Real Clear Politics Links To Conservative Treehouse

Real Clear Politics generally doesn't link to alt sites, especially those that tend to be conspiracy-theory, as Conservative Treehouse does. But this morning, it linked to a post there from yesterday, Did Brown University Disable Their CCTV Systems?

As originally reported in August 2025, a group of far-left human rights advocates sent a letter to 150 U.S. colleges and universities asking them to disable the CCTV systems to protect “free expression and academic freedom across the country,” because “the Trump administration has launched an aggressive campaign against US academic institutions.”

. . . The Brown University President and school officials have been giving ridiculous answers to questions about the 800 cameras on the campus and the fact that no current footage exists of the shooter walking around inside the campus or inside the buildings therein.

The question is really a simple one. Did Brown University follow the requests of the hardline leftist groups who asked the school to disable the functioning of their surveillance network in order to protect the identity of the students on campus?

Obviously, this potential explanation would answer a lot of seemingly irreconcilable questions about the lack of surveillance footage available to local law enforcement, state police and FBI investigators. The only current footage of the shooter is from privately owned doorbell cameras and CCTV systems from businesses near the campus. No footage of the shooter on campus has been identified.

Against the factual evidence of Brown University receiving requests to disable their surveillance cameras, someone needs to ask the right question.

In an update there this morning, it appears that someone maybe did in fact ask the right question:

During a press conference on Wednesday, a Providence-area radio host, Chas Calenda, directly confronted Brown University officials and law enforcement with information he has received about the school intentionally disabling surveillance systems due to DEI concerns.

The response from university officials and the Providence Mayor indicate Mr. Chas Calenda’s informed accusation and question is directly on target.

Well, no. Here's the video:

However,the questioner speaks barely understandable, broken English, and I had to rely on YouTube closed captions to transcribe his question, which comes at about 49:20 in the video:

The camera in that building that Brown put off because the sanctuary city law that we have, you don't want to recall illegal immigrants, and you don't want to provide the footage to the FBI or immigration authority, one camera in that building, it come out from your detergents [!], they are friend of mine, they are angry at this investigation, that these people in Brown University put the camera off. They can identify that person. You can imagine how the family going to go through.Tell me through this to the media here. You guys putting cameras off and . . .

Unfortunately, the wording was hardly direct, and it didn't ask specifically whether Brown had disabled its security cameras, either at the request of left-wing groups or for any other reason, and it was nearly impossible for a listener to understand in any case. Puzzled, I did a web search on Calenda; he represents himself as an attorney, and in YouTube excerpts from his radio show, he speaks fluent English like a native speaker, so I'm not entirely sure if the questioner was actually Calenda. I hope this can be clarified, but Sundance at Conservative Treehouse doesn't seem concerned at the apparent discrepancy -- nor at the questioner's incoherence. The mayor -- not anyone from Brown -- replied,

We heard from both the Brown police chief and the provost at Brown, who have shared that they have been fully cooperative and shared, uh, been forthcoming with all, uh, data and evidence that they have, uh, City of Providence's experience is the same, which is that Brown has been entirely cooperative and collaborative and fully sharing with us. We will be back here tomorrow. . .

So there was neither a direct question on whether Brown had disabled its cameras, nor a direct reponse from the mayor on whether Brown actually had any video evidence at all to turn over. They "shared" everything they had, which may well have been nothing.

And in expanding the investigation, the one thing police aren't doing is reviewing on-campus footage -- you'd think a major focus might be to scan footage from the Brown campus in recent days to see if the individual, easily identifiable via his height and build, turns up elsewhere without a mask. Nope -- they're still asking nearby residents to comb their ring cameras to see if he wandered farther afield in the hours before the attack.

Police have previously asked for the public’s help in identifying the person of interest seen in newly released videos. They have also urged residents, including those with camera‑equipped vehicles like Teslas, to share any additional footage dating back “at least a week.”

Another question nobody's brought up is whether the investigation has specifically ruled Mustapha Kharbouch out as a suspect. The're making anxious appeals to the public for more video of the pudgy guy who's 5'8" and seems to look something like Kharbouch, but we don't know if they've even talked to Kharbouch. And then there are the details that have leaked out about their investigation of Benjamin Erickson, the "person of interest" who waa detained all day Sunday and finally released:

On Sunday morning, as investigators rushed to prepare a search warrant for a hotel room in Coventry, Rhode Island, FBI Director Kash Patel broke the news on social media celebrating that a person of interest had been detained in the Brown University mass shooting.

Around the same time, Providence Mayor Brett Smiley announced the man’s detention from a podium, telling residents they can “breathe a little easier.”

It turned out to be the wrong man.

. . . Patel’s announcement, made in a post on X, highlighted the role of the FBI in using cellphone tower data to find the alleged person of interest. By that time, however, some investigators already knew that the person of interest’s cellphone was never identified at the scene of the shooting, casting doubt on the man’s involvement, three people familiar with the investigation told CNN.

Within hours, those doubts grew as investigators determined that tests on shell casings found at the scene of the shooting didn’t match the DNA of the person of interest, two of the sources said.

Two handguns found in the hotel room of the person of interest also didn’t match ballistics of the casings, and a residue test on the man’s hands came back negative, the sources said.

The man detained was released later Sunday.

I 've already pointed out that they didn't even need to take the guy downtown; they could have used hotel security footage and key card data to verify his story that he'd been there all day. Yet again, the police chief and politicians at the press conferences say nothing useful, while "sources" continue to leak. No wonder even "respectable" media like RCP is forced to link to conspiracy theorists.