A suburban New York State man pleaded guilty to federal stalking charges in a Manhattan court on Wednesday–saying his criminal habits were the product of his misogynistic, pro-Incel ideology.
David Kaufman, 27, now faces a minimum sentence of one year in prison and a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The Peekskill defendant admittedly took part in a multi-month stalking campaign targeting several victims between October 2019 and August 2020.
“As he admitted in court, David Kaufman is an adherent of the ‘Incels’ who stalked and terrorized two victims, not only harassing them by impersonating them online, but also graphically threatening to murder them,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a press release.
The Department of Justice, in their press release, offers a lengthy bit of backstory regarding the Incel belief system and its relatively recent history as a source of violent crime in the United States:
KAUFMAN self-identifies as a member of the “Incels,” or the “Involuntary Celibate,” which refers to a group of individuals, typically heterosexual, white males, who adhere to a violent and misogynist ideology of male supremacy. Incels believe they are entitled to sex with women and to women’s bodies, and they blame women for refusing to have sex with them. Incels have an active online community and over the last seven years, Incels also have committed acts of violence against women across the world, including in the United States. For example, in 2014, a self-proclaimed Incel named Elliot Rodger declared a “War on Women” and killed six people and injured 14 others near a college campus in California. Prior to these attacks, Rodger posted a video manifesto online, in which he explained that he planned his attack to punish women for rejecting him and for depriving him of sex, and to punish sexually active men because he envied them.
An avowed fan of Rodger’s, Kaufman used various social media accounts to harass numerous people online with messages that relayed his deep hatred of women.
“Kaufman’s overt hatred of women and sickening threats to harm potential victims caught the eye of the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York. We know acts of violence among those in the Incel community have increased in recent years,” FBI Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll said in a statement. “As Kaufman’s guilty plea brings this topic closer to the forefront, we want the public to know the law enforcement community is aware of the threat and working together to confront it.”
He was indicted in October 2020 by a grand jury in the Southern District of New York. The court filing details an abusive series of messages sent to a couple identified as Victim-1 and Victim-2.
Federal agents additionally allege that Kaufman used the online identities of David Khalifa, John Morray and Big Man to harass the couple as well as at least two of their friends.
In June 2020, regarding Victim-2’s girlfriend, he messaged Victim-1 an image of one of Elliot Rodger’s victims–a deceased woman who had been stabbed to death. Kaufman also sent the following message: “This is what happened when a woman said ‘no’ to Elliot Rodger . . . . Hopefully [Victim-1] never said no to someone just like Elliot Rodger.”
The next month, he posted a quote attributed to Rodger.
“A beautiful environment is the darkest hell, if you have to experience it all alone . . . –Elliot Rodger,” he said. “I don’t think [Victim-1] will be laughing too much later on.”
In another message, the defendant sent Victim-1 an Incel-specific permutation of a popular joke format.
“Hey wanna hear a joke?” Kaufman asked before replying: “What’s worse than 10 Stacy’s nailed to one tree? One Stacy nailed to ten trees [laughing crying face emoji].”
The DOJ again explains for those unfamiliar with Chads, Stacys, and Beckys — the how Incels categorize sexually active male rivals and women:
“Stacy'” is an Incel term that refers to an attractive female who rejects or refuses to have sex with an Incel, is hated by Incels, and is targeted by Incels for harassment, vitriol, humiliation, and violence.
The defendant also occasionally impersonated the couple online.
Some of Kaufman’s alleged accounts used various iterations of combinations of Victim-1’s and Victim-2’s name, according to an unsealed criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime. One such account used Victim-1’s first name along with the word “Beats.” The defendant allegedly used that account to send Victim-1 messages falsely claiming that Victim-2 was beating Victim-1.
While the indictment is light on specifics, the complaint contains an increasingly disturbing series of messages sent by Kaufman to his victims using at least 13 separate social media accounts.
“Women have done nothing but spit in my face,” he messaged Victim-1 at one point. “Soon I’ll be getting a gun.”
“It should be illegal for a woman to say no,” the defendant messaged a fourth alleged victim, according to the complaint, “I’ll have sex with a woman one day. One way or another [wink emoji.]”
Some of Kaufman’s harassment, however, spilled out into the non-digital world. According to the FBI, he admitted placing the following note in a third victim’s physical mailbox:
Open up, Read me. For [Victim-3]. Bomb in mailbox. From Big Man. I will rape you till you cry at my house. [Certain address] in P-Ville. Fuck you. I’m going to tear your skin off and rape your face open stupid whore!!! And the next time it will be a BOMB!! Cunt I will rape you endlessly. Your [sic] going to die.
Despite the nature of his harassment, the defendant was initially given a warning by law enforcement as a protective order was issued.
Kaufman promptly went on to violate the terms of that protective order the next month. He resumed his campaign of anti-woman terror against his victims by, among other things, posting an image online of himself licking a picture of Victim-1 and surveilling their residence.
Kaufman is currently slated to be sentenced on March 16, 2022 before U.S. District Judge Nelson S. Román.
[Image via CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images]
