The list of false hate crimes in Trump's time is long

Following the arrest of actor Jussie Smollett, accused of having organized his own racist and homophobic attack, here are some of the other crimes that have been highlighted by the media since the 2016 elections – often accompanied by politicians decrying, "It's America today" – this turned out to be frauds:

• Just before the 2016 elections, the 111-year-old Hopewell Baptist Church was attacked by a fire and graffiti that said "Vote Trump". "The political message of vandalism is clearly an attempt to influence public opinion on the upcoming election," said Bennie Thompson (D-Miss). Andrew McClinton, 48, an African-American member of the church, was at the origin of the arson.
• "Heil Trump" and "F-g Church" were spray-painted on St. David's Episcopal Church in Indiana after the election. This is the gay organ player who did it. "During the week, I was scared, scared and alone in my fear," explained Nathan Nathaniel "Nathan" Stang, 26, at the IndyStar. "I guess one of the main factors that motivated my decision was that I wanted others to be scared with me."
• Yasmin Seweid, 18, told the police that three supporters of Donald Trump had harassed him and tried to steal his hijab from him on a No. 6 train in New York. But the alleged hate crime of December 1, 2016 collapsed two weeks later when Seweid admitted that she had invented everything because she had been drinking late with friends and feared that her father, a strict Egyptian Muslim, be angry.
• Ypsilanti's Eastern Michigan University has been vandalized for months with graffiti bearing the slogan "Leave n-s" and "KKK". A former student, the African-American Eddie Curlin, 29, was finally arrested. "It was totally interested," said Robert Heighes, the university's chief of police. "It was not motivated by politics. This was not motivated by race.
• More than 2,000 bomb threats against Jewish institutions, including the Israeli Embassy in Washington, were uttered in the first three months of 2017. "My personal view is that this 39 is a statement of the country's current situation, "said Chief Michael Feinstein. The executive of the Bender Jewish Community Center in Greater Washington, Rockville, Maryland, told the Times. In March 2017, many incidents were finally arrested: that of a 19-year-old Israeli Jewish American, Michael Ron David Kadar. Kadar had been rejected by the Israel Defense Forces for mental health problems and had claimed in his defense that he had a brain tumor.
• Some of the threats did not come from the Jewish teenager. At least eight were the work of 32-year-old Juan Thompson, who was trying to trick a woman who had broken up with him. Thompson, a black journalist, had already been fired from The Intercept for inventing sources and stories. In response to his dismissal, he accused the "white media of New York" and claimed that his editors were racist.
• Forty-two Jewish gravestones were spilled in Washington's cemetery in Midwood, Brooklyn, in March 2017. While authorities feared that it's an anti-Semitic act, the NYPD has named another suspect after an investigation: the wind. "[It was] due to negligence, or weather factors like dirt and dirt and wind Nothing to suggest that it was a case of vandalism, "said a spokesman of the police.
• Five Black candidates were bombarded with hate speech on electronic bulletin boards at the Air Force Academy preparatory school in September 2017. It turns out that the comments were written by one of the African-American cadets. CNN commentator Frida Ghitis did not think this point mattered much in a follow-up report, saying, "The election of President Donald Trump has raised the rock under which much of the hate was hidden," he said. to project into the light. "
• African-American Adwoa Lewis, 20, of Long Island, said that four teens had shouted "Trump 2016!", Telling her that she was not part of the house and that "there was no one in town". she had cut her tires in September 2018, leaving a note saying "Go home". invent the story and put the note on his car.
• In early November 2018, messages such as "Die Jew Rats" and "Jew Better Be Ready" were brought to the attention of the Union Temple in Brooklyn. Guilty party? An African-American gay, James Polite, who had previously been an intern at City Council Chair Christine Quinn, was raised by Jewish foster parents. He was charged with hate crimes for graffiti and fire in four other Jewish temples and schools. But friends and supporters say that bigotry is not to blame; Polite is bipolar and was convinced that the FBI and the CIA had taken control of the homeless shelter system in the city.
• More than 100 students marched for "safe spaces" after "KKK", swastikas and the names of four black and Latino students were scribbled in a bathroom at Goucher College near Baltimore in November 2018. & # 39; names, Flynn Arthur, 21, was the responsible person. The biracial lacrosse player explained to the police that he "was drinking and that he had just done something stupid".
• On December 30, 2018, a 7-year-old African American girl, Jazmine Barnes, was killed in a shootout. According to witnesses, a white man in a van was nearby. "We have to call him as he is. Blacks are targeted in this country, "said activist Deric Muhammad. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) insisted: "Do not be afraid to call it what it seems to be: a hate crime," but the investigation has led at the arrest of two African Americans, Eric Black Jr. and Larry. D. Woodruffe, who, according to the police, allegedly shot at Barnes' car in an erroneous affair.
• On New Year's Eve, three Savannah churches and a museum of human rights were vandalized, evoking the specter of a hate crime. But it was an African-American, David Smith III, who had thrown bricks through the doors.
• The video became viral of a January 18 confrontation during the March for Life in Washington, showing a group of students from Covington Catholic HS in Kentucky, some with MAGA hats, in a confrontation with a native American, Nathan Phillips. "They were attacking these four black people," Phillips told the Detroit Free Press. "I was there and I witnessed all of that … As it continued and intensified, the time was right where you are doing something or you are moving away, you know? You see something that is wrong, and you are faced with this choice between good and bad. "Other videos quickly proved that Phillips was lying. A group of black Israel mocked Covington teens with racial slurs such as, "Christ comes back to kick your ass." And Phillips was not surrounded by Covington students; he entered the group and began to drum on the face of one of the children, whose puzzled expression prompted online commentators to qualify a sly smile. A lawyer from a Covington student has filed a defamation suit against the Washington Post for $ 250 million in damages.