Karmelo Anthony was convicted of murdering 17-year-old Austin Metcalf at a high school track meet in Texas, sentenced to 35 years in prison on Tuesday, and somehow the victim's family is the one living in fear right now. Dozens of hateful messages have poured in threatening the Metcalf family post sentencing.
As if losing their teen son wasn't bad enough, now they have to live in fear for their own lives from supporters of the killer.
According to reports, the Metcalf family has received dozens of threatening messages since the guilty verdict came down earlier this week. We're not talking about vague internet tough-guy nonsense either. These messages threatened to show up at the family's home, to soil Austin Metcalf's grave, and — brace yourself — stated that Karmelo Anthony "should have also murdered" Austin's twin brother Hunter Metcalf, who witnessed the stabbing.
Let that sink in. People are openly saying the convicted murderer should have killed more members of the family. And they're putting it in writing. On purpose.
Here's what actually happened. Austin Metcalf, a 17-year-old high school athlete, was at a track meet when 19-year-old Karmelo Anthony showed up unauthorized. Hunter Metcalf, Austin's brother, told Anthony to leave the tent. Anthony refused. Austin stepped in to back up his brother, and Anthony stabbed him to death.
Anthony's defense tried to claim self-defense. A jury disagreed. They convicted him of murder and a judge handed down 35 years. That's not a "lynching." That's not racism. That's a jury of citizens watching the evidence and concluding that stabbing a kid who told you to leave is, in fact, murder.
But none of that matters to the mob. TMZ reported on the case on June 10, and within hours the racial grievance machine kicked into high gear. The facts of the case — an unauthorized person at a school event, a confrontation, a fatal stabbing — got memory-holed in favor of the only narrative that matters to these people: skin color.
So now a family that lost their 17-year-old son is fielding death threats. They can't grieve in peace because a crowd of degenerates decided that a convicted murderer is actually the hero of this story. The messages aren't anonymous cowards hiding behind burner accounts, either. These people are bold enough to say it with their whole chest.
Meanwhile, Anthony has filed a notice of appeal, because of course he has. And every race-baiting commentator who spent the last week turning a murder conviction into a civil rights cause will face zero consequences for the threats their rhetoric inspired. They never do.
This is what happens when media figures and activists tell their audiences that a lawful verdict is an act of racial violence. The unhinged take the cue. They always do. And the people who suffer aren't the pundits or the activists — it's a family in Texas that already lost everything.
The Metcalf family buried a teenager. Their reward is being told it should have been worse.