Police: Threat To Burn UM Student Wearing Hijab Did Not Happen

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WJBK) - Police have determined a University of Michigan student's claim that a man threatened to burn her if she didn't remove her hijab was false. Ann Arbor Police Lt. Matthew Lige says there was not enough evidence to support her claim.

The woman, who hasn't been identified, told police she was walking along William Street and State Street when she was approached by by a man. She told police the man threatened to set her on fire using his lighter if she did not remove her hijab. The victim described the suspect to police as a white man with bad body odor and slurred speech, as if he may have been drunk.

The university sent out a safety alert email to students after the incident was reported. In it, the school said the "hate and intimidation" happened Friday evening between 5:30 and 7.

Police talked to businesses nearby and reviewed surveillance tapes in hopes of tracking down the suspect. Lt. Lige says no one witnessed the event, and the woman was never seen in any surveillance footage. Detectives reviewed hours of footage, he said.

Now, more than a month later, police have determined that the incident she described did not happen.

The woman could be charged with filing a false police report, according to Lt. Lige. The prosecutor's office will be reviewing the case, which could include a felony charge because the crime she reported -- ethnic intimidation -- is a felony.

The woman reported the incident to police a few days after the election, in which a surge of hate crimes were reported all across the country. [Source]

HATE HOAX: BLACK SUSPECT ARRESTED FOR DAMAGING STORE, WRITING THREAT FROM TRUMP-SUPPORTING ‘WHITE AMERICA’

Police have arrested a black male suspect in connection with a fire at a store owned by South Asian immigrants left damaged with a note from “White America” telling them to “go back to where they came from.”

A window was broken and a flaming object thrown inside the store last Thursday. No serious damage occurred as the fire was contained.

There was also a note left at the scene that read, in part, “Our newly elected president Donald Trump is our nation builder for White America. You all know that, we want our country back on the right track. We need to get ride of Muslims, Indians and all immigrants.”

The note ended with a signature from “white America.”

Despite the effort to make the act seem like the actions of a white Trump supporter, Curtis Flournoy, a black male, was arrested in connection to the fire on Sunday.

He is being charged with, “burning a building of trade, malicious damage by use of an incendiary material, felony breaking and entering, ethnic intimidation and anonymous or threatening letters,” WNCN reports. [Source]

BLACK MAN BURNED AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHURCH, PAINTED ‘VOTE TRUMP’ ON THE WALLS

Andrew McClinton has been charged with arson

Chuck Ross | Reporter

A black man has been arrested and charged with burning an African-American church in Greenville, Miss. last month and defacing its outer walls with “Vote Trump” graffiti.

The Mississippi state police arrested Andrew McClinton, 45, on Wednesday and charged him with first-degree arson of a place of worship, Warren Strain, a spokesman with the Mississippi Department of Public Safety told The Daily Caller.

McClinton allegedly set fire to Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church, where he is a member, on Nov. 1, a week before the election. The fire destroyed 80 percent of the church. A GoFundMe account raised more than $240,000 to repair the facility.

“We do not believe it was politically motivated. There may have been some efforts to make it appear politically motivated,” Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney, who also serves as the state fire marshal, told The Associated Press.

Clarence Green, a bishop at Hopewell, told the AP that McClinton is a member of the church.

The attack, which was investigated by local and state authorities as well as the FBI, was widely attributed by media outlets to Trump supporters. The Atlantic, to cite one example, published an article entitled “A Black Church Burned in the Name of Trump.”

Mississippi U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, whose district encompasses Greenville, said last month that the arson and vandalism was an act of “domestic terrorism.”

“If there is something like the Ku Klux Klan or the Aryan Nation…we look at that as domestic terrorism,” he told the AP at the time.

The case appears to be yet another hoax targeting Trump supporters. Several Muslim women who have claimed since the election that they were targeted by Trump fans because they wore hijabs have been charged with making false reports. [Source]

Another 'Hate Crime' Meant To Paint Trump As Nazi Exposed As HOAX

ByAMANDA PRESTIGIACOMO
@AMANDAPRESTO

Fresh off the presidential election this November, someone vandalized St. David's Episcopal Church in Indiana with a spray-painted gay slur, a swastika and the words '"Heil Trump." George Nathanial Stang, a 26-year-old organist employed by the church, found and reported the apparent hate crime. But it turns out that the man who "discovered" and reported the vandalism was actually the one who staged the hate crime.

Stang was upset that Trump won the presidency so he lashed out like a small child, building upon the Left's narrative that Trump supporters are racist and the Republican's win was, as CNN's Van Jones called it, a "white lash."

The 26-year-old admitted that he bought the black spray paint used for the vandalism at a local hardware store, says the Brown Country Prosecutor's Office. "He told police that he wanted to 'mobilize a movement' because he was disappointed in and fearful of the presidential election results," notes RTV 6.

Stang has been charged with the class A misdemeanor of criminal mischief. According to the office of the prosecutor, the 26-year-old's "intentions were not racially or religiously motivated," just political, apparently.

"This incident has been a blight on our small and diverse community, and I am proud of the hard work put forth by the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, especially Detective Brian Shrader and Sheriff Scott Southerland. It was truly a team effort involving many nights away from each of our families," said Theodore F. Adams, the Brown County prosecuting attorney, on Wednesday.

Since the stunning election of President Trump, there have been numerous reported "hate crimes" which have turned out to be politically-motivated hoaxes. Here's Daily Wire's John Nolte with a shortlist of such hoaxes:

The Muslim woman robbed of her hijab in Louisiana? Never happened.

The black woman racially-harassed at a Philadelphia gas station? Never happened.

The Asian student racially-taunted in Minnesota? Never happened.

The bisexual student receiving hate-notes in Chicago? Never happened.

The black church burned to the grown and defaced with "Vote Trump!" Committed by a black man.

Asian store firebombed by a white Trump supporter? Committed by a black man.

Michigan student told to remove her hijab or be lit on fire? Never happened.

Racist note left for Hispanic students in North Carolina? Written by a Trump-hating Hispanic.[Sourc e]

Nebraska Woman Convicted Of Hate-Crime Hoax Fails To Show For Jail Term

Charlie Rogers. Photograph: KETV

Charlie Rogers, a former University of Nebraska-Lincoln basketball player, was convicted of lying to police about being attacked by anti-gay men

A 36-year-old woman convicted of a hate crime hoax in Lincoln hasn’t shown up for jail time that she was required to serve because she didn’t meet the conditions of her probation.

Charlie Rogers is a former University of Nebraska-Lincoln basketball player who was convicted of lying to police about being attacked by masked men who carved anti-gay slurs into her skin. She has said she’s a lesbian.

A prosecutor told the Lincoln Journal Star Thursday that Rogers’ probation officer didn’t sign a document that would have waived the 90-day jail term ordered at her April 2013 sentencing. She was immediately required to serve seven days in jail. The terms of her probation included 250 hours of community service and a requirement to get a full-time job.

Chief deputy county attorney Pat Condon said Rogers didn’t show up as required at 8am Thursday at Lancaster County Jail. A jailer said Rogers still wasn’t in custody there on Friday.

Rogers’ lawyer didn’t immediately return a call from the Associated Press. The county’s chief deputy probation officer has declined to talk about Rogers and her probation problems.

Prosecutors say Rogers reported in July 12, 2012, that the men who attacked her tried to set fire to her home before leaving. A neighbor told police that Rogers crawled from her home naked, bleeding and screaming for help.

Rogers’ story quickly fell apart, and prosecutors said she faked the attack because she thought it would inspire change in the treatment of gay people. [Source]

New York DJs Suspended for Anti-Gay Party-Invitation Hoax

Why did the morning-show hosts say that they created this fictitious party and response?

By Albert Lin

Two Long Island radio-station personalities have been suspended indefinitely after perpetrating a hoax involving a fictitious anti-LGBT parent.

Steve Harper and Leanna Karlson, cohosts of The K-98.3 Morning Show on Hempstead, N.Y., radio station WKJY, told listeners on Wednesday about a birthday-party invitation returned to gay parents with an anti-LGBT rant written on it. Except that all details of the story "were completely fabricated independently by Steve and Leeana," read a statement posted to the station's Facebook page.

"This was done without the knowledge of K-98.3 management or ownership," the statement continued. "The story, presented as a real event, was, in fact, fictitious. An internal investigation was quickly launched which has resulted in the immediate suspension of Steve Harper and Leeana Karlson from The K-98.3 Morning Show."

In an apology posted to the station's website on Friday evening, Harper and Karlson wrote, "We were attempting to spur a healthy discourse on a highly passionate topic, but we made a mistake by misleading our listeners into thinking that this specific situation actually existed.

"We are very sorry that we perpetuated this falsehood, even after it was clear that it had taken on a 'life of its own.' We deeply apologize for violating your trust, and we will work hard to regain that trust."

The "RSVP" to an invitation to a 7th birthday party was posted on the station's Facebook page. (It has since been removed.) "Tommy will NOT attend," wrote the mother, identified as Beth in the post. "I do not believe in what you do and will not subject my innocent son to your 'lifestyle.' I'm sorry Sophia has to grow up this way. If you have an issue or need to speak to me: [phone number]."

The Facebook post said: "Beth gave us permission to post her phone number and said anyone who has a problem with what she wrote can call her, too!"

The phone number went to a voicemail that had received "well over 2,000 messages before it was taken down," a station spokesperson told Newsday.

Reaction to the original post—which had more than 2,500 comments as of Friday morning—was overwhelmingly in support of "Sophia" and her parents. Reaction to the Facebook post announcing the suspension was more mixed, with many applauding the disc jockeys for raising awareness, but others saying it was hurtful and not funny.

David Kilmnick, CEO of the Long Island GLBT Services Network, said, "We applaud the quick and decisive actions from the management team at K-98.3 FM. While we don't agree with how the information was presented by Steve and Leeana, we do recognize the impact and importance of fostering discussions of this important and sensitive social issue."

Kilmnick told WNBC-TV that he had met with Harper and Karlson, and in the station's statement Kilmnick is quoted as saying, "I look forward to continuing this discussion on The K-98.3 Morning Show with Steve and Leeana upon their return." [Source]

Racist, Anti-LGBT Flier Found Outside Dallas Nightclub Appears To Be Hoax

The flier used in the Dallas anti-gay hoax.

A racist and anti-LGBT flier reportedly found on the windshield of a vehicle parked near a gay nightclub appears to be a hoax, Dallas police said.

The Dallas Voice reported the incident to police Wednesday and said the derogatory flier was found Saturday on a windshield in the 3200 block of Fitzhugh Avenue, near BJs NXS Nightclub, police said.

In its initial story about the flier posted Wednesday, the Voice reported it was unable to reach the person whose car the paper was allegedly found on, and that its authenticity had not been verified.

The publication has since reported that the incident appears to be a hoax. A copy of the flier was found on an "alt-left" website with the headline "Welcome to Trump's America," and the claim that the same flier was seen in the yard of a gay person accompanied by a burning cross, the Dallas Voice said.

The flier had numerous slurs and threats including, "Kill all [expletive] and anyone who helped them at PULSE." It also had a picture of the fence where Matthew Shepard, a gay man, was tied and left to die in October 1998 after he was severely beaten.

Dallas police said the department "takes these matters very seriously" and will follow up on any leads.

"No person has come forth and stated he or she found the flier, however, the department will continue to investigate the incident to determine if an offense occurred," police said in a written statement.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has been monitoring reports of racist or hateful incidents in the wake of Donald Trump's election and his subsequent appointment of  Breitbart News mastermind Stephen Bannon as his chief strategist.

Racist rhetoric and hateful fliers, the legitimacy of which has not been confirmed, have popped up at colleges across Texas. Southern Methodist University officials condemned fliers recently found around the campus titled "Why white women shouldn't date black men."

At Texas State University, police are investigating fliers that called for the organization of "tar and feather vigilante squads" to "arrest and torture" university leaders who call for diversity on campus.

A student at Baylor University also reported being taunted with racist language and pushed by another student while she walked on the sidewalk. [Source]

‘Uncomfortable Truth’ In Matthew Shepard’s Death

A cross made of stones rests below the fence in Laramie, Wyo., where Matthew Shepard was pistol-whipped and then hung in a pose resembling a crucifixion. AP

 

Andrea Peyser

Stephen Jimenez didn’t set out to be the most dangerous journalist on earth.

Or, more to the point, the most dangerous gay journalist.

But Jimenez unearthed a story that few people wanted to hear. And it calls into question everything you think you know about the life and death of one of the leading icons of our age.

Matthew Shepard, college student. Killed, at 21, for being gay.

Or was he?

Jimenez’s “The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard,” out last month, challenges every cultural myth surrounding Shepard’s short life and unspeakable death. After some 13 years of digging, including interviews with more than 100 sources, including Shepard’s killers, Jimenez makes a radioactive suggestion:

The grisly murder, 15 years ago this month, was no hate crime.

Shepard’s tragic and untimely demise may not have been fueled by his sexual orientation, but by drugs. For Shepard had likely agreed to trade methamphetamines for sex. And it killed him.

Heresy.

Why dredge this up now? Jimenez’s answer surprised me.

“As a gay man,” he said, “I felt it was a moral thing to do.”

Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson, now doing life for murder, were not homophobes, writes Jimenez. Shepard was lured from a bar, then driven to the outskirts of Laramie, Wyo., where he was robbed. McKinney savagely pistol-whipped Shepard with the barrel of a .357 Magnum. The men then hung him, barefoot, freezing and barely alive, on a fence, in a pose resembling a crucifixion. He died six days later.

But McKinney was no stranger. Strung out on meth for a week before the slaying, writes Jimenez, McKinney likely had been Shepard’s gay or bisexual lover.

“To understand who Matthew really was,” Jimenez said, “to alter our perception of him as a martyr and an icon, is not going to be damaging to gay rights.

“I don’t buy it. I don’t think we have anything to lose from telling the truth.”

Activists, journalists, politicians and filmmakers who, with the best of intentions, based careers on Shepard’s murder are furious. But Jimenez insists he’s willing to trade Shepard’s irreproachable image for a serious talk about drugs. Meth, he said, is haunting the gay scene, bringing with it a plague of ultra-violence, new HIV infection — and gay-bashing.

If this book saves one life, it’s worth it.

Jimenez, 60, a Brooklyn native who splits his time between New York and Santa Fe, NM, has seen his work attacked by organizations from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation to the Matthew Shepard Foundation, which helped push through a 2009 federal hate-crimes law in the name of Shepard and James Byrd Jr., the black man dragged to his death behind a pickup truck in Texas in 1998.

The New York Times Magazine commissioned, then canceled, a piece from Jimenez in 2004. (The editor claims it wasn’t any good.) But ABC’s “20/20” ran with a story Jimenez produced, which won two major broadcasting awards. Yet the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Hatewatch blog recently accused Jimenez of serving as a lapdog of “right-wing pundits, radio hosts and bloggers.”

In Washington, DC, gay activists pestered bookstores to cancel Jimenez’s appearances. So much for free speech.

“It’s offensive,” said Jimenez.

I find it offensive that a gay journalist should be held to a different standard than a straight one. But Jimenez’s every word has been vetted by protectors of Matthew Inc. to determine his agenda. Is he a traitor to the cause?

Jimenez is not the enemy. He’s just a man who told an uncomfortable truth, as he saw it.

He should be proud. [Source]

-Andrea Peyser

Student Charged With Making Anti-Gay Threats Against Herself

(Reuters photo: Kimberly White)

Whether the student intended to or not, she made things more difficult for real victims of discrimination.

A student who had been serving in Ohio University’s student government is being charged with a misdemeanor for allegedly making anti-LGBT threats against herself and reporting them to the police.

The Ohio University police department arrested student senator Anna Ayers on Monday and charged her with three counts of “making false alarms,” according to an article in Campus Reform.

Ayers had apparently gone to the police to report a series of threatening messages, including a death threat, and claimed that the messages were due to her being part of the LGBT community.

“Ayers previously reported receiving a series of threatening messages, two of them in the Student Senate office, and one of them at her residence,” states a police report covering the incident.

When police investigated her claims, however, they found that Ayers had “placed the messages herself,” according to the report.

As Campus Reform notes, Ayers had previously published a tweet thanking everyone who had “supported” her “during a pretty awful time in [her] life.”

“We are still processing and encouraging our members to take time to heal and utilize campus support resources right now,” student-senate president Maddie Sloat told Campus Reform. “We’re complying with the investigation and OUPD.”

“We hope Anna receives the help that she needs,” Sloat continued.

A spokesperson for the student government also told Campus Reform that Ayers had resigned from her position as a student senator.

“Making false alarms” is punishable by up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Ayers is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday — and I certainly hope that she faces some kind of punishment for her despicable actions.

What Ayers did was not a victimless crime. It wasn’t just a stupid, desperate plea for attention; it was actually harmful. Why? Because although her particular claims were apparently false, discrimination against people in the LGBT community is very real. There are actual, real people who face threats just like the ones that Ayers allegedly made against herself, simply because they’re gay.

Doing this to herself for attention, or for whatever reason she decided to do it, minimizes the struggle that real victims have to go through. What’s more, the fact that this turned out to be a hoax may make it less likely that someone who claims to have been targeted will be believed — even if that person is a sincere victim. She didn’t just hurt herself and her own reputation, she also managed to do a serious disservice to her own community. Whether she intended to or not, she made things more difficult for real victims of discrimination, and I hope that she is ashamed of herself for her actions. [Source]

KATHERINE TIMPF — Katherine Timpf is a reporter for National Review Online.    @kattimpf

Anti-Gay Craigslist Ad a Hoax

You may have read about it first at TalkAboutEquality.com two nights ago, or perhaps you saw the story yesterday on Towleroad or JoeMyGod. Maybe you caught it on Fark.com or today on The Huffington Post.

It seems that a parent was using Craigslist to sell their kid’s Macbook. In itself, it doesn’t seem like a big deal. But in this instance, the parent was getting him a new Macbook because after getting caught in “homosexual acts,” he was “choosing to be straight.” The new Macbook was to be his reward.

While this sounds ridiculous at first glance, this kind of behavior from parents around the world is not unheard of. But as it turns out, this particular story is a fake.

I’ve now done a great deal of research, and this story has now been posted on dozens of other sites so, here’s the story...

The response I received was from a Clarence M., and despite my efforts, there was never another reply from that address, so I googled the full name in Culver City and came up short. Then I just searched his name to see what I could find. Other than the random “find someone’s phone number for $19.99″ ads, one post jumped out at me.

It was a post someone made to GLAAD’s Facebook page in November 2010:

The name was the same, and the circumstances nearly identical. And lo and behold, one of the commenters to the GLAAD post has provided me with a screencap of the Las Vegas ad (click to enlarge):

Having this new email address, I started another search, which wasn’t too hard. It seems that for some inconceivable reason, Alex A. of Las Vegas, Nev., has been posting fake ads to Craigslist where he poses as the parent of a gay teenager, tells a story about catching his kid having gay sex, and either decides to sell his kid’s things or reward him for “choosing to be straight.”

Judging from Alex’s Google+ and Twitter accounts, he’s a handsome young man. So I’m not sure why he sees the need to spend so much time trolling Craigslist with obnoxious, fake stories. I’m trying to figure out how one man’s life could be so boring that he feels the need to obsess over gay teenagers having sex?

Finally, I received a response after calling the poster out via email. It seems a young man named Daryl has been up to no good. Following are excerpts from some of our emails back and forth:

Yes, I need to keep my aliases straight. It’s Daryl actually. I write horrible posts on Craigslist all over the country to see what issues make people angriest for a project I’m putting together. I’m sorry anyone that was offended. ...
It started out when I got my first computer, my friends and I put an ad on Craigslist saying we were selling Justin Bieber tickets. We made fun of the people that would write us. That gave me an idea to start putting up other things on Craigslist to see what people have passion about and to get reactions out of them. I want to write something about issues that people are most passionate about. I want to be a writer one day. I’m sorry about this all. I just don’t want this to affect me going to a good school one day. I’m sorry.

I’ve now confirmed Daryl is who he says he is, and I think he’s been significantly frightened away from pulling this kind of thing again. And, finally, he asked me to tell you all this:

I guess I just never understood how bad it was for most people. I have no problem with gay people at all. It seems so foreign that someone would hate gays. I’m sorry. I never understood. One of my friends I think is gay. We have been friends since we were little kids. If anyone said something to him I would be pissed. I didn’t understand how bad some people were treated. I’ll never do anything like this again. I’m having panic attacks like crazy right now. I would never be against gays, ever. I’m sorry. [Source]