Tuesday, July 3, 2012

This, Unfortunately, Is a Common Problem

Victim of hate crime turns out to be...herself.  From the July 2, 2012 Hartford Courant:

The day Alexandra Pennell addressed an anti-hate rally at Central Connecticut State University about the anti-gay messages scrawled on her door, police had begun to question her claims.
Twice the video surveillance system placed in Pennell's room to help police identify the person responsible for scrawling the notes had been disabled, in one case just before a note was slid under Pennell's dorm room door.
Police say only after they set up a second camera in a hall closet — a camera that Pennell did not know about — did they learn the truth: Pennell had been writing the notes herself.
The 19-year-old from Trumbull has been thrown out of Central and barred from attending any state university for five years. She also faces eight felony counts of fabricating evidence, eight misdemeanor charges of lying to police, eight misdemeanor counts of filing a false police report and one count of making a false statement to police.
I'm amazed that she wasn't give a faculty position even without a degree.

The fact is that there are a lot of these fake hate crimes, often where gays claim to be victims.  And why not?  Instant attention, instant sympathy.

3 comments:

  1. You know how you can tell she's a bubblehead? She wrote the note inside, then went outside, and slid the note under the door. She deserves suspension for that alone.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Asdf, That indicates she isn't ready for college level classes. But in her defense, there could be scuff marks on the envelope from the underside of the door the absence of which would give away her trickery. I recall an allegedly mailed threat that was found out because the letter had no creases.
    On a serious note, how much of this "disapproval" is in the mind of the offended? Most everyone is too busy making one's own living to think about someone else unless that someone else is actually doing something that interferes with one's own life.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am amazed and proud of the State of Conn for actually investigating the situation, and imposing a reasonable punishment.

    ReplyDelete