Do You Know This Face?

This is the composite sketch the Vancouver Police Department released after Bethany Storro said she was attacked by a black woman. But she doesn't exist. The Bethany Scorro (BS) situation is a another example of when the media rushes to judgment. She was "supposedly" attacked a few weeks ago in a subway in which a "black woman" through acid in her eyes.  "Fortunately", it was 7:30pm in the evening and she was "lucky" enough to be wearing sunglasses and only a portion of her lower and nose was burned.

In Vancouver several black women were questioned and interrogated who matched the description of the alleged attacker before they discovered Storro made it up.  Sociopaths and under cover racists have a tendency to want to believe that all crime is done by African-Americans.

The Columbian newspaper in northwest Washington wrote that plenty of people have a right to be upset with Storro, including "Vancouver's African-Americans, who are troubled that Storro described the woman who supposedly attacked her as black. For weeks the Vancouver news paper had included Storro's description of her alleged attacker as a "black woman," as did scores of other news organizations, including this one.

Again, as with so many others society bought her story, hook, line and sinker and of course the criminal this woman dreamed up was black.

In 1994, Susan Smith, a 23-year-old white woman, drowned her two young sons by driving her car into John D. Long Lake in Union, S.C. For over a week, she claimed a black man had hijacked her car, and she went on national television to beg the unidentified black man -- who did not exist -- to return her children unharmed. This is yet another cautionary tale for journalists, for law enforcement people, for judges and prosecutors, for people in the medical field who take care of victims.  All of us can learn some important lessons about rushing to judgment even when the evidence "appears" to be overwhelming.

Years before, in 1989, Charles Stuart, who was again white, claimed a black man had shot and killed his pregnant wife, Carol, during an armed robbery in the Boston neighborhood of Mission Hill. Stuart was severely wounded as well. Months later, it was discovered that Stuart was the killer, but not before police shook down and interrogated nearly every black man in Mission Hill and had arrested William Bennett, a black man, in connection with the crime. Bennett was later cleared, but the case inflamed already tense racial relations in Boston.  Stuart committed suicide in 1990.

I'm not sure what the answer is because when people have terrible things happen to them, we generally believe them but it's incredibly frustrating that often times when something bad happens on the news to a white person blacks say "yeah right" and others say "you see!"

On NBC's "Today" show this morning, Schuman said Storro is "very remorseful" but could face criminal charges for lying about the incident to the police and for prompting an "incredibly expensive" investigation that "wasted a lot of valuable resources."

Really? Community Service again huh? I certainly hope not.