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Deterring False ‘Hate Crime’ Claims

Many of the “hate crimes” Americans are accused of never happened. Preventing real crimes based on bigotry and punishing those responsible when they occur is more difficult as a result of such “fake news.”

It happened again in Ann Arbor, Mich. There, a Muslim student at the University of Michigan told police that not long after the Nov. 8 election, a man threatened to set her afire if she did not remove her hijab.

In the wake of her allegation, the Council on American-Islamic Relations complained it was “just the latest anti-Muslim incident” since Donald Trump was elected president.

It didn’t happen. Using surveillance footage, police were able to determine conclusively that the incident “did not occur.”

CAIR’s reaction was that, well, the report may have been false, but it shouldn’t discredit the “many, many incidents of anti-Muslim hate” in America.

But, human nature being what it is, false reports of hate crimes that never happened make the public and police skeptical when they hear other such claims.

Those guilty of such criminal lies should be punished severely, regardless of their motivation — which, by the way, often reflects their own bigotry.

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