrage—some of it coming from us—he noisily protested that, though he did publish others' works as his own, it did not count as plagiarism, since it occurred on a blog (the SJC Patch is a kind of city/neighborhood news blog). Yeah, sure.
     Clearly, Reeve is the kind of politician who doesn't mind offering explanations that no intelligent person would accept. Such politicians are called "liars." Reeve's kind of liar is shameless, it seems.
     Because we are academics, we jumped all over the distressing circumstance that Reeve, a college instructor—both at Saddleback and at Concordia University in Irvine—repeatedly plagiarized and then defended his actions as appropriate. How could such a person instill intellectual honesty in his students? How could he enforce the prohibition against plagiarism? Unsurprisingly, Concordia U seemed to let Reeve go over the plagiarism incident. Scandalously, Saddleback College seems happy to continue to employ Reeve as a Poli Sci instructor. (See Spring schedule of classes. I see that he's scheduled to teach two courses, starting January)
     Maybe that will change. Here's something Reeve recently posted on one of his Facebook pages:

I've blackened out the names and blurred out the faces

     Gosh, I wonder if he has an explanation for this latest outrage? If so, I'll bet it'll be a doozy.

UPDATE: The Capistrano Insider (Capistrano Dispatch) has the story: Capistrano Councilman Reeve at it Again: Questions Integrity of 'Middle Eastern' Students