As noted here, HuffPost has established a de facto policy of dividing people into two distinct castes, or groups, and deciding whether or not to report alleged hate crimes against them, based not on evidence, but rather, on which group the victim belongs to:
Favored Groups: Democrats, leftists, and left-leaning African-, Hispanic- and Muslim-Americans
Worthless Groups: Whites, Republicans, conservatives, Jews (especially Israelis), and active-duty and retired U.S. military personnel
This page contains evidence of incidents in which:
HuffPost provided top-line coverage on alleged hate crimes against people in its Favored Groups
HuffPost ignored or downplayed later indications or proof that these hate crimes were hoaxes, or never took place, thus deliberately perpetuating an incendiary, false narrative that America is a racist, intolerant nation
For contrast, see here for detailed accounts of how HuffPost systematically ignores irrefutable documentation — including on video — of hate crimes perpetrated against people in groups it considers Worthless.
Contents
HuffPost’s coverage of alleged hate crimes against:
(1) HuffPost coverage of alleged hate crimes against Muslims
(1.1) HuffPost set up a comprehensive sub-site to track every allegation of hate crimes against Muslims, which it defines as anything from alleged violence to unkind words. Yet it has set up no similar sub-site to track hate crimes against Jews — which occur three to five times more frequently.
(1.1) December 2016, Ann Arbor, MI: Muslim female alleged she was physically assaulted by Islamophobe at the University of Michigan; HuffPost then downplayed the fact that she later admitted she made it up
(1.2) December 2016, New York, NY: Notorious Muslim hate-crime hoax perpetrator alleges discrimination by Delta Airlines; Passengers and airline dispute
(1.3) December 2016, New York, NY: Muslim female alleged she was physically assaulted by Islamophobes on New York subway; Later admitted she made it up
(1.4) December 2016, Houston, TX: Mosque torched in arson attack, is blamed on Islamophobia; Later it is determined that a devout parishioner set the fire
(1.5) November 2016, Lafayette, LA: Muslim female alleged she was physically assaulted by Islamophobes at the University of Louisiana; later admitted she made it up
(1.6) October 2016, Cary, NC: Muslim father claimed 7-year-old son endured extended physical assault on school bus, in front of witnesses; School, police investigations find zero evidence it ever took place
(1.7) August 2016, Oklahoma City, OK: Mosque received mysterious powder, and Muslim store vandalized, is blamed on Islamophobia; Later, Muslim man admitted to both crimes
(1.8) March 2016, New York, NY: Muslim female alleged an Islamophobe slashed her face on a Manhattan street; Later admitted she did it to herself
(1.9) February 2015, New York, NY: Muslim man claimed wife was shot to death in front of him and infant son by Islamophobe; His mistress later confessed to crime, both were convicted
(1.10) February 2015, Arlington, TX: Muslim female alleged she was threatened by Islamophobe with gun; Later admitted she made it up
(1.11) December 2014, Fresno, CA: Mosque is vandalized and robbed in suspected Islamophobic attack; Later, perpetrator was identified on video as parishioner
(1.12) October 2014, New York, NY: Muslim men produce video alleging NY police officer harassed and assaulted them because of their faith; Later admit video was a hoax
(1.13) July 2014, Dearborn, MI: Burning Qur’ans were found in front of mosque; Later it was determined that a Muslim immigrant set the fire
(1.14) June 2014, El Cajon, CA: Muslim man claimed wife was beaten to death in their home by one or more Islamophobes; Later, he was convicted of murdering her, staging scene
(1.15) April 2014, Montclair, NJ: Muslim university student claimed he was physically assaulted by Islamophobes; Police quickly determine crime never took place, then charged him
(1.16) January 2012, Marietta, GA: Mosque torched in arson attack, is blamed on Islamophobia; Later it is determined that a parishioner set the fire
(1.17) June 2015, Chicago, IL: HuffPost published multiple top-line stories about a Muslim cleric who claimed she was discriminated against on United Airlines, due to her faith — over a can of soda
Addendum: HuffPost published nothing about another incident of institutional discrimination involving a Muslim, that was breaking on the very same day as the soda-can incident: the 28th arrest of an Islamist in New York for sexual assault
(1.1) HuffPost set up a comprehensive sub-site to track every allegation of hate crimes against Muslims, which it defines as anything from alleged violence to unkind words. Yet it has set up no similar sub-site to track hate crimes against Jews — which occur three to five times more frequently.
On February 4, 2016, HuffPost launched a sub-site that was completely dedicated to tracking “Islamophobic incidents”:
According to HuffPost, its mission is to:
It might be impossible to create a comprehensive list of discriminatory acts against American Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim, but The Huffington Post will document this deplorable wave of hate for all of 2016 using news reports and firsthand accounts. The breadth and severity of Islamophobia in America can no longer go unnoticed. Enough is enough.
The entries on HuffPost’s “Islamophobia timeline” range from verbal insults to actual hate crimes.
HuffPost has not set up a similar site to track anti-Semitic incidents in America — despite the fact that Jews are far and away the #1 target of religiously-oriented hate crimes
Curiously, HuffPost has not set up a similar site with which to track anti-Semitic incidents and hate crimes. This is notable because while they have similar populations in the U.S., as SaveTheWest.com’s recent report shows, Jews are three to five times more likely to be victims of hate crimes than Muslims:
and numerous experts have claimed that exploding levels of anti-Semitism in America and around the world are unseen since the prelude to the Holocaust. And as SaveTheWest.com and other watchdog sites have documented, HuffPost has used its unrivaled size and influence to play a leading role in inciting hatred of Jews and Israel for years. See our recent documentary
HuffPost seeks donations to support the site, and has accepted funds from several of the most notorious Islamist front groups in America, including CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations):
Screencap of the NY Daily News from December 21, 2016. HuffPost still has not retracted its original story, via a new headline.
Summary: On November 11, a female Muslim student at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor reported to police that a man ordered her to take off her hijab, or he would set it on fire. Numerous groups, including CAIR, alleged this was the latest in a chronic string of Islamophobic-driven hate crimes.
Proof that it was a fake hate crime: On December 21, however, local police announced that “investigators discovered she fabricated the entire story,” and that she could face felony-level criminal charges.
HuffPost covered the woman’s original allegation, and the outpouring of support for her, in threeseparatestories. HuffPost’s own search engine, however, proves that as of December 24, it has not posted an update to this story, or a new story, to reveal that this hate crime never happened.
(1.2) December 2016, New York, NY: Notorious Muslim hate-crime hoax perpetrator alleges discrimination by Delta Airlines; Passengers and airline dispute
Summary: On December 19, 2016, Adam Saleh, an American Muslim, called for a boycott of Delta Airlines, after alleging that it removed him from a flight because of his faith.
In regards to Saleh’s latest incendiary allegation, this time against Delta Airlines, HuffPost simply took his word as the gospel truth, and wrote an original story about it, published on December 21:
A YouTuber is claiming he was kicked off a Delta Airlines flight for speaking Arabic on the phone with his mother. Adam Saleh shared a video of the alleged incident on the flight from London to New York on Twitter Wednesday.
[Tweet] We got kicked out of a @Delta airplane because I spoke Arabic to my mom on the phone and with my friend slim… WTFFFFFFFF please spread pic.twitter.com/P5dQCE0qos
— Adam Saleh (@omgAdamSaleh) December 21, 2016
Proof that it was a fake hate crime: On December 21, Delta issued a flat denial that Saleh was removed from the flight because of his faith, or the language he spoke. Rather, it said, he was removed because of his disruptive behavior, about which twenty passengers had complained.
On December 21, numerous sources began debunking Saleh’s story:
Passengers who were on the plane began speaking out publicly in defense of the airline, directly contradicting Saleh’s allegations.
Then, on December 23, the BBC revealed another one of Saleh’s airline hoaxes, that he perpetrated only weeks before, in Australia; specifically, that Saleh:
“claimed to have hidden in a suitcase and travelled from Melbourne to Sydney in the hold. It was later exposed as a hoax.”
Yet as this December 30, 2016 screencap shows, HuffPost never updated its original, December 21 story (full-page screencap here):
Thus, if a person only gets their news from HuffPost, they would have no reason to know that Delta issued a denial, or what the passengers had to say, or about any of Saleh’s previous deceptions, anti-Semitism or 9/11 conspiracy theories.
(1.3) December 2016, New York, NY: Muslim female alleged she was physically assaulted by Islamophobes on New York subway; Later admitted she made it up
Summary: An 18-year-old Muslim female in New York, Yasmin Seweid, posted on Facebook and told CBS News that on December 1, while riding on a train, she was verbally assaulted by three Trump supporter because of her faith, and that they threatened her — but no one on the train helped her:
HuffPost published Seweid’s smiling face and allegations on its front page on December 5, as part of a story about an actual anti-Muslim hate crime, and both soon went viral throughout the world. [UPDATE, January 2, 2017: HuffPost has now omitted all content relating to Yasmin Seweid in this article.]
Proof that it was a fake hate crime: After an exhaustive investigation by the NYPD, however, Seweid confessed to fabricating the whole story:
Yasmin Seweid, 18, is charged with obstructing governmental administration and filing a false report, according to a high-ranking police source. Both charges are misdemeanors punishable by up to a year in jail. […]
Hate-crimes investigators called the Baruch College business major in on Wednesday to work on another sketch of her “attackers,” and confronted her with the inconsistencies, another source said.
That’s when she cracked, admitting she had been out late drinking with friends and made up the attack story to distract her angry father, sources said.
Seweid had been having problems with her strict Muslim Egyptian family in North New Hyde Park because she is becoming “Westernized,” one source said. Those problems were aggravated when they learned she was dating a Catholic, the source said.
The next day, the NY Daily News published more details:
As of January 2, 2017, however — more than two weeks after her December 14 confession, and arrest — HuffPost has still not put up a new headline, or new story about Seweid, that reveals it was a hoax (or that it was the latest in a long string of fake anti-Muslim hate crimes). The only entry in its search engine about her is one that announces the fact that she was found on December 10, after having gone missing for a few days:
Thus, to anyone who only gets their news only from HuffPost’s front page, they would have no reason to know that this was another fake anti-Muslim hate crime. This page documents numerous incidents in which HuffPost perpetrated this deception.
(1.4) December 2016, Houston, TX: Mosque torched in arson attack, is blamed on Islamophobia; Later it is determined that a devout parishioner set the fire
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Days after the fire, videotaped evidence led police to charge a suspect in the crime: a devout Muslim, Gary Nathaniel Moore, who had attended the mosque daily for years. In December 2016, Moore pleaded guilty to all charges, and was sentenced to four years in prison:
A man has been sentenced to four years in prison for setting fire to the mosque in Texas where he worshipped.
Gary Nathaniel Moore was sentenced Friday in Houston after pleading guilty to arson and using a fire as a deadly weapon. Officials say surveillance video led investigators to the 38-year-old Moore. He was arrested several days after the Christmas Day 2015, fire that caused significant damage.
HuffPost’s own search engine proves it completely ignored the fact that Moore was charged with the crime, and later pleaded guilty. A December 30, 2016 search of the string “Gary Nathaniel Moore guilty arson mosque” returns zero results.
(1.5) November 2016, Lafayette, LA: Muslim female alleged she was physically assaulted by Islamophobes at the University of Louisiana; later admitted she made it up
Summary: On November 9, a Muslim female student at Louisiana University-Lafayette alleged she had been beaten and robbed, because of her faith, by several male Trump supporters:
A Muslim woman was reportedly attacked and robbed of her wallet and hijab on a college campus in Louisiana. Authorities said the University of Louisiana student reported the alleged robbery Wednesday morning, and claimed one of the apparent attackers wore a white Donald Trump cap, according to The Advertiser.
Her claim draws on fears of anti-Muslim backlash in the wake of Trump’s election to the US presidency. The 18-year-old woman – who is of Middle Eastern descent – claimed two men came out of a black sedan as she walked to class in Lafayette, according to a UL spokesperson.
When they approached her, she said they hit her with a metal object. She fell and they allegedly continued attacking her. They stole her wallet and snatched off her hijab and went running with it.
“The victim describes the suspects as white males, but has not given a definitive clothing description,” police said in a statement. “There were no witnesses or video surveillance on the scene.”
HuffPost published its own version of the story near the top of its front page:
And HuffPost assigned a reporter to cover the story as if it had, in fact, occurred. This stands in sharp contrast to how HuffPost routinely inserts parenthesis around allegations that Israel makes against documented incidents of terrorism. One recent example was how HuffPost put “terrorists” in quotes on November 25, 2016, after Palestinians set nearly 1,000 fires across the Jewish state simultaneously, and Netanyahu identified them for who and what they were.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Within 24 hours, the student admitted that she’d made the entire story up, and the next day, was criminally charged for filing a false police report.
A woman will be charged with filing a false report after she admitted to making up a story about two men robbing her near the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus. Karl Ratcliff, spokesman for the Lafayette Police Department, confirmed the charge Friday. The woman was previously identified as an 18-year-old UL student. […]
On Thursday afternoon, Lafayette police said the woman admitted that she fabricated the story and that the case was no longer under investigation.
HuffPost’s complicity in perpetuating the myth that this was an actual anti-Muslim hate crime
As indicated in the above screencap, HuffPost ran this story as if it were established fact. However, once the woman confessed that it was a hoax, rather than publishing a new headline to indicate this, HuffPost let the original impression it provided its readers stand. While HuffPost did update the copy and headline in the original story page, readers who clicked on the front-page link while it was active would have no reason to go back to the story page.
Thus, to anyone who only gets their news only from HuffPost’s front page, and may have clicked through read the original, false story, would have no reason to know that it was another fake anti-Muslim hate crime. HuffPost decided to just let that impression stand, to perpetuate the false narrative of rampant Islamophobia in America – which reached all the way to India.
(1.6) October 2016, Cary, NC: Muslim father claimed 7-year-old son endured extended physical assault on school bus, in front of witnesses; School, police investigations find zero evidence it ever took place
Summary: On October 12, 2016, HuffPost broke an in-depth, original story on its front page, in which it alleged that a 7-year-old Muslim boy, Abdul Aziz Usmani, was beaten by his fellow classmates on a school bus to the point where he had a broken arm, and no one did anything to help him.
HuffPost cited a Facebook post by Abdul’s father, Zeeshan-ul-hassan Usmani, in which he described the incident, showed a picture of Abdul with his arm in a cast, and blamed it on American Islamophobia, and Donald Trump:
Welcome to the United States of America of Donald Trump. Meet my son Abdul Aziz. He is in grade 1, bullied and beaten by his own classmates in school bus for being a Muslim
“They keep beating him all the way from school to home on the bus,” Usmani also told BuzzFeed, adding that his son was traumatized by the attack and has a sprained arm.
HuffPost took whatever the boy’s father said as the gospel truth, and heavily promoted its story on social media, to the point where it went viral throughout both the Western and Muslim worlds — despite the fact that no police report had been filed, and no complaint had been lodged with the school system.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Within two days, however, on October 14, the school district in question and the local police department released the findings of their investigation, which indicated there is no evidence whatsoever to support the allegations, or that this incident ever took place.
The Wake County school system and the Cary Police Department say they haven’t found evidence that a 7-year-old Muslim student was assaulted by classmates on a school bus last week. […]
School and law enforcement officials say they’ve taken the allegations seriously and don’t tolerate bullying. But they say their investigations don’t confirm an assault even occurred. […]
The Cary Police Department has been investigating the allegations as well.
“At this time, nothing has been found, and no police report has been filed,” Cary Town Manager Sean R. Stegall said in a written statement. […]
“No students who were interviewed witnessed an altercation,” Chadwick said in the letter to Weatherstone families. “The bus driver did not witness an altercation. The child did not report to the bus driver any injury.”
In response, HuffPost never published a follow-up headline on its front page, to indicate that this was apparently all a hoax. Instead, on October 16 it dishonestly replaced the original headline it put on this page, “Muslim Family Fled America – Islamophobia”; see URL) with a completely new headline: “N.C. Authorities: No Evidence To Support Father’s Claim Muslim Boy Was Assaulted On Bus (UPDATE).” Further, it inserted a sub-head, that sarcastically gives undeserved credibility to the father: “Oh and by the way, his dad fights terrorism for a living”:
Thus, to anyone who only gets their news only from HuffPost’s front page, and may have clicked through read the original, false story, they would have no reason to know: (a) that it was another fake Islamophobia “hate crime,” or (b) that HuffPost had acted so irresponsibly in not validating even the barest of facts, before publishing something so incendiary, and causing it to go viral throughout the world.
Further, if anyone now does an Internet search with the string, “Huffington Post Abdul Aziz Islamophobia,” it initially appears as if the original story was never published — and that the only story HuffPost published concerning this incident revealed that it was an apparent hoax.
(1.7) August 2016, Oklahoma City, OK: Mosque received mysterious powder, and Muslim store vandalized, is blamed on Islamophobia; Later, Muslim man admitted to both crimes
Summary: In June 2016, the imam of the mosque at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City received a letter containing a white powder, and a written threat. Then, in August, a Muslim food store was vandalized with anti-Muslim graffiti. Both incidents were investigated by local police and the FBI, and Muslim groups expressed concern that these were hate crimes were driven by Islamophobia.
Proof that these were fake hate crimes: Soon after the second incident, on August 18, 2016 a Muslim man who attended the mosque, Justin William Bouma, admitted to perpetrating both crimes, and was charged with multiple felonies:
An Oklahoma City man was charged Wednesday with a felony after he allegedly sent a threatening letter to a mosque containing a white powder meant to be mistaken for anthrax. […]
Bouma admitted to police on Aug. 18 he sent the “anthrax” letter to the mosque, police reported in a court affidavit. […] Bouma admitted he painted the store but said the imam told him to, the affidavit states.
The graffiti referenced the Council on American- Islamic Relations, also known as CAIR. One statement said “CAIR not welcome.” Other remarks were crude and the terrorist group ISIS was mentioned.
Bouma reportedly attended the mosque in the past. Bouma became a suspect after authorities discovered threatening emails he had sent to mosque members, police reported.
(1.8) March 2016, New York, NY: Muslim female alleged an Islamophobe slashed her face on a Manhattan street; Later admitted she did it to herself
Summary: On March 31, 2015, a Muslim woman claimed that while walking down a New York City street in her hijab, a man called her a “terrorist,” then slashed her face with a knife.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Soon after, when confronted with surveillance video, she admitted that she made the story up, and had slashed her own face.
(1.9) February 2015, New York, NY: Muslim man claimed wife was shot to death in front of him and infant son by Islamophobe; His mistress later confessed to crime, both were convicted
Summary: In August 2011, a Muslim man, Kashif Parvaiz, claimed to police that while walking with his wife, Nazish Noorani and their young son, they were attacked by a group of men who accused them of being “terrorists,” and who shot and killed Nazish.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: The police quickly determined that this was not a crime driven by Islamophobia, but instead was perpetrated by the victim’s Parvaiz and his girlfriend, Antionette Stephen. A jury took only four hours in 2012 to convict both of them.
According to the Daily Mail (UK):
Nazish Noorani, murdered by her husband and his girlfriend, a crime that was originally blamed on Islamophobia.
According to Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi, Parvaiz’s accounts of the attack were inconsistent and immediately raised suspicions.
Parvaiz told investigators the couple was attacked by a different combination of black and white males who shouted ethnic slurs, authorities said. In his initial story, the group shouted something about the family being ‘terrorists,’ authorities said.
Bianchi said investigators were deeply concerned when Parvaiz suggested it was a bias crime, but within hours ‘it was obvious to investigators that this was sadly the alleged handy work of the victim’s husband who allegedly did the unthinkable and plotted to murder his wife.’
Nazish Noorani lived in fear of her abusive husband as their marriage crumbled and chillingly foretold of her fate to her brother.
In 2012, Parvaiz and Stephen were found guilty of committing Nazish’s murder and other related charges. He was sentenced to 73 years; she to 30 years.
(1.10) February 2015, Arlington, TX: Muslim female alleged she was threatened by Islamophobe with gun; Later admitted she made it up
Summary: On February 11, 2015, a female Muslim student at the University of Texas – Arlington, identified by the Daily Caller as Ambreen Sharif, posted a complaint on Facebook, and filed a police report alleging that she had been threatened by a white man with a gun, because of her faith. Her Facebook post read, in part:
“Im [sic] not going to generalize and say all Americans are like the ones that followed me today but I have to say that others like him will use the Chapel Hill incident of today and continue to do such hate crimes. […] All we can do is protect ourselves and continue to pray to Allah that this country and its people learn to accept Muslims.”
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Later the same day, the student admitted to police that she’d made the whole story up:
A UT-Arlington student who claimed she was threatened at gunpoint on campus this week admitted Friday that she’d lied, a university spokeswoman said. The student told police she hadn’t even been at the school the day she said the incident occurred.
UT-Arlington had been investigating the complaint with Arlington, Denton and University of North Texas police, school spokeswoman Kristin Sullivan said.
The Muslim student told police she was followed by the man for six miles before reaching campus. The man who followed her was driving a white Ford pickup with a Texas flag on the antenna.
(1.11) December 2014, Fresno, CA: Mosque is vandalized and robbed in suspected Islamophobic attack; Later, perpetrator was identified on video as parishioner
Summary: On Christmas morning, 2014, Fresno police and the FBI began investigating a report that the Islamic Cultural Center in Northeast Fresno had been vandalized and that certain items had been stolen. According to the ABC-TV affiliate in the area:
Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer says it is clear the incident is a hate crime which is why the FBI is also investigating this case… Seven doors and windows around the Islamic Cultural Center of Fresno are broken. Dyer says river rocks were tossed through them at 10 a.m. Christmas morning. Surveillance video shows the suspect pulling up in what appears to be a Toyota Prius and shattering the windows. Then he went inside.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Two days later however, on December 27, it was discovered that the perpetrator was a local Muslim, Asif Mohammad Khan, who had attended the mosque:
Asif Mohammed Khan, 28, was arrested on several counts of felony vandalism and burglary. Khan is now identified as the man in a video, destroying a place of worship. […] “He said that he was upset with a few people at the Islamic Culture Center,” said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer.
In September 2015, after standing trial for six felonies, Khan was found guilty, and sentenced to behavioral counseling, for his reported mental illness.
(1.12) October 2014, New York, NY: Muslim men produce video alleging NY police officer harassed and assaulted them because of their faith; Later admit video was a hoax
Summary: Two Muslim men, Adam Saleh and Sheikh Akbar,alleged they captured video evidence of the NYPD’s bias against, and physical harassment of Muslims.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: After the NYPD investigated the matter, and determined that the “police officer” in the video was not one of theirs, Saleh and Akbar admitted that it was a phony video.
HuffPost gave front-page treatment to the “story” as if it were true. But then, HuffPost never published a follow-up headline on its front page, to indicate that this was a hoax. Instead, on October 21 it dishonestly replaced the original headline it put on this page (“NYPD frisks Muslim clothes”; see URL) with a completely new headline: “Muslim Vloggers Come Clean About Staged Stop-And-Frisk Video (UPDATE)”
Thus, to anyone who only gets their news only from HuffPost’s front page, and may have clicked through read the original, false story, they would have no reason to know: (a) that it was another fake Islamophobia “hate crime,” or (b) that HuffPost had acted so irresponsibly in not validating even the barest of facts, before publishing something so incendiary, and causing it to go viral.
Further, if anyone now does an Internet search with the string, “Huffington Post NYPD harassment clothes Muslims,” it appears as if the original story was never published — and that the only story HuffPost published concerning this incident revealed that it was an apparent hoax:
(1.13) July 2014, Dearborn, MI: Burning Qur’ans were found in front of mosque; Later it was determined that a Muslim immigrant set the fire
Summary: After several Qur’ans were discovered burning in front of a prominent mosque in Dearborn, MI, its leaders and CAIR initially blamed it on Islamophobia.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: It was later discovered that the man who set them on fire is a devout Muslim, Ali Hassan Al-Asaidi, an immigrant from Iraq, who was arrested while staging another hoax. He ended up admitting to the rash of anti-Muslim hate crimes.
(1.14) June 2014, El Cajon, CA: Muslim man claimed wife was beaten to death in their home by one or more Islamophobes; Later, he was convicted of murdering her, staging scene
Summary: On March 21, 2012, Shaima Alawadi, a 32-year-old female Muslim immigrant from Iraq was beaten to death in her California home. Beside her body was a note that read, “This is my country, go back to yours, you terrorist.” Alawadi’s family, bloggers, and HuffPost go-to Muslim analystReza Aslan, blamed the crime on Islamophobia:
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Soon after beginning the investigation, local police determined that Alawadi’s husband, Kassim Alhimidi was lying to them about certain critical issues, then arrested him for murdering her. It was later determined that this was an honor killing, in which Alhimidi had murdered Alawadi because she was threatening to divorce him and move to another state. He was later found guilty, and sentenced to 26 years in prison:
Shaima Alawadi, beaten to death in her home by her husband – who claimed it was an Islamphobia hate crime.
A California judge sentenced an Iraqi immigrant Monday to 26 years-to-life in prison for his wife’s fatal beating — an attack that initially drew international condemnation when authorities believed it was a hate crime.
Kassim Alhimidi, 50, entered the courtroom bound and surrounded by deputies because of his previous outbursts that repeatedly disrupted his emotional trial in San Diego County Superior Court. […]
Alhimidi’s daughter, Fatima, did not attend the sentencing but sent a statement that was read in court in which she told her father: “What I saw scarred me for life.”
She added: “It disgusts me that you made this look like a hate crime.”
HuffPost published numeroussympatheticstories about Alawadi’s murder, blaming it on Islamophobia. However, after her husband was charged and then convicted of murdering her, thus revealing this as a false anti-Muslim hate crime, HuffPost’s own search engine proves it then went silent — and published no headline stories about the reality.
Below is a screencap of a search of at HuffPost for “Shaima Alawadi” reveals that the most recent story it published about her was on June 26, 2012 — two years before Alawadi’s husband was convicted of her murder:
As a reminder, HuffPost’s founder and editor in chief had this to say, four years earlier, about what makes her “news” site different from, and better than others:
“[T]oo many reporters have forgotten that the highest calling of journalists is to ferret out the truth, consequences be damned.”
(1.15) April 2014, Montclair, NJ: Muslim university student claimed he was physically assaulted by Islamophobes; Police quickly determine crime never took place, then charged him
Summary: On April 24, 2014 a male student at Montclair State University (MSU) in Montclair, NJ reported to university police that he had been attacked by three white males, who allegedly called him an “Islamic terrorist.”
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: By the next day, however, MSU police determined that this attack never took place, and charged the complainant, Navjoat Aulakh, with filing a false police report and creating a false public alarm:
Montclair State University officials have announced a student is facing charges for fabricating a story about being assaulted outside a residence hall by assailants who used racial slurs.
Navjoat Aulakh, 18, of Carteret was charged with filing a false report and also will face a count of creating a false public alarm, school officials said.
(1.16) January 2012, Marietta, GA: Mosque torched in arson attack, is blamed on Islamophobia; Later it is determined that a parishioner set the fire
Summary: Only July 5, 2010, someone broke into the Islamic Center of Marietta, and burned it so severely that it had to be condemned. NumerousMuslim organizations publicly insinuated this was an anti-Muslim hate crime.
Tamsir Mendy
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Three days later, on July 8, Marietta police and fire authorities arrested a congregant of the mosque, Tamsir Mendy, and charged him with the arson. Mendy later pleaded guilty to the charges.
A 26-year-old man has pleaded guilty to burning down a mosque in Powder Springs, but congregation members are still struggling to rebuild. […]
Many were concerned it was a hate crime, but the arsonist turned out to be a member, Tamsir Mendy.
Mendy had only worshipped at the mosque for a few weeks before the fire, and the lack of a trial leaves the congregation with a lot of unanswered questions.
As of January 1, 2017 — more than four years after Mendy pleaded guilty — HuffPost has published nothing about him, or the fact that this was a fake anti-Muslim hate crime:
(1.17) June 2015, Chicago, IL: HuffPost published multiple top-line stories about a Muslim cleric who claimed she was discriminated against on United Airlines, due to her faith — over a can of soda
Summary: On May 29, 2015, Muslim cleric Tahera Ahmad posted on Facebook that she had suffered discrimination and verbal harassment aboard a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Los Angeles. She alleged a) that she’d requested an unopened Diet Coke, but was given an opened one instead, b) that after complaining, the flight attendant told her that the airline doesn’t serve unopened cans because they can be used as weapons, but c) that a man beside her was given an unopened can of beer.
Starting the next day, May 31, HuffPost ran the first of four in-depth, original stories at or near the top 0f its front page about Ahmad’s allegations:
Thanks to these four stories, and HuffPost’s heavy promotion of them, the story soon went viral.
Although United Airlines fired the flight attendant and apologized to Ahmed, other passengers on the flight later began coming forward and telling very different accounts of what happened, as documented by the Weekly Standard, here. HuffPost, however, published none of these accounts.
Addendum: HuffPost published nothing about another incident of institutional discrimination involving a Muslim, that was breaking on the very same day as the soda-can incident: the 28th arrest of an Islamist in New York for sexual assault
On May 31, 2015 — the same day as HuffPost’s first story about the soda-can incident — the Inquisitor published another story about an allegation of special treatment regarding a Muslim in America, that was being covered, in parts, by othernews organizations:
On Tuesday, May 26, Basam Syed was arrested by the New York Police Department. According to the New York Daily News, the 35-year-old allegedly rubbed up against an unknown woman on the northbound 4 train. He has been charged with “persistent sexual abuse” and now faces a maximum of four years behind bars. But does the punishment fit the crime? Apparently, it does because he has a staggering list of prior arrests — 28 priors to be more specific.
Ironically, the latest arrest is exactly one year to the day he was found guilty of grinding against a 32-year-old woman’s buttocks on the 6 train, reports Gothamist. Unfortunately for Syed, that particular incident was caught on camera. […]
Less than one month after his release, he ended up behind bars again after he allegedly assaulted his girlfriend, reports the Daily Mail. However, that’s not all. He was also charged with sexual abuse after he allegedly French kissed his girlfriend’s 4-year-old son. Even after being caught on camera, there’s still one person who believes he’s innocent — his mother:
“He doesn’t need help. Nothing is wrong with him…It’s not easy to find a wife and have kids. She has to be a Pakistani. She has to be a Muslim girl.”
HuffPost’s own search engine proves it completely ignored this story, about incomprehensible official neglect, possibly because the perpetrator is a devout Muslim. A search on December 31, 2016 — more than one year after this story broke — a search using the string “Basem Syed” produces zero results:
(2) HuffPost coverage of alleged hate crimes against Muslims
(2.1) December 2016, Denton, TX: White couple discovered anti-black graffiti painted on home, and vehicles torched; Soon after, husband confessed to the crime
(2.2) December 2016, Ormond Beach, FL: Woman finds pro-Trump, anti-black racist threats at her home, and her car on fire; Soon after, her (black) ex-boyfriend confessed to perpetrating the crimes
(2.3) November 2016, South Philadelphia, PA: The day after the election, numerous homes, vehicles were vandalized with racist, pro-Trump graffiti; The next day, the perpetrator, a black man, is arrested and charged
(2.4) November 2016, Greenville, MS: African-American church vandalized with “VOTE TRUMP” graffiti, set on fire; Soon after, perpetrator was identified as black parishioner
(2.5) November 2016, Rehoboth Beach, DE: Black woman alleged that four white Trump supporters threatened to murder her because of her race, then were arrested; Police deny anyone had been arrested
(2.6) May 2016, Naperville, IL: Black college student alleged he was beaten severely by three white men, because of his race; Soon after, he apologized when police confirmed he was the attacker
(2.7) February 2016, Albany, NY: Three black college students alleged they were physically attacked on a bus because of their race, by a dozen white people; Soon after, video proof emerged that it was they who had attacked the white passengers
(2.8) November 2016, Bowling Green, KY: Black college student alleged she was physically attacked by white Trump supporters; Soon after, police charge her with criminal offenses after determining she made it all up, based on her hatred of Trump supporters in her family
[UPDATE: Another student at same college has been charged with filing false police report about racial assault]
(2.9) November 2016, Malden, MA: Black man alleged two Trump supporters threatened to lynch him; Soon after, admitted to police he made it all up
(2.10) February-March 2013, Oberlin, OH: During a one-month period, Oberlin College was the site of repeated anti-black, anti-Semitic and homophobic graffiti; A police investigation identified the perpetrators as leftist activists
(2.11) August 2013, Jersey City, NJ: Black candidate for high school student council reported receiving racist text messages, threatening him to drop out of the race; Police determine he sent texts to himself
(2.12) October 2012, Winnsboro, LA: Black woman alleged she was set on fire and racial slurs were written on her car, by white racists; Two days later, police determined that she’d done this to herself
(2.13) November 2016, Boston, MA: Racist, threatening graffiti was painted on wall of college; Soon after, students confess to perpetrating this crime as protest against Trump
Various fake anti-black hate incidents: Proven fake hate incidents against black Americans; not crimes, but which feed the false narrative of rampant racism in America
(2.1) December 2016, Denton, TX: White couple discovered anti-black graffiti painted on home, and vehicles torched; Soon after, husband confessed to the crime
On December 12, 2016, David and Jenny Williams were awoken by a neighbor, who advised them that their truck was on fire, and someone had spray-painted “N*GGER LOVER” on their garage door. Soon after, they discovered that David’s motorcycle had also been torched. The story was covered by the local CBS affiliate.
The Williams soon after set up a GoFundMe page to collect donations to replace their losses.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: The next morning, December 13, David admitted to Jenny that he had committed these crimes, and she was helping to ensure that the donations they received were being returned:
On Tuesday, [Jenny] Williams wrote on her Facebook page, her husband told her he was behind the vandalism. She said he was being treated at a mental-health facility and would be arrested upon his release.
“My heart is heavy, and I have more questions then answers,” she wrote. “My children and I are in a state of shock and sadness.”
(2.2) December 2016, Ormond Beach, FL: Woman finds pro-Trump, anti-black racist threats at her home, and her car on fire; Soon after, her (black) ex-boyfriend confessed to perpetrating the crimes
Summary: As chronicled by the Washington Post, a white woman, Staci Winn, 35, was awoken by her neighbors before dawn at her Ormond Beach, FL home, to find her car in flames, and a threatening note, with blood on it, taped to her mailbox. On one side was written “TRUMP,” and on the other was a threat against her children:
“KKK – I HAVE WATHED [ sic ] YOU FOR A LONG TIME YOU AND YOUR N*GGER KIDS DON’T Belong”
Winn then wrote the following post on Facebook, in which she explicitly claimed that she was the victim of a hate crime incident:
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Police soon arrested and charged Winn’s ex-boyfriend, Vincent Palmer III, for these and other crimes. Apparently, he was behind on support payments to be paid to her to help raise their four children, and was having other problems, so he staged this elaborate fake hate crime, including his own kidnapping. He also staged his own kidnapping, which he blamed on white racists, in a note directed to his parents. From the Daily Mail (UK):
Vincent Palmer III, with his ex-girlfriend, Stacie Winn
A Florida man was arrested twice over the weekend following a bizarre string of incidents that could have potentially put the life of his ex and their four children at risk.
Vincent Palmer III, 27, placed a note with the words ‘KKK’ and ‘Trump’ as well as a slew of racial slurs that were directed at his own children on the mailbox of his ex-girlfriend before smashing a brick through the window of her car and setting the vehicle on fire in the early morning hours of Saturday. […]
A little after 10am, Palmer’s grandfather called police in Daytona Beach to report he had found a bloody note claiming his grandson had been kidnapped, along with drops of blood in the driveway.
That note read:
“KKK….I HATE BLACK MEN WHO F*** WHITE WOMEN….YOU WILL NEVER SEE YOUR 27 GRANDSON AGAIN ALIVE […]”
Officers quickly pinged Palmer’s phone, which revealed his location to be a nearby Burger King. When police arrived Palmer claimed his name was ‘Raquel B Johnson,’ but then changed his story when the arresting officers from the previous day appeared, admitting to his real identity.
Palmer also admitted at that time to setting the fire and was taken in to be interviewed by authorities.
(2.3) November 2016, South Philadelphia, PA: The day after the election, numerous homes, vehicles were vandalized with racist, pro-Trump graffiti; The next day, the perpetrator, a black man, is arrested and charged
South Philadelphia residents awoke Wednesday to find racist and pro-Trump graffiti spray painted on their storefronts, cars, and homes. Police said officers responded to reports of vandalism to a house and three cars on the 900 block of South Sixth Street in the Bella Vista section around 8:30 a.m.
One of the damaged cars was a white SUV that had “Trump Rules” and “Black Bitch” spray-painted across it in large black letters. The 62-year-old owner of the car is a black woman who asked that her name be withheld. She said her first reaction was: “Oh, my God.”
The Huffington Post also ran the story of the S. Philadelphia vandalism, on November 11, as part of a broader compilation of alleged hate crimes being perpetrated in the wake of the election:
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: On December 1, acting on a tip, local police conducted an investigation and identified the perpetrator of the vandalism as William Tucker, a black man, whom they arrested and charged with multiple offenses:
A 58-year-old South Jersey man has been arrested and charged with vandalizing several vehicles and homes in South Philadelphia on the day after the presidential election, police announced Thursday.
William Tucker, of the unit block of Hemmings Way in Lawnside, Camden County, has been arrested and charged in the early-morning Nov. 9 incidents on the 900 block of South Sixth Street, at the border of Bella Vista and Queen Village, police said.
HuffPost’s decision to conceal this discovery: As of January 3 — more than a month after Tucker’s arrest — HuffPost has still not updated its story, and not run a story revealing his arrest. Using HuffPost’s own search engine, a January 3 search of the string “William Tucker South Philadelphia” yielded zero results:
(2.4) November 2016, Greenville, MS: African-American church vandalized with “VOTE TRUMP” graffiti, set on fire; Soon after, perpetrator was identified as black parishioner
Summary: On November 1, 2016, the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, MS was burned, and vandalized with “Vote Trump” graffiti. The Huffington Post ran an original story of this crime near the top of its front page, in which it reveals parts of an interview it did with a church member, and a second story about how to donate to help the church:
A black church in Mississippi was burned and vandalized with pro-Donald Trump graffiti late Tuesday. Authorities responded to the fire at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi, Tuesday night. Delta Daily News reports that the majority of the damage was to the main sanctuary and there were no reported injuries. Someone had spray-painted the words “Vote Trump” along the side of the building.
A woman at the nearby Rose Hill Missionary Baptist Church told The Huffington Post that Hopewell is a historically black church. She said the community is in shock over what happened. Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons called the incident “a heinous, hateful and cowardly act” in a press conference Wednesday, adding that it was “an attack on the black church and the black community.”
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: On December 21, 2016, the AP reported that local police arrested and charged a black parishioner of the Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church, Andrew McClinton, with perpetrating the crime:
A Mississippi man with a prior criminal record was arrested Wednesday in the burning of an African-American church that was spray-painted with the words “Vote Trump,” and the church’s bishop said the man is a member of the congregation. The state fire marshal said investigators do not believe the fire was politically motivated, but there a signs it may have been done to appear that way.
Andrew McClinton, 45, of Leland, Mississippi, is scheduled to make an initial court appearance Thursday in Greenville — the city where Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church was burned and vandalized Nov. 1, a week before the presidential election. McClinton is charged with first degree arson of a place of worship, said Warren Strain, spokesman for the Mississippi Department of Public Safety.
HuffPost’s complicity in perpetuating the myth that this was an actual anti-black hate crime
As of January 2, 2017, HuffPost has published no new headlines regarding this revelation, nor did it even post an “update” to the headline on the story page. Instead, it merely posted an update at the very end of the article, that read:
Thus, to anyone who only gets their news only from HuffPost’s front page, they would have no reason to know: (a) that this was another fake anti-black hate crime, or (b) that HuffPost had deliberately suppressed this information, to perpetuate the narrative that it was spreading throughout the world, about American racism.
Contrast HuffPost’s actions in this regard to how it acted on December 4, 2016 — three weeks earlier — when authorities began to suspect that a white woman in California had not been actually abducted, but might have perpetrated a hoax. To make sure the world knew the latest in regards to this alleged crime, HuffPost published this headline on its front page (which led to this story page):
These acts and omissions only go to further prove HuffPost’s double-standards when it comes to reporting on hoax crimes, depending on who is alleged to be perpetrating them, and who are the victims.
(2.5) November 2016, Rehoboth Beach, DE: Black woman alleged that four white Trump supporters threatened to murder her because of her race, then were arrested; Police deny anyone had been arrested
Summary: A black woman, Ashley Boyer, published a Facebook post on November 9 that said four white men approached her at a gas station and
“proceeded to talk about the election and how they’re glad they won’t have to deal with n*ggers much longer… how scared are u, u black b*tch??? I should kill you right now. You’re a waste of air… You’re lucky there’s witnesses or else I’d shoot you right here.”
She then removed that post, and put up a new one on Thursday, November 10, that said, “charges were filed, fugitives were caught. Yes I (know) names and no I will not release them.”
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: The next day, November 10, local police flatly contradicted Boyer’s claim that the four Trump supporters who allegedly threatened her had been arrested — or that she had even sworn out a complaint in regards to this alleged incident:
An ugly story out of Delaware made the social media rounds on Wednesday after an African-American woman claimed “four males, all of whom were Caucasian” harassed and threatened her with racial slurs and violence outside a gas station.
At the center of the case is a Facebook post from Ashley Boyer of Rehoboth Beach, Del., which didn’t indicate a specific location for the said incident. Per Boyer’s post, the men “proceeded to talk about the election and how they’re glad they won’t have to deal with n—–s much longer.”
Police in Smyrna – where the incident is alleged to have occur – told PhillyVoice on Thursday that no such reports have been filed, and they haven’t heard from the alleged victim or anyone with information about a confrontation that occurred Wednesday.
Spokespersons for the Delaware State Police (which oversees Kent County), New Castle County police, Dover police and Smyrna police all said they had no such reports, either.
HuffPost’s complicity in perpetuating the myth that this was an actual anti-black hate crime
HuffPost gave top coverage to Boyer’s allegations, along with dozens of other unproven similar ones across the USA — but then quietly removed hers and another, with an update notice at the very bottom of the article, yet with no notice at the top that anything had changed.
Thus, to anyone who only gets their news only from HuffPost’s front page, they would have no reason to know: (a) that this was another fake anti-black hate crime, or (b) that HuffPost had deliberately suppressed this information, to perpetuate the narrative that it was spreading throughout the world, about American racism.
(2.6) May 2016, Naperville, IL: Black college student alleged he was beaten severely by three white men, because of his race; Soon after, he apologized when police confirmed he was the attacker
On May 5, 2016, HuffPost ran this story on its front page:
The University of Iowa and police said on Wednesday they are investigating as a hate crime a report that a black student was beaten by a group of white men in a racially motivated attack.
Marcus Owens, a 19-year-old freshman from Naperville, Illinois, was beaten after he left a bar on Saturday night by three white men who yelled racial abuse at him, according to an ABC television affiliate in Chicago.
The attack left Owens with a damaged eye socket. He also had his front teeth knocked out and needed about a dozen stitches to close a cut on his lip, ABC-7 in Chicago said.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Less than two weeks later, on May 17, police had confirmed that it was Owens who, while extremely drunk, had attacked the white men, then filed a false police report in which he alleged that he was attacked by them, because of his race:
A black University of Iowa student from Napervillelied about being the victim of a hate crime and was actually an aggressor during several drunken fights that began inside a bar, police said Tuesday. […]
“It became clear at some point that the community, not Marcus, was the victim in this event and it was important to us to get the truth out there,” said Capt. Troy Kelsay, who called Owens a “liar” at a news conference.
Owens and his family said in a letter released by the department that his account was inconsistent partly due to alcohol being involved. The family issued an apology in the letter.
HuffPost’s complicity in perpetuating the myth that this was an actual anti-black hate crime
HuffPost never updated the original article to indicate that it was a fake hate crime. Here is a screencap from January 3, 2017, that shows HuffPost never altered its story:
Although HuffPost published a follow-up article on May 18 from Reuters, that indicated this was not an anti-black hate crime, it never showed up on its front page. And the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive), which keeps records of the many major websites, proves this fact. Here are the links to full-page records of HuffPost’s front page from — May 18-20. Notice there is absolutely nothing there about this story:
So what kinds of “news” stories did HuffPost decide were more worthy of publishing on its front page, from May 18-20, than anything that would alert its readers to the fact that this was a hoax “hate crime”? Here is a sampling:
(2.7) February 2016, Albany, NY: Three black college students alleged they were physically attacked on a bus because of their race, by a dozen white people; Soon after, video proof emerged that it was they who had attacked the white passengers
Three black female State University of New York Albany students alleged they were victims of a hate crime when a group of white students harassed and assaulted them on Saturday.
The women claimed they got into an argument with a group of 10 to 12 men and women from their school after they boarded a city bus, according to the Times Union. The women then allege that they were beaten and called racial slurs by the white students. One women told university police that several men kicked her after she fell to the floor.
The women got off the bus at a campus stop, according to the Times Union, and two of them went to the Albany Medical Center to treat minor scrapes on their faces.
Asha Burwell, one of the three black women, shared their story on Twitter, and said that they immediately reported the incident to university police. “I can’t believe I just experienced what it’s like to be beaten because of the color of my skin,” Burwell tweeted.
HuffPost also included in its story a series of Tweets posted by Burwell, in which she alleged not only were she and her friends beaten savagely in this racist attack, but also, that witnesses did nothing to stop it, and even hurled racial epithets as well:
HuffPost’s article concluded by saying:
Campus community members and activists are showing their support for the three women by using the hashtag #JusticeForUA. Burwell tweeted she appreciated the demand for justice, but she said she doesn’t know “if I’m ever going to be able to get over this experience.”
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Three weeks later, on February 25, the Albany Police Department announced that video evidence proved that it was these black students who had attacked the white passengers. Further, the APD announced that it was going to be arresting the students for up to four charges, including assault, attempted assault, falsely reporting an incident, and attempted criminal mischief.
Three SUNY Albany students who claimed they were victims of a racially motivated attack may have been the aggressors, police said Thursday — and they’ll soon face charges.
The students will be arrested about four weeks after allegedly assaulting a passenger on a city bus, then lying about what happened, leading to national outrage over an apparently fabricated story.
The three students — Alexis Briggs, from Huntington, Ariel Agudio, from Elmira Heights, and Asha Burwell, from Huntington Station — will be charged with third-degree assault, police said. Agudio and Burwell will also be charged for falsely reporting the incident.
An Albany County grand jury approved enhanced charges of assault and falsely reporting an incident for Ariel Agudio, Asha Burwell and Alexis Briggs,said District Attorney P. David Soares. […]
Investigators said Agudio, Burwell and Briggs hit a 19-year-old woman several times, and Agudio also struck a 19-year-old man on the CDTA bus, according to the indictment. Agudio tried to assault an 18-year-old and 20-year-old woman as well and Burwell also fought a 19-year-old man, prosecutors said.
HuffPost’s complicity in perpetuating the myth that this was an actual anti-black hate crime
HuffPost’s banner claims its first mission is to “inform” its readers: And HuffPost’s top executives have repeatedly said that they adhere to only the highest standards of objective journalism.
HuffPost could not have initially known that this was a fraudulent hate crime. However, given (a) the depth of coverage it devoted to this story, (b) how much it had automatically assumed everything the “victims” alleged was true, and (c) how high it positioned the story on its front page, and (d) how heavily it promoted the story, it clearly had an obligation to correct the public record, so anyone who fell for this hoax would be “informed” of the facts.
Instead, HuffPost chose to let the hoax stand as it was, by ignoring these revelations, as far as anyone who viewed its front page was concerned.
While HuffPost did update its original story page on February 26, it changed the headline and opening copy, to now show that the trio had been charged, but nothing about the original allegations. Now, anyone who does a Google search of “Huffington Post Ariel Agudio Asha Burwell Alexis Briggs” finds that it appears the only story HuffPost published about this incident was the fact that the trio of black students had been charged — nothing about its original story. Here is a screencap of a January 3, 2017 Google search that proves this fact:
Yet HuffPost published nothing on its front page to indicate that these students’ incendiary allegations were a hoax. And the Wayback Machine (Internet Archive), which keeps records of the many major websites, proves this fact. Here are the links to full-page records of HuffPost’s front page over these next three days – February 26-28. Notice there is absolutely nothing there about these students:
So what kinds of “news” stories did HuffPost decide were more worthy of publishing on its front page, from February 26-28, than anything that would alert its readers to the fact that this was a hoax “hate crime”? Here is a sampling:
(2.8) November 2016, Bowling Green, KY: Black college student alleged she was physically attacked by white Trump supporters; Soon after, police charge her with criminal offenses after determining she made it all up, based on her hatred of Trump supporters in her family
Summary: On November 9, 2016, Bowling Green State University student Eleesha Long said on Facebook that she had been assaulted and called racial slurs by several white Trump supporters.
Her allegation was soon picked up by local media, after which she filed a police report. According to the local CBS-TV affiliate, her allegation also led “to a student-organized town hall meeting called ‘Impact of the Election and Respect within Our Community’ on Monday, Nov. 14.”
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: One week later, on November 16, police determined that Long had made the whole thing up, and charged her with multiple offenses. From the local ABC-TV affiliate:
Strong accusations were made by a Bowling Green State University student the day after election day. Eleesha Long said she was assaulted and called a racial slur, but BG police said she made the story up. […]
Reports show she posted what happened to her on Facebook page, but never called 911. […]
Lt. Dan Mancuso with the BG Police Division said, “several times the complainant changed her story about what happened, where it happened, and when it happened.”
Lt. Mancuso said they obtained a search warrant for her Facebook and Verizon history. Turned out, she wasn’t where she said she was Lt. Mancuso added.
“Based on that information, it proved that she was not in the location that of when she said it occurred,” Lt. Mancuso told 13abc.
Her text messages allegedly reveal her real motivation may have been frustration with friends and family who were Trump supporters. […] The police reports are laced with racist remarks against Trump supporters that she sent to her boyfriend and mother. According to reports, she used words like, “this is why you should take an IQ test to vote,” “I hope they all get AIDS,” “I haven’t met a decent Trump supporter yet.”
One day later, on November 18, Long was charged with multiple offenses by local police:
[Eleesha] Long is now charged with falsification and obstructing official business. She has since been released from police custody.
Huffington Post has completely ignored this story, or removed it from its site.
UPDATE: Another black student at BGSU who alleged he’d been physically assaulted because of his race has been charged with filing a false police report.
(2.9) November 2016, Malden, MA: Black man alleged two Trump supporters threatened to lynch him; Soon after, admitted to police he made it all up
Summary: On November 17, 2016 according to the Boston Herald (now behind paywall; see article here):
The man … had filed a complaint saying when he got off an MBTA bus near Broadway Square in Malden at 10 p.m. Tuesday, at least two white men approached him.
The men used a racial slur, made a reference to lynching and warned him this is Donald “Trump country now,” according to the report he gave police. He was able to get away from the men and hid before calling police, officials said.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Soon after, police determined this was a fake hate crime, and the man confessed:
Investigators prioritized resources for the suspected “hate crime” incident and re-interviewed the alleged victim.
“As a result, it has been determined that the story was completely fabricated,” Malden police Chief Kevin Molis said in a statement. “The alleged victim admitted that he had made up the entire story,” saying he wanted to “raise awareness about things that are going on around the country.”
HuffPost has completely ignored this story, or removed it from its site.
(2.10) February-March 2013, Oberlin, OH: During a one-month period, Oberlin College was the site of repeated anti-black, anti-Semitic and homophobic graffiti; A police investigation identified the perpetrators as leftist activists
In February and March 2013, Oberlin College was the site of a string of hate-oriented graffiti incidents, targeting blacks, Jews and the LGBT community. According to Slate.com:
Oberlin College canceled classes Monday after someone reported spotting a person walking on campus wearing what appeared to be a Ku Klux Klan-like hooded robe, the latest in a monthlong string of racial incidents on the campus of a college that was among the first in the nation to begin regularly admitting black students nearly two centuries ago.
School officials say that security and local police are investigating the report and that all classes and “nonessential activities” on campus have been suspended in order to hold a schoolwide discussion on the “challenging issues that have faced our community in recent weeks.”
According to the Oberlin Review, the student-run campus newspaper, there have been at least a half-dozen reported incidents involving hate speech and vandalism since early February, including the scrawling of “nigger” on Black History Month materials, writing “Whites Only” above a school water fountain, and drawing a swastika on an LGBTQ poster. (Full list here.)
The alleged hate incidents were covered as if they were legitimate by HuffPost, numerous local and national news media, including the New York Times, and CNN:
Proof that these were all fake hate crimes: By March 5, local police and Oberlin administrators had identified the perpetrators of these hate crimes — but would not release the names of the accused.
It took until August 2013 before Chuck Ross of the Daily Caller was able to obtain the police records, and identify the perpetrators of these hate crimes — as arch leftist Obama supporters:
One of the two students removed from Oberlin College earlier this year for allegedly circulating virulently racist, anti-Jewish and anti-gay messages around campus is an ardent leftist and committed supporter of President Barack Obama, The Daily Caller News Foundation has learned.
Dylan Bleier, one of the two students, organized a voter registration drive on behalf of Obama before the 2008 election. That voter drive is still listed on the website for Organizing for Action, the non-profit group whose mission is to advance Obama’s agenda.
The Oberlin Police Department identified Bleier and his partner in the spree, Matt Alden, as two of the principal architects of a month-long spate of racist, anti-Jewish and anti-gay messages at the small, private campus.
HuffPost’s complicity in perpetuating the myth that these were actual anti-black hate crimes
A search at HuffPost (and Google) reveal that it never published an article that revealed all these “hate crimes” as hoaxes and identified the perpetrators.
(2.11) August 2013, Jersey City, NJ: Black candidate for high school student council reported receiving racist text messages, threatening him to drop out of the race; Police determine he sent texts to himself
Summary: A sixteen-year-old black male at Saint Peter’s Preparatory School in Jersey, City, NJ reported to school officials that he had received four racist text messages, one ordering him to drop out of the race for student council. Several of the texts read:
“We have NEVER and will NEVER have a n*gger to lead our school”
In an interview with The Jersey Journal at the time the texts were sent, the boy’s father said his son was “extremely nervous and feels threatened” and did not want to be interviewed.
“He is the type of boy who does not want any kind of trouble,” the father said. “It’s so sad. He doesn’t want the image of the school to be tainted.”
“It is a predominantly white school and there may be a few sections of the school who are fearful of a new face trying to get in office,” the father said at the time.
Soon after, the police began investigating the incident.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Several weeks later, police and school administrators confirmed that the teen had sent the texts to himself, through what he believed was an anonymous service.
The black St. Peter’s Prep student who purportedly received racist text messages warning him to drop out of the Jersey City high school’s student government election sent the texts to himself, a school official confirmed last week.
“The entire Saint Peter’s Prep community is relieved that this extremely distressing incident has found closure, and we commend the various law enforcement officials for their diligent work on this case over the past months,” said school spokesman James Horan, who confirmed the result of the probe after its disclosure by a police source.
HuffPost has completely ignored this story, or removed it from its site.
(2.12) October 2012, Winnsboro, LA: Black woman alleged she was set on fire and racial slurs were written on her car, by white racists; Two days later, police determined that she’d done this to herself
A 20-year-old black woman said she was set on fire by three men who wrote the initials KKK and a racial slur on her car in northeastern Louisiana, police said Monday.
Officers found Sharmeka Moffitt with burns on more than half of her body when they responded to her emergency call Sunday night, said Louisiana State Police spokeswoman Lt. Julie Lewis.
Sharmeka Moffitt
The FBI is investigating the attack as a possible hate crime, but no arrests had been made as of late Monday, Lewis said. She said Moffitt was in critical condition at a hospital and that some of her injuries were third-degree burns.
Moffitt told police the men doused her in a flammable liquid and set her on fire at a park in Winnsboro, a town in Franklin Parish. Lewis said she extinguished the fire using water from a spigot before a police officer arrived.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Two days later, on October 24, the police determined that Moffitt had perpetrated these acts on herself. From the local CBS-TV affiliate:
Sharmeka Moffitt, a 20-year-old Louisiana woman who claimed three men set her on fire and wrote the initials KKK and a racial slur on her car, fabricated the attack, authorities said Tuesday. Police believe her third-degree burns were self-inflicted, CBS affiliate KSLA reported.
After two days of investigation, authorities said evidence showed that she set herself on fire, KSLA reported. Winnsboro Police Chief Lester Thomas said Tuesday afternoon that authorities linked Moffitt’s fingerprints to a lighter and a bottle of lighter fluid found at the scene. […]
“The investigation…has revealed that this was not an attack but a self-inflicted incident that happened to her,” Thomas said in a news conference. […]
Her family released a statement shortly after the news conference ended. “Our family is devastated to learn the circumstances surrounding our daughter’s injuries.”
HuffPost’s complicity in perpetuating the myth that this was an actual anti-black hate crime
HuffPost published the original story as a graphic news headline on its front page on October 23, claiming that the hate crime had happened as described. By October 24, however, HuffPost took it off the main news column, and instead moved it to a text item on the sidebar, indicating there was now a question whether she set herself on fire. By October 25, HuffPost completely removed the story from its front page.
When HuffPost believed the story to be legitimate, it ran it with prominence and graphic coverage. Once it became clear that this was another fake hate crime, however, HuffPost removed it from its front page. Thus, anyone who happened to see the original story would have no reason to know that anything had changed, because HuffPost first degraded the prominence of the coverage, then removed it altogether.
(2.13) November 2016, Boston, MA: Racist, threatening graffiti was painted on wall of college; Soon after, students confess to perpetrating this crime as protest against Trump
Summary: On November 12, 2016, according to the Boston Globe:
[A] visitor to the college [Williams College] discovered “AMKKK KILL” written on a wall in Griffin Hall in a material that resembled blood, Williams spokeswoman Mary Dettloff said.
Proof that this was a fake hate crime: Two days later, several Williams students confessed to the crime:
The students who stepped forward told officials they were going to write “AMERIKKKA” but “for whatever reason” didn’t, Dettloff said. The students said they didn’t do it with racist intent; instead, “they said they wanted to draw attention to what they felt was racism in the election of Donald Trump,” Dettloff said.
HuffPost has completely ignored this story, or removed it from its site.
Various fake anti-black hate incidents: Proven fake hate incidents against black Americans; not crimes, but which feed the false narrative of rampant racism in America
Blog: Hate Crime Tip-hoaxing: A black waitress at Red Lobster publicly accused a white customer of not leaving a tip, and writing a racist rant on his receipt; he proved it was completely false.
(3) HuffPost coverage of alleged hate crimes against the LGBT community
Chris Ball, a gay Canadian filmmaker alleged he was assaulted by Trump supporters on election night in Santa Monica, Calif. The Trump supporters hurled gay slurs at him while he was watching the results come in at a bar, he claims, then followed him out of the bar at the end of the night and assaulted him in an alleyway. Ball posted a photo of himself covered in blood in an Emergency Room as evidence, saying the attackers smashed a beer bottle on his head.
“We got a new president you fucking faggots,” they told him, according to Ball.
He did not provide the name of the bar or the location of the attack, and his story has not been substantiated. The Santa Monica Police Department put out a statement saying they received no information indicating the alleged crime occurred, and that a check of local hospitals revealed no victim of any such incident was admitted or treated in the hospital.
It turns out that some anti-Latino graffiti at Elon University is all a big hoax, perpetrated by a student of the very ethnicity the message targeted.
“Bye Bye Latinos Hasta La Vista” the whiteboard message read,
“The message was written by a Latino student who was upset about the results of the election and wrote the message as a satirical commentary,” said Smith Jackson, vice president for Student Life.
According to HuffPost, its mission is to:
Summary: On December 19, 2016, Adam Saleh, an American Muslim, called for a boycott of Delta Airlines, after alleging that it removed him from a flight because of his faith.
The Muslim teen who claimed three drunks taunted her as a “terrorist” on a Manhattan subway train now admits she lied to cops — who arrested her on Wednesday.
Summary: On Christmas day, 2015, the Savoy Masjid Mosque in Houston, TX was deliberately set on fire, which caused extensive damage to the structure, and required 80 firefighters to extinguish. The incident was originally blamed as possibly being caused by Islamophobia, and was covered by CBS, CNN, the Houston Chronicle, .Mic, International Business Times, and RT (Russia Today).
Summary: On October 12, 2016, HuffPost broke an in-depth, original story on its front page, in which it alleged that a 7-year-old Muslim boy, Abdul Aziz Usmani, was beaten by his fellow classmates on a school bus to the point where he had a broken arm, and no one did anything to help him.
The father also said:
Suspect arrested in vandalism of Fresno Islamic Cultural Center, by Veronica Miracle, ABC30.com (Fresno, CA), December 27, 2014. Excerpts:
Summary: Two Muslim men, Adam Saleh and Sheikh Akbar, alleged they captured video evidence of the NYPD’s bias against, and physical harassment of Muslims.
School Officials: Montclair State Student Who Claimed He Was Beaten, Called ‘Islamic Terrorist’ Made It Up, by NewYork.CBSLocal.com, April 28, 2014. Excerpt:
Starting the next day, May 31, HuffPost ran the first of four in-depth, original stories at or near the top 0f its front page about Ahmad’s allegations:
On Tuesday, May 26, Basam Syed was arrested by the New York Police Department. According to the New York Daily News, the 35-year-old allegedly rubbed up against an unknown woman on the northbound 4 train. He has been charged with “persistent sexual abuse” and now faces a maximum of four years behind bars. But does the punishment fit the crime? Apparently, it does because he has a staggering list of prior arrests — 28 priors to be more specific.
Beating Of Black Iowa Student Investigated As A Hate Crime; The 19-year-old had his front teeth knocked out and needed a dozen stitches, Huffington Post, May 5, 2016. Excerpts:
There’s A Library Of Orgasm Sounds, And It Needs Donations (NSFW)
[VIDEO] Three SUNY Albany students who falsely reported racial assault on bus indicted on enhanced charges, by Tobias Salinger, NY Daily News, May 2, 2016. Excerpt:
And HuffPost’s top executives have repeatedly said that they adhere to only the highest standards of objective journalism.
Don’t Have Sex In My Pub’s Parking Lot, Angry Landlady Warns
Oberlin College canceled classes Monday after someone reported spotting a person walking on campus wearing what appeared to be a Ku Klux Klan-like hooded robe, the latest in a monthlong string of racial incidents on the campus of a college that was among the first in the nation to begin regularly admitting black students nearly two centuries ago.
[A] visitor to the college [Williams College] discovered “AMKKK KILL” written on a wall in Griffin Hall in a material that resembled blood, Williams spokeswoman Mary Dettloff said.
