The brother of a teenager falsely identified as a high school student recorded on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial facing off with a Native American activist slammed people who circulated information about his family.
The Covington Catholic High School student was later self-identified as Nick Sandmann, but many social media users falsely identified the student as Michael Hodge shortly after the Jan. 18 incident. Hodge also attends the high school and was thought by some to resemble Sandmann.
After the false identification, “People then proceeded to spam my family with harassments and threats of physical violence. We then find out our parents’ address was posted online. If that wasn’t enough, our family operated business has been slandered and attacked,” Andrew Hodge, an older brother of Hodge, said in a missive on Twitter.
“No one reviews evidence or does any due diligence, they immediately escalate things to a state of frenzy over much of nothing,” he added.
“The zealots scream for the head of #MichaelHodge knowing that their (sic) will be zero consequences to them if anything happens to him posted online. If that wasn’t enough, our family operated business has been slandered and attacked.”
1) Yesterday was supposed to be a day of celebration for my middle brother Alex, who got married last night. Instead my family had to deal with the fallout of my youngest brother #MichaelHodge being falsely accused for standing & smiling in front of an indigenous man with a drum
— Andrew Hodge (@PikePlaceTechie) January 20, 2019
Hodge said that numerous family members received messages with hateful content, including statements that they wouldn’t “be able to protect #MichaelHodge forever.”
He said his brother is a good kid who volunteers for the Special Olympics, is involved in a church youth group, and abstains from both smoking and drinking. Michael Hodge also wants to become a chef.
“People then started circulating articles of him regarding his dreams and goals of being a chef, finds the college he plans on attending and proceed to blow them up encouraging them to rescind offer and calling him a racist, [expletive]” Andrew Hodge wrote.
6) People then started circulating articles of him regarding his dreams and goals of being a chef, finds the college he plans on attending and proceed to blow them up encouraging them to rescind offer and calling him a racist POS…
— Andrew Hodge (@PikePlaceTechie) January 20, 2019
Hodge wondered about the mindset of the people circulating the fake stories and false information.
“You reach out saying how ‘terrible’ of a family we are, defame us, threaten us, and you know nothing about us. Yet you circulate the information and spam us like it is the only ‘truth’ that has ever existed in your lives,” he wrote. “You condemned my parents for being horrible role models, yet you jumped to conclusions and were ready to string up an innocent dude? Is that what you are teaching your children/family? I sure hope not.”
He added, “It saddens me people have nothing better to do on Saturday then scour the internet for drama & then dig up info on a family & rile up an army to attack them. Hold yourselves to a higher standard, set a better example for your sphere of influence, we will all be better off for it.”
Sandmann, who confirmed he was the one pictured in the video being approached by the activist, who then drummed and chanted loudly in his face, issued a statement noting the widespread misrepresentation of the video footage from Washington. Many news outlets wrote stories about early snippets of footage and only later wrote about the full video, which is nearly two hours long.
“I am providing this factual account of what happened on Friday afternoon at the Lincoln Memorial to correct misinformation and outright lies being spread about my family and me,” he wrote. The rest of the statement can be read in the link above.
