In "Blame the Victim" fashion, police arrest hate crime victim for "staging attack"

[Aristophenes McTwitch]

This is from CNN, Tuesday August 21st: It disgusts me how often we have homophobic police decide the outcomes in such matters. Aren't some slight changes in her story expected? she was traumatized and attacked by men slashing her skin carving homophobic hate terms into it:


Lesbian who reported 'hate crime' attack staged incident, Nebraska police say

(CNN) -- A Nebraska "hate crime" that targeted an openly gay woman and that triggered responses from candlelight vigils locally to Facebook postings of support nationwide was staged by the alleged victim, authorities said Tuesday as they charged the woman with lying to police.
Charlie Rogers -- a former basketball player for the University of Nebraska who identifies herself as lesbian -- told police that three masked men entered her home on July 22, stripped her, tied her down, and carved homophobic slurs into her body before attempting to set her and the house on fire.
But the Lincoln Police Department said Tuesday that "the physical evidence conflicted with Charlie Rogers' version of events" and that "extensive investigation revealed numerous inconsistencies."
Previously on CNN.com: Woman speaks out after alleged hate crime
Rogers was arrested Tuesday, police said.
Her attorney, Brett McArthur, told CNN Tuesday night that Rogers had agreed as part of an arrangement to turn herself in, in exchange for a personal recognizance bond.
"She did not have to post any money" to be released, McArthur said, adding that his client pleaded not guilty to the charge of lying to police.

"She maintains her innocence. This has been kind of a kick in the gut as a victim to turn around and be charged," McArthur said.

In a news release, police cited DNA and pathologists' examinations that did not substantiate Rogers' original statements, and changes in her story during the investigation.
"These were serious allegations that garnered national attention and spread fear among local citizens," the police statement said. "A great deal of time and resources were spent investigating Charlie Rogers' claims in hopes of identifying and arresting the three suspects in this case."
Beth Rigatuso, president of Heartland Pride based in Omaha, organized a vigil that attracted over 1,000 people in the aftermath of the reported attack.
For her, the news that it may have been a hoax is "a pretty big blow."

It goes on but I'm not sure as to the board's posting policy regardig news snippets.

But I maintain this womyn is innocent and it's a homophobic witchhunt carried out by garbage.

[Ocean Seal]

How does one stage a hate crime against oneself?
Why would one do it?
How do you find people willing to cooperate and take prison sentences?
Fuck this country.

[Aristophenes McTwitch]

How does one stage a hate crime against oneself?


They're attempting to blame the victim, but I think I now see another perpetrator of a hate crime in this story: The Lincoln, Nebraska police.

[Silvr]

I don't get why people are assuming that she couldn't have done this. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. But not everything is always an elaborate plot to blame the victim. Sometimes people are crazy or starved for attention or whatever, and really do lie about shit like this. Remember that person who threw acid on her face in a parking lot awhile back and finally admitted that she was the one who did it a little while later?

[Jazzratt]

I don't get why people are assuming that she couldn't have done this. Maybe she did, maybe she didn't. But not everything is always an elaborate plot to blame the victim. Sometimes people are crazy or starved for attention or whatever, and really do lie about shit like this. Remember that person who threw acid on her face in a parking lot awhile back and finally admitted that she was the one who did it a little while later? Crazy or attention starved people are extreme statistical outliers. It's somewhat easier to believe, absent any other information, that rather than carving homophobic slurs into her own body as part of some nefarious plan to get attention and then setting herself and her own house on fire that these were, in fact, done by someone else. The hoax thing sounds like lazy and/or incompetent coppers just deciding "fuck it we'll arrest the uppity dyke."

[Silvr]

Crazy or attention starved people are extreme statistical outliers. It's somewhat easier to believe, absent any other information, that rather than carving homophobic slurs into her own body as part of some nefarious plan to get attention and then setting herself and her own house on fire that these were, in fact, done by someone else. The hoax thing sounds like lazy and/or incompetent coppers just deciding "fuck it we'll arrest the uppity dyke."
She wasn't set on fire. Here is an article that goes into more detail

journalstar DOTCOM /news/local/crime-and-courts/police-arrest-woman-who-reported-hate-crime/article_b6283ddb-cca0-5b98-a8a8-391ba171dc28.html


In the arrest warrant, investigators say they found no sign of a struggle in the living room where Rogers said she fought her attackers as they ripped off her clothes and zip tied her hands and feet.


Rogers told police one man held her down while another cut derogatory words into her arms and abdomen, sliced a cross into her chest and cut the front of her thighs and shins, the warrant states.


“There was no apparent blood on the bedspread, even though Ms. Rogers reported she was rolled on to her stomach after she had been cut on her arms, abdomen, chest and front of her legs while being held down,” according to the warrant.


And a forensic pathologist called in by the FBI, which assisted in the investigation, said she believes Rogers made the cuts herself or that they were done with her permission.


The cuts are superficial and symmetrical, avoided sensitive areas of the body and would’ve taken considerable time to inflict, pathologist Michelle Elieff said in the warrant.


“The lines were too straight to be made during a struggle,” Lincoln Police Chief Jim Peschong said during a Tuesday afternoon news conference.


Police found a pile of clothes, white knit gloves and a red box cutter on the living room floor. Rogers said the gloves were not hers, but DNA testing determined she was “the major contributor” of DNA inside of them, the warrant states.


Investigators discovered that the white knit gloves, zip ties, blades and a red utility knife were purchased July 17 at a hardware store on 27th Street. During one of four interviews Rogers had with investigators, she said she shops at that store.


Investigators then showed a store clerk a photo lineup, and the clerk identified Rogers as the person who probably bought the items, the arrest warrant states.


Police also matched bar codes from the items at Rogers’ house with the ones purchased from the hardware store July 17, Peschong said.
Now I am not saying that it is a hoax or it isn't, because I don't fucking know. But it seems awfully silly, all things considered, to go assuming right off the bat that this is an obvious example of blaming the victim when you, like me, don't know what happened, and there are more than a few serious questions raised by the shit cited in the article I just posted.

And I think this gets to a bigger issue with some liberals and leftists, who latch onto these sensational individual news headlines featuring highly publicized accusations of rape, or racism, or whatever (Duke comes to mind), which they don't actually know anything about, and then when it turns out things didn't happen the way it initially seemed, it makes opposition to homophobia or sexism or racism or whatever look like a giant fucking farce.

IMO leftists should focus on the systemic manifestations of sexism or racism or homophobia, not individual sensationalized allegations where we personally know fuck all about what actually went on. You end up seriously trivializing the shit you are trying to highlight.

[Sasha]

Like people said above, i don't know what happend in this case but its a sad fact that almost all cases where names, slurs or hate symbols where carved into the "victims" skin are staged/self inflicted. It happens here fairly regular people claim to have been attacked by nazis or such, in the 16 years I keep track of these claims about one a year involves the carving of swastika's, stars of david or anti-gay/women/racial slurs, al the ones with carvings turned out to be faked/self inflicted.
It's classical pathology I'm afraid and a huge red flag something is fishy.

[Aristophenes McTwitch]

It's classical pathology I'm afraid and a huge red flag something is fishy.

Well isn't that classy.

A womyn is putting her name out there and her reputation on the line in order to bring her attackers to justice, and you immediately assume she's crazy sans any substantial evidence, save for what you anecdotal recorded.

DNA evidence isn't always 100% factually recorded, and can easily be mishandled or contaminated to the point of inefficacy. It happens to rape victims all the time: sometimes after the shock and horror, they shower to clean out the nasty remains of the attack still within their bodies, having their sexuality used as a weapon against them.

This screams of blame the victim, and I'm not buying it.

[Jazzratt]

Now I am not saying that it is a hoax or it isn't, because I don't fucking know. But it seems awfully silly, all things considered, to go assuming right off the bat that this is an obvious example of blaming the victim when you, like me, don't know what happened, and there are more than a few serious questions raised by the shit cited in the article I just posted.

And I think this gets to a bigger issue with some liberals and leftists, who latch onto these sensational individual news headlines featuring highly publicized accusations of rape, or racism, or whatever (Duke comes to mind), which they don't actually know anything about, and then when it turns out things didn't happen the way it initially seemed, it makes opposition to homophobia or sexism or racism or whatever look like a giant fucking farce.

IMO leftists should focus on the systemic manifestations of sexism or racism or homophobia, not individual sensationalized allegations where we personally know fuck all about what actually went on. You end up seriously trivializing the shit you are trying to highlight.
You raise valid points. I was, perhaps too quick off the bat in this case.

[Aristophenes McTwitch]

You raise valid points. I was, perhaps too quick off the bat in this case.

Indeed he does, yet I'd still prefer to side with the victim as the US government has an awful history against LGBT people and Nebraska isn't a very gay friendly state, at least that's what I've heard (so it's my opinion).

Taking into context, and how much the US government would love to have a token lesbian womyn to point at so as to say "see? gay people are trying to benefit from discrimination legislation", I find her arrest just a little to convenient for the anti-LGBT lobby.

[Sasha]

Except it isn't anecdotel, I'm not saying all these attacks are faked, I'm not saying this one was, i just say its a fact a huge percentage of attacks where stuff was carved in people skin are faked, like it is in fact way more common that its faked than real. People faking a hate crime just are way more prone to cut in their own skin than perpetrators of actual hatecrimes in their victims.
Real hatecrime perps rape, stab, maim and burn but carving symbols or words are really uncommon. It is what people imagine a hatecrime to be, its the stuff of movies and the rare actual psychopathic serialkiller not what in fact regularly happens when you get jumped by drunk bigots.

[Jazzratt]

Indeed he does, yet I'd still prefer to side with the victim as the US government has an awful history against LGBT people and Nebraska isn't a very gay friendly state, at least that's what I've heard (so it's my opinion). I don't want to give the impression I've done a complete 180 on this case and I still do think that trusting the cops that this woman was an extremely unusual case is dicey. However I don't think that anyone commenting here has enough evidence - as Silvr colourfully put it we know fuck all.

Taking into context, and how much the US government would love to have a token lesbian womyn to point at so as to say "see? gay people are trying to benefit from discrimination legislation" Anyone who says that is guilty of failing to ask a very simple question. "How many gay people are doing that?" If it were the case that most gay people, or a large number of them were engaged in this behavior they'd have a case for saying this - but the fact that makes this likely to be the case (i.e pathological liars are no a statistically significant portion of the population) refutes their argument. Most gay people do not benefit at all from state legislation and law enforcement - in fact they often suffer (male-on-male domestic violence for example often goes unconvicted).

I find her arrest just a little to convenient for the anti-LGBT lobby. I think the reporting is much more so. People get ("rightly" or wrongly) arrested for all sorts of shit all the time.

[Luís Henrique]

How does one stage a hate crime against oneself?

Like this (http://www.metro.co.uk/news/world/544011-woman-faked-nazi-miscarriage-attack)?

As others who have posted here, I also don't know if her allegation is fake.

But it is certainly not impossible. Moreso given a forensic pathologist finds so many contradictions in her story.

Luís Henrique

[Aristophenes McTwitch]

Except it isn't anecdotel, I'm not saying all these attacks are faked, I'm not saying this one was, i just say its a fact a huge percentage of attacks where stuff was carved in people skin are faked

I'm sure you're going to provide a source for this?

[Sasha]

[/B]

I'm sure you're going to provide a source for this?


how about you give me 1 news report where it happened that it wasn't faked an i give you 10 where it did?
its related to self mutilation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-harm and Münchhausen syndrome

its estimated that up to 4% of the US population self harm, a number that becomes a lot higher when only looking at females, and goes to the roof when looking at females in and just outside their teens, the chances that young females self-mutilate are just a heck of a lot bigger than that they get mutilated, esp in a surprise attack by strangers. it stands to reason that when its very rare for strangers to carve shit into other people and sadly very common that people do it to themselves, that the amount of people claiming it happened to them during an attack while they in fact did it themselves outnumber the amount of times it really happens.
so dont get me wrong, this is seriously fucked up and should be something we, as radical leftists, should be very aware off and i hope we try to bring a solution for a society that makes a big part of its populaition feel so messed up that they inflict such harm on themselves, but one of the things we should do for that is to not get dragged allong with the hysteric news repports and treat these claims with a healthy suspicion, because when we spread these stories again and again, make them explode on the internet again and again, while again and again it turns out to be not true we help no'one. not the struggle against hate-crimes and bigotry, not the victims of real hate-crime attacks and above all not the very real victims of these stories, they may not be victims of a gruesome hate-crime but they are very much victims of a gruesome society/culture. and every time the inevitable truth breaks people who rallied around these victims thinking they where the victim of a hate-crime drop them in anger just when they really need our support the most.

[Luís Henrique]

it stands to reason that when its very rare for strangers to carve shit into other people and sadly very common that people do it to themselves, that the amount of people claiming it happened to them during an attack while they in fact did it themselves outnumber the amount of times it really happens.

However, most people who I know who cut themselves just do it, without faking whole political/social/religious scenarios.

Here (http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/news/ahead-of-elections-france-handles-attack-on-jewish-woman-with-kid-gloves-1.219224) is an instance of a similar event that was legitimate (so yes, it also not unheard of, though in this case paint seems to have been used instead of a blade).

Anyway, here is a list (http://theinfounderground.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=5737) of false-flag anti-semitic attacks. Though the site is obviously conspiracy theorism, the incidents listed seem to have all been indeed thoroughly debunked. The proportion seems to match psycho's claims; there are way more fake incidents of body desecration with inscriptions than legitimate ones. Authentic sexist/antisemitic/racist/xenophobic attacks are usually very different (and by far more destructive, frequently involving actual life-threatening circumstances).

And of course there are similar things that do not link to discrimination in any way, such as a volunteer for John McCain's presidential campaign who falsely reported that a Barack Obama supporter robbed and assaulted her and scratched a "B" on her cheek (so yes, it can be associated with right-wing claims as well).

Luís Henrique