The 'Obama Supporter multiates McCain volunteer' hoax.

[SirNitram]

The original story.

Link

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Pittsburgh police are investigating after a volunteer for the Republican campaign says she was attacked by a mugger who became enraged after seeing a John McCain bumper sticker on her car last night.

According to police, Ashley Todd, 20, said she was robbed at an ATM at the corner of Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street in the Bloomfield area around 9 p.m. Wednesday after leaving a Republican phone bank.

Todd told police that the suspect, described only as a dark-skinned African-American man about 6'4", stole $60 from her and became enraged after seeing a bumper sticker supporting Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain on her car.

Todd, who is from Texas, said the suspect put a knife to her neck and demanded money.

Todd told police that the man became very angry after noticing the McCain sticker on her car and began punching and kicking her.

After repeatedly hitting, kicking and threatening her, Todd told police that the man carved a "B" in her cheek.

According to the police report, the officer confirmed that he "observed the wound on the right side of [her] face.

Todd declined immediate medical attention last night but said she would go to the hospital today.

The suspect ran off after the attack; but police are hoping that footage from bank surveillance camera may help lead them to the suspect.

In an official statement the McCain campaign says: "We're shaken up by this. It's sick and disgusting."

Governor Sarah Palin reportedly spoke with the victim by phone.

Meanwhile, late this afternoon, the Obama-Biden campaign released a statement, saying: "This is a horrendous act of violence. Our thoughts and prayers are with the young woman for her to make a speedy recovery, and we hope that the person who perpetrated this crime is swiftly apprehended and brought to justice."

The update:

Link

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― A campaign worker who claimed she was the victim of a politically-motivated attack in which she was beaten, kicked and cut, now admits that she made the whole story up.

According to Pittsburgh police spokeswoman Diane Richard, Ashley Todd, 20, told investigators today that she "was not robbed and there was no 6'4" black male attacker."

Todd initially told police that she was robbed at an ATM in Bloomfield Wednesday night and that the suspect began beating her after seeing a John McCain bumper sticker on her car.

Todd claimed that the mugger even cut a backwards letter "B" in her cheek.

But today investigators say Todd confessed that the attack never happened.

At a news conference this afternoon, officials said they believe that Todd's injuries were self-inflicted.

Police investigating the report said Todd's story began to unravel early on and they administered a polygraph test.

Investigators asked Todd to return to the police station today for more questioning and to help them release a composite sketch of the suspect.

When she did, police say she admitted that she made the whole thing up and that it snowballed out of control.

Todd told investigators today that she "just wanted to tell the truth" – adding that she was neither robbed, nor attacked.

"She indicated that she has prior mental problems and that she does not remember how the backward letter B got on her face," Richard told reporters today.

Todd told police that while she did not remember how the backward "B" got on her face, she may have done it herself since she was the only one in the car.

According to police, Todd said she thought of Barack Obama when she saw the "B" in her rearview mirror.

Meanwhile, police and residents of Bloomfield say they had suspicions from the beginning about the validity of Todd's tale.

"Something seemed a little strange about the story to begin with," said Lisa Diulus.

"I think it's a shame," said Theresa Cherico. "She made Bloomfield out to be like an unsafe neighborhood."

"I don't know, McCain is down in the polls, maybe this is a boost to get him up a little bit," said Mark Billings. "I don't know, maybe she had some personal problems or something."

Police say there's no indication that anyone else was involved in bogus robbery and assault incident involving Todd.

Todd is now facing charge for filing a false police report.

She is spending the weekend behind bars awaiting a psychiatric evaluation on Monday.

How many times, this election, have we been treated to the meme of the violent blacks just waiting? Be it waiting for Obama to be elected to 'settle the score' with whites, or the 'If Obama loses, there'll be riots' counterpoint, it's been out there. And then came the manifestation of the racist fear: Huge, hulking black man attacking a white woman, even leaving his mark. As it comes out to have been a pack of lies, I honestly wonder why they didn't go the whole hog and throw in rape or at least sexual assault.

Added to this, as it's a source now regularly quoted on some stations, TalkingPointsMemo.com has preserved something that.. Somehow.. Got dropped from the first story.

The link to the graphic snapshot: Link

The McCain camp tells KDKA-TV that the victim is a 20 year old Republican volunteer from Texas.

According to a campaign spokesperson, after seeing her bumper sticker supporting McCain, the suspect said, "Oh, you're with McCain, you're with the McCain campaign? I'm gonna teach you a lesson."

After beating the woman, the McCain camp says the suspect carved a "B" in her cheek for "Barack" Obama.

Police, however, have not confirmed that.

Funny, now why'd they surreptiously remove that?

[The Romulan Republic]

This woman is either very racist, very mentally ill, or both.

[Zablorg]

Whenever something like this happens, I get the sneaking suspicion that the people who were swayed by this won't get to read the follow-up.



This is a picture of the woman after her phony assault. The B looks a tad to clean to be cut into a struggling victim in the first place.

[Simplicius]

Also, the fact that the letter is reversed strongly suggests that it was cut using a reflection in a mirror as a guide. If an attacker were going to cut a letter into someone, whether a B for Barack or the Mark of Zorro or whatever, they would do it the way that felt natural to them - i.e., oriented so anyone looking at the face will see the letter normally, not reversed.

[Wicked Pilot]

Whenever something like this happens, I get the sneaking suspicion that the people who were swayed by this won't get to read the follow-up.

No, they just grab on to loony ideas about her being a Democratic plant or some other nonsense. Not that it matters, this story had a life cycle mere hours before the truth came out, even on Fox News. If it's going to give a meaningless bump to a candidate it's going to be Obama.

Also, the fact that the letter is reversed strongly suggests that it was cut using a reflection in a mirror as a guide. If an attacker were going to cut a letter into someone, whether a B for Barack or the Mark of Zorro or whatever, they would do it the way that felt natural to them - i.e., oriented so anyone looking at the face will see the letter normally, not reversed.

If the case was confirmed as real the best explanation would be that the 'B' is upside down, ie OJ was kneeling at her head when he carved it in.

[Knife]

It was loony toons, always was and still is. This is fodder for extremists on all sides.

[Metatwaddle]

Also, the fact that the letter is reversed strongly suggests that it was cut using a reflection in a mirror as a guide. If an attacker were going to cut a letter into someone, whether a B for Barack or the Mark of Zorro or whatever, they would do it the way that felt natural to them - i.e., oriented so anyone looking at the face will see the letter normally, not reversed.

If the case was confirmed as real the best explanation would be that the 'B' is upside down, ie OJ was kneeling at her head when he carved it in.

She said the guy sat on her chest, though.

The black eye is fake too - her left eye isn't swollen at all, and the discoloration is actually black as opposed to dull reddish-purple caused by a lot of blood coming to the area. So there are three problems - the B is too neatly curved and uniform to have been done by an attacker with a dull knife, the black eye is all wrong, and of course, the B is backwards. So that's three counts of being incredibly stupid and one big count of being a racist asshole.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Well do far the "October Suprise" is about as inept as the two terrorists who set themsleves on fire at Heathrow a few years ago.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'm really pissed at how Anderson Cooper on CNN is basically assuming mental illness on this woman's part. And he's not the only one. Maybe she's psycho, but no one seems to want to point out that she may just be a very motivated, very sleazy racist. Assuming mental illness seems like giving this bitch a free pass. Yes, supposedly she's had mental problems in the past, but it also seems like no one's willing to come out and say "racism".

[The Yosemite Bear]

Wait Atttention whoring with a side of Racism is now a mental illness?

[The Romulan Republic]

Wait Atttention whoring with a side of Racism is now a mental illness?

Turn on CNN for five minutes and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[Patrick Degan]

Well do far the "October Suprise" is about as inept as the two terrorists who set themsleves on fire at Heathrow a few years ago.

As an aside... did their next of kin get to collect their Darwin Awards?

[The Yosemite Bear]

I think the police were able to take those two alive, but I may not be correct.

[Keevan_Colton]

I think the police were able to take those two alive, but I may not be correct.

You're thinking of Glasgow Airport. An attempted firebomb attack using a Land Rover...where the terrorists didnt bother to check to see if their car would fit between the reenforced pillars when they drove it at the entrance to the building.

Their car full of Molotov cocktails etc went off and the ones that made it ended up in quite a bad state. No one else was hurt. A local fellow did stick the boot in though.

[The Yosemite Bear]

yes thats the one.

[Gil Hamilton]

My first thought was "Is she sure that it was politically motivated and not some gangbanger in Bloomfield rolling her?"* then read on and went "Ooooh. It was bullshit from a crazy, OK".

(*Note, Bloomfield isn't that safe a neighborhood to be walking around in at night and you get some bad dudes on Liberty Avenue. There are plenty of hoods that wanted Liberty at night that don't need to see a John McCain sticker to go and roll a small white woman who's alone at night at an ATM.)

However, this is more of garden variety crazy racist who got the daft idea she could generate a scandal to help McCain by scaring other racists about the Angry Black Obama Menace.

Ah well, the PPD can use the money they are going to charge her for the polygraph and other wasted bits.

[CmdrWilkens]

There are really two stories here:

The first is this girl and her problems. Now she has apprently also admitted to mental illness in the past and if she suffersfrom something then I can only hoe that she gets state mandated treatment. At the same time falsifying a police report is at least a misdemanor and possibly a felony (I don't know the paticular statute which would affect her) so either she is getting some jail time or she is getting state required mental health time. Either one is obviously neccessarry and I'll leave it to the folks with fancy degrees and years of experience to sort out whether she is just hyper motivated or actually mentally ill.

The second story is the one which owrries me more and its how the McCain campaign responded to this. They were out there pushing this story, giving facts and quotes to at least two reporters before the police had even finished the first round of interviews. There have been some accusations of race baiting in this campaign and some more accurate than others but this is a whole new level. The McCain campaign deliberately fueled the fire on this story without bothering to check their facts. There is on the levelof inciting mob violence and I think its something that Biden should be slamming them for and demanding a retraction and an apology for this classless act.

[Gil Hamilton]

The first is this girl and her problems. Now she has apprently also admitted to mental illness in the past and if she suffersfrom something then I can only hoe that she gets state mandated treatment. At the same time falsifying a police report is at least a misdemanor and possibly a felony (I don't know the paticular statute which would affect her) so either she is getting some jail time or she is getting state required mental health time. Either one is obviously neccessarry and I'll leave it to the folks with fancy degrees and years of experience to sort out whether she is just hyper motivated or actually mentally ill.

I understand charges are going to be filed, but I doubt the Pittsburgh PD is going to throw the book at her, particularly if she was nuts enough to actually carve her own face. She'll be in worse trouble if she actually made a sworn statement, though. According to the news, they are considering it a misdemeanor and set bail at $50,000 dollars for her, so chances are they'll duly collect their money and cut her loose to Western Psych to have her evaluated. At that point, it won't be their problem anymore, since they have things to do like dealing with people who ACTUALLY get robbed on Liberty Avenue.

Funnily enough, the Obama Campaigns response to this was to simply wish her a speedy recovery and left it at that.

[Ender]

... I met this girl this summer.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Speedy recovery from being a masochistic Attention Whore? At least she doesn't have kids, yet. I mean if she would cut her own face, whats the chance she might commit a bit of Munchausen's by Proxy if she had children?

[fusion]

... I met this girl this summer.

Really?

Lets put this way: McCain has double standards and think that he is the big shot in that he can just say whatever he wants to say...

[Illuminatus Primus]

... I met this girl this summer.

Tell me you didn't poke that, man.

[Ender]

... I met this girl this summer.

Tell me you didn't poke that, man.

No, it was a really brief run in. A guy I'm friends with knew her and he came to a party I was at. She was there for about all of 5 minutes. It was literally just a "hi, this is my friend, we have to go now, I'll be back later". If he hadn't just reminded us all of it I wouldn't have remembered at all.

[Lord Poe]

I was going to point out that another nutjob did something similar quite a few years back. Remember Morton Downwy Jr's "attack" by skinheads who tried to shave his head and painted a backward swastika on his face? Well, apparently everybody else remembers it too, as Google is chock full of that comparison I thought only I'd remember!

[Samuel]

Didn't they do a "ripped from the headlines" Law and Order episode based on that?