Beyonce Prof Taken To Psych Ward For Tweets Gets $10K Settlement

GREENPOINT, BROOKLYN — New York City had to pay $10,000 to a former Rutgers professor known for his Beyoncé-themed class who said he was hospitalized for discussing the Second Amendment and flag-burning, a new settlement shows.

Kevin Allred, who taught gender studies at the New Jersey university until 2017, sued the city earlier this year, saying that cops showed up to his Greenpoint apartment and sent him to Bellevue Hospital for a psychiatric evaluation in 2016.

A student's parents had called campus police — who then asked NYPD to check on Allred— after the professor made "negative and disturbing" comments in his "Politicizing Beyoncé" class the day after President Donald Trump's election, records show.

His lawsuit says the NYPD officers, who didn't have a warrant for his arrest, violated his constitutional rights by making him go to the hospital.

"This is for exercising my f***ing first amendment rights," Allred tweeted as he was being taken to the hospital. "I'm being labeled a threat and put in a psych hospital this is a sh*tshow and is proof positive that Trump's crackdown on free speech has absolutely begun."

A judge ruled in Allred's favor in June and ordered the city to pay him $10,001 and cover his attorney fees, records show.

The NYPD did not immediately return Patch's request for comment. But the police department told the Daily News at the time that Rutgers police had asked them to do a wellness check on Allred "based on comments he made in the classroom and on Twitter about killing white people."

The professor said he asked the class, "Would conservatives care as much about the 2nd amendment if guns killed more white people?" in order to point out a double standard. Neither the lawsuit nor Allred detailed his comments about flag-burning.

The three NYPD officers who showed up to Allred's apartment stepped inside without a warrant or his permission and looked around to see if anyone was armed or dangerous, the lawsuit claims.

Allred told the cops he "had no intent to commit violence against anyone," but the police said he had to go with them anyway, according to the suit.

"Professor Allred was forcibly taken to a hospital to undergo a psychiatric evaluation against his will," the lawsuit said. "(He) was finally released a few hours later after the hospital medical staff reiterated that there had been no objective basis for the examination of Plaintiff nor the forcible removal of Plaintiff from his apartment."

Allred has made headlines in the past, and gotten the attention of critics like Ann Coulter, for his political tweets and "Politicizing Beyonce" class, which focuses on the artist’s work through the lens of race, class, and gender.

His attorney was not immediately available for comment.