Target stores in Oklahoma were briefly evacuated over the weekend after receiving bomb threats."We have to take it seriously," Sgt. Rob Robertson of the Oklahoma City Police Department told media, even if it's almost certainly a hoax.
Robertson said Target stores in Yukon, Moore, Norman and Oklahoma City had been notified. The Oklahoma City store at 5400 May Ave. reopened around 6:20 pm after about a two hour closure. The company said in a statement that all the stores had reopened. "The safety of our team members and guests is our top priority," the statement said. "Law enforcement investigated claims regarding several stores in the Oklahoma City area today and determined these stores are safe. Our stores are currently open and operating regular hours."
Target publicly declared it was removing some Pride-themed merchandise, but it's clear now that this has failed to have the desired result of appeasing conservatives angry at it marketing to and signaling support for LGBTQ+ folks. Instead, it has only focused right-wing efforts on the retailer, by signaling something else entirely: that it is a weak and pliant…well, target.
The wording of the threat is a literal example of the "right to play" that Jean Paul Sartre described as characteristic of far-right justification.
The email started off by saying "We are going to play a game," before listing off the addresses of several target store locations in Oklahoma City, Yukon, Norman, Midwest City, Moore, and Edmond.
The email concluded by saying "2 of these target locations have bombs in them. We hid the bombs inside some product items. The bombs will detonate in several hours, guess which ones have the bombs. Time is ticking. 4/19/1995."
The date is a reference to the Oklahoma City bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building by white supremacists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, which killed 168 people.
