Another fake 'hate crime' busted, and this one's a doozy
Published by: Dan Calabrese on Thursday March 09th, 2017
"Um ... but now it's ... for people who feel threatened by president elect, Trump's his name ..."
Anyone who is willing to be a police officer in Ann Arbor, Michigan should be paid $1 million a year. If you can deal with crap like this, your market value should rise exponentially.
We all know about the rash of "hate crime" hoaxes, but recall for a moment when this fraud was at its apex - when we were being told that a rash of hate crimes had broken out in response to the election of Donald Trump. Why, it was happening everywhere! Gays. Muslims. People who looked weird. All being targeted by vindictive right-wing monsters.
One by one the stories unraveled, until so many of them had been revealed to be fake that the left didn't even really want to talk about it anymore.
The nature of crime investigations being what it is, some of these things take a few months to sort out, which is why we're now presented with a doozy of a hate crime hoax, courtesy of a University of Michigan student named Halley Bass. Her story back in November was that she was walking down a street in Ann Arbor when a middle-aged, stubble-faced white male saw her anti-Brexit pin and scratched her face.
That . . . did not happen. It didn't take the cops long to review security camera footage of the time and place Ms. Bass had referenced and come to the conclusion she made this whole thing up. Oh, by the way, the FBI got called in! Aren't you glad to hear how America's law enforcement resources are being used? They too quickly smelled the hoax.
But the hoax story was interesting enough. Once confronted with the authorities incredulity, Ms. Bass told an even more creative tale:
"I was suffering from depression at the time," Bass told Judge Elizabeth Pollard Hines. "I made a superficial scratch on my face. It was visible and I was embarrassed about what I'd done. So I made up a story and told a friend that a stranger had done it while I was walking. I was encouraged to report it to the police. I made the mistake of doing that."
At the time, Bass claimed her attack was part of the surge in hate crimes following the election of Donald Trump a week earlier. She told police she was targeted for wearing a solidarity pin connected to Great Britain's "Brexit" vote.
Bass admitted to scratching her own face with the pin after becoming upset during a Woman's Literature class at the University of Michigan, according to the Ann Arbor Police Department report."I was suffering from depression at the time," Bass told Judge Elizabeth Pollard Hines. "I made a superficial scratch on my face. It was visible and I was embarrassed about what I'd done. So I made up a story and told a friend that a stranger had done it while I was walking. I was encouraged to report it to the police. I made the mistake of doing that."
At the time, Bass claimed her attack was part of the surge in hate crimes following the election of Donald Trump a week earlier. She told police she was targeted for wearing a solidarity pin connected to Great Britain's "Brexit" vote.
Bass admitted to scratching her own face with the pin after becoming upset during a Woman's Literature class at the University of Michigan, according to the Ann Arbor Police Department report.
. . .
The investigators observed the 21-year-old was nervous and asked why she was wearing the Brexit pin.
"... The significance of the safety pins is that ... to sort of like to show a solidarity with immigrants who feel threatened by Brexit. Um ... but now it's ... for people who feel threatened by president elect, Trump's his name ... Um so it was, it was to show, yeah, solidarity with the people like we show your fear and we want to help you get through it," she said, according to the report.
Bass also heard of other incidents on campus, including the incident of a woman wearing a hijab who said a man threatened to light her on fire if she didn't take it off. Ann Arbor police later determined that incident was a hoax too, though. The woman who falsely reported the crime is not being prosecuted in that case, however.
Bass eventually confessed that she had cut her own face after getting out of her Woman's Literature class.
"I had been in a discussion in my women's lit weirdly and there were a few people in my class that sort of said some things that scared me," she said. "...It was more like I wanted a concrete reason to be scared then to just talk, I guess."
I wonder of Halley Bass was a fairly normal, well-adjusted person before enrolling at U-M. I've seen it happen before. Kids enroll there and get exposed to this quasi-intellectual madness, and the next then you know they want to show, yeah, solidarity with the people, like we show your fear. And they get scared by what someone says in women's lit, man, so they scratch their faces.
Those two quotes in bold, take it in, America. There's your future.
College students are easily influenced by people who tell them all kinds of things about the world. They can be easily convinced to "feel threatened" or to think that it means a damn thing to "show solidarity" with someone. They get so steeped in this odd world that they can sit there and tell you they did a completely outlandish thing because they "wanted a concrete reason to be scared then to just talk, I guess" and to them, they said something that makes all the sense in the world. Your jaw is on the floor, but they don't have the faintest notion why.
Everybody talks like this in sociology, man.
Not unlike Khizr Kahn, it would appear, the left's celebrities are people who need to be victims. If they're not being mistreated or run roughshod over by the patriarchal, capitalist, morality-obsessed power structure, they don't think you'll have any reason to love them or give them attention. And without real-life stories of America's deeply evil oppression, it's hard to maintain enthusiasm for the anger the left constantly pushes.
Problem: This notion of America is almost entirely fantastical, and that's a problem when a story needs chapters. But stories can be invented out of whole cloth too, and if the media will give them attention, and the police will give them attention, and the FBI will give them attention . . . you can almost just believe that they really happened. Yes! You were a victim! And even if it isn't technically "true" as in "it actually happened," it could have! Because America is the home to this hate, and we need to hear these stories so we'll have awareness and solidarity and resistance and so on and so forth.
Halley Buss isn't a liar. She's a stand-in for the plausibly real victims of the simmering hate that is Trump's America.
This is all madness, of course, but I live 45 minutes from U-M. I guess it's rubbed off.
Published by: Dan Calabrese on Thursday March 09th, 2017
"Um ... but now it's ... for people who feel threatened by president elect, Trump's his name ..."
Anyone who is willing to be a police officer in Ann Arbor, Michigan should be paid $1 million a year. If you can deal with crap like this, your market value should rise exponentially.
We all know about the rash of "hate crime" hoaxes, but recall for a moment when this fraud was at its apex - when we were being told that a rash of hate crimes had broken out in response to the election of Donald Trump. Why, it was happening everywhere! Gays. Muslims. People who looked weird. All being targeted by vindictive right-wing monsters.
One by one the stories unraveled, until so many of them had been revealed to be fake that the left didn't even really want to talk about it anymore.
The nature of crime investigations being what it is, some of these things take a few months to sort out, which is why we're now presented with a doozy of a hate crime hoax, courtesy of a University of Michigan student named Halley Bass. Her story back in November was that she was walking down a street in Ann Arbor when a middle-aged, stubble-faced white male saw her anti-Brexit pin and scratched her face.
That . . . did not happen. It didn't take the cops long to review security camera footage of the time and place Ms. Bass had referenced and come to the conclusion she made this whole thing up. Oh, by the way, the FBI got called in! Aren't you glad to hear how America's law enforcement resources are being used? They too quickly smelled the hoax.
But the hoax story was interesting enough. Once confronted with the authorities incredulity, Ms. Bass told an even more creative tale:
"I was suffering from depression at the time," Bass told Judge Elizabeth Pollard Hines. "I made a superficial scratch on my face. It was visible and I was embarrassed about what I'd done. So I made up a story and told a friend that a stranger had done it while I was walking. I was encouraged to report it to the police. I made the mistake of doing that."
At the time, Bass claimed her attack was part of the surge in hate crimes following the election of Donald Trump a week earlier. She told police she was targeted for wearing a solidarity pin connected to Great Britain's "Brexit" vote.
Bass admitted to scratching her own face with the pin after becoming upset during a Woman's Literature class at the University of Michigan, according to the Ann Arbor Police Department report."I was suffering from depression at the time," Bass told Judge Elizabeth Pollard Hines. "I made a superficial scratch on my face. It was visible and I was embarrassed about what I'd done. So I made up a story and told a friend that a stranger had done it while I was walking. I was encouraged to report it to the police. I made the mistake of doing that."
At the time, Bass claimed her attack was part of the surge in hate crimes following the election of Donald Trump a week earlier. She told police she was targeted for wearing a solidarity pin connected to Great Britain's "Brexit" vote.
Bass admitted to scratching her own face with the pin after becoming upset during a Woman's Literature class at the University of Michigan, according to the Ann Arbor Police Department report.
. . .
The investigators observed the 21-year-old was nervous and asked why she was wearing the Brexit pin.
"... The significance of the safety pins is that ... to sort of like to show a solidarity with immigrants who feel threatened by Brexit. Um ... but now it's ... for people who feel threatened by president elect, Trump's his name ... Um so it was, it was to show, yeah, solidarity with the people like we show your fear and we want to help you get through it," she said, according to the report.
Bass also heard of other incidents on campus, including the incident of a woman wearing a hijab who said a man threatened to light her on fire if she didn't take it off. Ann Arbor police later determined that incident was a hoax too, though. The woman who falsely reported the crime is not being prosecuted in that case, however.
Bass eventually confessed that she had cut her own face after getting out of her Woman's Literature class.
"I had been in a discussion in my women's lit weirdly and there were a few people in my class that sort of said some things that scared me," she said. "...It was more like I wanted a concrete reason to be scared then to just talk, I guess."
I wonder of Halley Bass was a fairly normal, well-adjusted person before enrolling at U-M. I've seen it happen before. Kids enroll there and get exposed to this quasi-intellectual madness, and the next then you know they want to show, yeah, solidarity with the people, like we show your fear. And they get scared by what someone says in women's lit, man, so they scratch their faces.
Those two quotes in bold, take it in, America. There's your future.
College students are easily influenced by people who tell them all kinds of things about the world. They can be easily convinced to "feel threatened" or to think that it means a damn thing to "show solidarity" with someone. They get so steeped in this odd world that they can sit there and tell you they did a completely outlandish thing because they "wanted a concrete reason to be scared then to just talk, I guess" and to them, they said something that makes all the sense in the world. Your jaw is on the floor, but they don't have the faintest notion why.
Everybody talks like this in sociology, man.
Not unlike Khizr Kahn, it would appear, the left's celebrities are people who need to be victims. If they're not being mistreated or run roughshod over by the patriarchal, capitalist, morality-obsessed power structure, they don't think you'll have any reason to love them or give them attention. And without real-life stories of America's deeply evil oppression, it's hard to maintain enthusiasm for the anger the left constantly pushes.
Problem: This notion of America is almost entirely fantastical, and that's a problem when a story needs chapters. But stories can be invented out of whole cloth too, and if the media will give them attention, and the police will give them attention, and the FBI will give them attention . . . you can almost just believe that they really happened. Yes! You were a victim! And even if it isn't technically "true" as in "it actually happened," it could have! Because America is the home to this hate, and we need to hear these stories so we'll have awareness and solidarity and resistance and so on and so forth.
Halley Buss isn't a liar. She's a stand-in for the plausibly real victims of the simmering hate that is Trump's America.
This is all madness, of course, but I live 45 minutes from U-M. I guess it's rubbed off.
