Blogs Oct 25, 2012 at 11:58 am

Comments

1
What do you have against impatient hotheads? This outrage will not stand!
2
They don't smell right because, like any crime, there doesn't seem any proportion until you get details. And you don't get details because the report is false.
3
i've anxiously been awaiting the ashley todd part of the campaign. i've been trying to figure out what its going to be this year...maybe fake hate crimes is it?
4
Thanks for reminding me, Dan. I saw a story earlier this week about a woman who claimed to have been set on fire by KKK punks; that story sound a bit fishy to me when I read it. You reminded me to check for an update and, like the stories you mentioned, turns out hers was a hoax too.
5
Thanks for checking on this and holding tight. I wish the same could be said for some of your cohorts at The Stranger
6
Come on, just because 100 percent of all tweets and FB status announcements by supposed gay conservatives being beaten up and attacked with carving knives have been PROVEN LIES this century doesn't mean this one isn't true ... right?

By the way, loved the tweet about Unusual person outside the New French Film Fest party in Ballard (on Ballard Ave) last night. Um, yeah, it was like he was a tall dark black man with a beret who looked unusual ... cause he was French!

Sometimes there's no there there.
7
Yeah, but knee-jerk, reactionary, extremist, vigilante, lynch-mob behavior is one of the things that makes 'Merica the Greatest Country on Earth (fuck yeah!).
8
I always wonder about these false reports. Do they honestly think they're helping the cause or is it just Münchausen syndrome manifesting in a terrible way?

Currently my money is on Münchausen.
9
Remember the Iraqi woman who was attacked in her home in California?? Promptly labeled a "hate crime," this was another story that just didn't seem right. Turned out that it was apparently a family dispute. Meanwhile, the family members were allowed to take the woman's body back to Iraq -- where they're safe from any nosey detectives in the El Cajon, CA police force.
10
Yeah @4, that story was very troublesome. And something just didn't smell right about it. I hate when things like this happen because it causes people to doubt actual instances of hate crimes. http://abcnews.go.com/US/louisiana-woman…
11
Bravo, Dan!

Yeah, reading the description of the zip-tied woman, I couldn't help wondering why she wasn't dead. The scenario didn't sound like one which would have survivors.
12
Thank you, Dan.
13
This happened a few years ago at NU. A Latino student claimed harassment (stuff written on his dorm whiteboard) then mysterious men jumped him, no witnesses, held knife to his throat, threatened to kill him. I was not popular with some colleagues for saying it didn't add up, but it didn't. Writing "spic' on a whiteboard is a cowardly act; it takes stones to hold a knife on someone. Didn't match. Sure enough, he was exposed, expelled. And everyone who marched and written letters to the editor of the student paper in his support felt like a credulous dupe who'd been taken advantage of by a con man.

The signs I think suggest a story is bullshit: no witnesses, victim gets to help on his/her own, description of attackers is murky/generic, and, oddly, the presence of some sort of TEXT. They beat me up and wrote slurs on me! Sure they did.
14
The elections bring the crazy out of the crazies.
15
Sorry for missing "had" in last comment.
16
Tawana Brawley Syndrome
17
@16 ... was just going to post about Tawana Brawley ... I lived in NYC at the time that happened ... what a cluster that was ... and all fake at that
18
It seems like a lot of hate crime hoaxes involve writing slurs on the skin. Branding, carving, magic marker, whatever. Apparently it's not something bigots actually do very often, but it is something that disturbed people think bigots must do all the time.
19
It was probably the writing on the skin. Anything with writing on a person's body tends to smack of falsehood. (I'm talking about perception, not reality, why something would seem fake, not why it might be fake.)

There was an ep of Law and Order long ago in which a girl was found in a garbage heap with racist slurs painted on her skin and claimed to have been raped by white police officers. The fictional expert said that skin writing was more common in cases of false accusation than in actual cases of sexual assault. The fictional girl later admitted that she had lied for reasons of her own.

I know that not everything on TV is true, but any assault with a sex angle that involved writing on the victim's skin would trip my wait-for-more-proof switch.
20
@19,

You mean the L&O episode based on the Tawana Brawley case?

And that was waaayy back. The very first season.
21
@10,

Something about that story reminded me of that woman in Vancouver who claimed a black woman threw acid in her face.
22
@7: It's a fine American tradition dating all the way back to Salem that liberals and conservatives can enjoy.
23
Even without this explanatory post, you'd think more people would be able to grasp the simple possibility that certain bloggers just might not have seen a trending story yet.

I think it's telling when a person's very first go-to explanation for a specific story's absence from a specific blog is "they must have PURPOSEFULLY omitted it because they secretly HATE [lesbians/transsexuals/homocons/women/gay men/white men/etc/etc/etc]!!!!11"

There's your surest sign of a drama-hungry victim complex, right there.
24
When I looked at the vicious, self-inflicted burn, I think the hate is against himself. This is self-loathing. You must really hate yourself to do this.
25
I remember Ashley Todd and the whole hilarious reaction to idiots who trotted her out as an example of the rampage of black me if Obama was elected.

Funniest thing I read was a comment on a YouTube video: " As someone who has been branded by an enraged negro, your stunt has cheapened my pain..."
26
I wish more Stranger writers would take your cue and not post any random bullshit that superficially appeals to their world view.
27
Hey, where's Ashley Todd now? She got jail time, right? But surely she's out now. That chick was hot, man.
28
Ms. Todd got probation.

@20 Yes, that is the episode I mean. I didn't know it was based on Ms. Brawley at the time, though. I was pretty young and had never heard of her.
29
Fnarf, you're a strange man.
30
@29 - no kidding. That woman wasn't even slightly attractive, much less hot.
31
Oh yes, Danny the paragon of restraint. He and the rest of the Stranger Poof Patrol got caught too many times jumping on shit that wasn't true. Now when they want to libel someone they just hide under the guide of parody.
32
@31: you know what I like about you?

Well, nothing really. But you know what I appreciate about you?

I appreciate your dedication to attempting to troll in spite of the handicap of having zero, nay, negative skill at it. You make Bailo look subtle and Will in Seattle look smart. Somewhere, the ghost of Loveschild shakes her head in sadness every time you post. Seriously, in case you're missing the point: you suck at this. A lot.

And yet, despite the fact that every time you show up and make one of your pathetic attempts at derailing the thread you immediately get curb-stomped by every last person here (and I swear last time there were some elementary schoolkids getting some kicks in), you slink away, lick your wounds, and then convince yourself that next time, NEXT TIME, you're gonna finally manage to hold your own... and you open up your seeping pustule only to get a dozen boots jammed down it again.

Admit it: you're not really coming here to hunt, are you?
33
@32 Delicious.

Troll, we know you better than you know yourself.
34
Whatever the fine/penalty is for these false accusations, it's not nearly enough. I know the last thing we need is more overcrowding in the prison system, but I certainly hope these people get at least a taste of the clink. And that Ashley Todd photo just doesn't get old.

Finally, you go easy on the Stranger's Worst. He's kind of adorable in his efforts, honestly. Keep it up there, fella!
35
Why do people make up these hoaxes? I don't understand what the motivation is.

36
@32:
I do miss Loveschild!
37
Not sure if I agree with punishing those who make false accusations in all cases. In some cases, it would be good to get them treated for mental illness.

That Black woman in Louisiana who burned 60% of her body and claimed that three White men in hoods racially attacked her needs psychiatric help.

Who burns their own body so badly that they end up in the hospital just to claim a hate crime? These people are crying out.

But I agree with Dan that the media should investigate before jumping all over these stories. That whole fiasco at Duke (false rape allegations against the Lacrosse team) should have taught everyone a lesson.
38
i live in Madison, and watch the news every day... haven't heard anything about this on the news.
39
The Capital Times has a story about the Madison attack (sourced largely from an article in the Conservative blogosphere; they also interviewed police, no response to attempt to contact Wood himself): http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/cr…

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel hasn't picked the story up yet.

@35: Attention, sometimes motivated by what can be considered a pathological need for it, or cynical attempts at discursive engineering through false-flag attacks.
41
Good point about the mental health evaluation/treatment there @37. Was actually thinking that too and forgot to include it in my post. If they're found to be completely competent though, then I think it should get fairly ugly for them.

@40 = weirdest spam ever. Check out "her" post history. She actually DID reach out for help before finding salvation in a love potion. Bizarre.
42
By the by, I will personally offer a case of beer (or other intoxicant of choice to be negotiated) to whichever member of the Stranger staff changes the display name of user 13970863 to "StrangersWeakestTroll".
43
Good job Dan.

I still disagree with the entire premise of hate crime laws, but I am glad to see at least some proponents of them act responsibly when considering which cases to publicize.
44
@40 - good for you! But I hope you're not just shilling for some religion/cult/scam. You wouldn't do that, right?

Please wait...

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