Tag: pittsburgh

The Truth About the “Military Kidnapping” Video From the G-20

By now the video which apparently shows military personnel “kidnapping” a protester right off the streets of Pittsburgh yesterday has already made the internet rounds. It even made it on to the Drudge report this morning. Thus, not surprisingly the complete lack of facts surrounding what is happening in the video and its brevity have lead to wild speculation about what is really happening.

Ashley Todd admits making up story to Police; Update: Todd still saying insane things to Police

Ok, NOW there is credible evidence that she made it all up. Someone from the Pittsburgh Police department has told KDKA, Pittsburgh’s CBS affiliate, that Ashley Todd has admitted to making up the story.

NOW everyone feel free to pile on this liar. NOW we have good evidence that she did, in fact, make this up. NOW AND ONLY NOW.

Michelle Malkin’s first instincts were correct on this one (and Ace and Allah too) but I still disagree with people’s first reaction to this story and some of Malkin’s implications. The fact that Ashley Todd turned out to be a liar changes nothing. While it shows that Malkin has good instincts for hoaxes, it doesn’t make me feel much better about the way she conducted coverage of this story.

I do not regret giving the benefit of the doubt to these claims. I need convincing evidence reported by credible sources before I am comfortable with piling on somebody. Whenever somebody reports being attacked I will give them the benefit of the doubt as it is the right thing to do.

But, with that said, I think we can all agree that what this woman has done is disgusting and horrible. Her actions have served to hurt any future victim of any assault, political in nature or not. The only thing she has done with this sick act is add to the doubt that people inherently face when reporting crimes. Thus more and more pressure and criticism will be heaped on people who are telling the truth about being the victim of crime (not to mention those who defend their reports).

Ashley Todd has now been proven to be the lowest level of scum.

(Hotair has the story too)

UPDATE: What the police News Conference today revealed:

“In a news conference on Friday, police said Todd told them she doesn’t know why she lied. She said everything started snowballing.

Police said there was no robbery or suspected mugger. However, Todd did tell police she does not know how the “B” got on her face, but suspects she might have done it to herself.

Police said Todd came clean after returning to the station so police could draw a composite sketch.

Police are conferring with the District Attorney’s Office on the issue. At the very least, Todd could be charged with filing a false police report.

Although police said they did find out that the woman has a history of mental problems.”

UPDATE: You know what the second worst part of all of this is? (the worst part being the drop it will cause in benefit of the doubt towards people who report being attacked) The Kos kids are going to feel like their instinct to crucify anybody on the right who reports a politically motivated crime right off the bat is completely justified. Awesome job, Ashley Todd, thanks for all the *#$@ you’ve pulled.

UPDATE: Ashley Todd has been charged with filing a false police report and shes saying some pretty insane things but they just sound like more lies to me. In fact it now sounds like she started making things up from the beginning and simply hasn’t stopped… Thanks again Ashley Todd for making anybody who gave you the benefit of the doubt, including me, look bad. I just hope they can figure out a way charge you with more than filing a false police report.

The Ashley Todd attack, some updates. Malkin goes beyond “healthy skepticism”

UPDATE: Ashley Todd admits making up the whole story to Police (click here for more)

So, in case you haven’t heard yet, Ashley Todd is the McCain staffer who reported being robbed and then attacked in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania last night because she had McCain sticker on her car . I covered the attack and subsequent reactions here.

Not surprisingly there are some new developments this morning. From everything credible I can gather there isn’t anything that has changed my mind one way or the other. I am still giving her the benefit of the doubt on this because I still haven’t seen anything to disprove her story beyond speculation but you be the judge.

Here are some updates:

Video of Pittsburgh Police spokesman talking about the case, she says there are some inconsistencies but they are still taking the claims very seriously.

“Investigators also say they are looking at some inconsistencies in her story, but they said that can happen in incidents such as an attack.”

Police spokesman reports the attacker used a dull knife to scratch a “B” into her face. Makes more sense with the picture and it lines up with the first credible media report on this (before the picture was released), which used the word “scratched” to describe he facial injury.

Looks like the latest reports indicate the attack isn’t on surveillance video.

“She told police the man then sat on her chest, pinning both her hands down with his knees and used what she believed was a dull knife with a roughly 5-inch blade to carve the B…”(via Hotair)

“She also indicated she was sexually assaulted as well. She indicated that when he had her on the ground he put his hand up her blouse and started fondling her. But other than that, she says she doesn’t remember anything else. So we’re adding a sexual assault to this as well,”

“Meanwhile, according to authorities, Todd did take a polygraph test; however, those test results were not released.” (there is some conflict over the polygraph, the first report I saw said she volunteered but some others have said the police wanted her to take the polygraph to clear up inconsistencies)

“[Police Cmdr Larry Ross] said the description of the robber as a 6-foot 4-inch, 200-pound black man is similar to that of a man who robbed a Liberty Avenue bank in recent weeks.”

So, yes, there continues to be room for reasonable doubt and “healthy skepticism”. However, there is certainly nothing here that proves anything. Yes, her story has changed some from her initial report but I certainly hope that isn’t the test for whether an attack happened or not. After all if you’re beaten up and even knocked unconscious, as Ashley Todd claims, there are bound to be some inconsistencies. It happens quite often as the Pittsburgh Police have noted. And beyond that I don’t see any more credible information that should lead to more doubts.

But beyond all of this it seems to me that Michelle Malkin has moved beyond the area of “healthy skepticism”, as Ed Morrissey calls it (he has been the most balanced on this by the way), into the area of bad speculation.

Let me just say that I understand Michelle’s initial caution and if this turns out to be a hoax I will condemn this woman in the harshest way. However, Michelle Malkin is reaching in a way that disturbs me. She now seems to be implying that the fact that Todd is either making her Facebook, twitter, and myspace accounts private or deleting them all together adds to doubt. Which is insane, I mean, I know that Malkin is used to getting lots of Hate mail but, if what Todd is saying is true and were in her situation I would delete or make private my online accounts to so that I’m not flooded with nut jobs threatening me.

Plus Malkin is now linking to a site which implies that a song lyric from a popular song on Ashley Todd’s myspace page (from the 17th) somehow proves she made the whole thing up. Right…

I guess the lesson we should all learn from this is that if you are attacked you’d better be in front of a video camera (and it should probably be 4 or 5 HD cameras just to be sure), you’d better take detailed notes of everything that happens (and you should probably make sure a notary is there to authenticate them), you’d better make sure your assailant beats and cuts you in a way that will seem appropriate to bloggers (in fact you should probably have a blogger check your wounds before the attacker leaves in case you need the attacker to cut you or hit you in a more “believable” way), you’d better make sure and get at least 5 doctors to look at you on the scene and probably about 10 more at the hospital (oh and make sure the blogger from earlier is there to check you out too), and, of course even after you’ve done all these things, you’d better expect the bloggers to say you liar anyway.

Horrifying attack on McCain supporter in Pittsburgh; Update: Daily Kos has no sympathy, neither do conservatives?

UPDATE: ASHLEY TODD ADMITS TO POLICE THAT SHE MADE THE WHOLE THING UP (Click here for details)

Follow this link for more Updates on this story. Is it real or a hoax? You tell me

According to the Pittsburgh police, Shortly before 9 p.m. October 22nd a woman was robbed at knife point while making a transaction at an ATM in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

After the man took $60 dollars from the victim he reportedly noticed that there was a John McCain sticker on the victim’s car which enraged him. The 6’4″ 200 pound man then proceeded to punch and kick the victim before finally using his knife to “scratch” the letter B into her face.

Here is the original story.

Here is a more in depth story (video included).

UPDATE: If anybody was still doubting how deprived the far left nut jobs over at the Daily Kos are why don’t you take a look at their reaction to this story…

Here are some comments that sum up the level of hate for the victim in this story:

By ksh01:

Interesting that it happened “outside of the view of the bank’s surveillance cameras” and that the injuries were such that she refused medical treatment and they didn’t overrule that.

By dworth:

Aha… Never doubt the victim, especially when it’s a woman…

but…

By ksh01:

yeah, you’re right. I get a little skeptical when these types of stories crop up with no verification or witnesses and such an unusual injury that feeds into a “white fright” scenario in a state with a rural racial divide.

By dworth:

Don’t blame you… their crazies are nuts enough to cut their own faces at this point…

but we just don’t know. So we just have to see what she can prove or not.

By ksh01:

considering she sought no medical treatment for a facial injury, I’d have to see it to believe her face was cut. […]

By Mogolori:

McCain needs race riots to turn the tide. That’s his only hope. Expect more of these “stories.”

By GlowNZ:

let me guess shes a white female right?
imagine the visuals of that, a white female being attacked by a black guy…

Yup, that’s right, she’s a lying racist who wants to incite race riots by cutting her own face in order to get John McCain elected president.

But what shocks me more is that Ace of Spades seems to of had a similar first reaction too (at least on two points)… and Allah Pundit over at Hot air even said some of Ace’s post made “good points”.

First, what the hell is wrong with you people at the Daily Kos? A women reports being robbed and assaulted and your first reaction is shes a liar and a racist? You have absolutely no reason to doubt her.

And what were you thinking Ace (and, to a lesser extent, Ap)? You really think every mugging and assault is caught on tape? and whose to say this preliminary report is even correct that it wasn’t caught on tape? Plus, do you really think the police would pass along fallacies about cuts on a persons face (they may well file a report by they would also note that there were no visible marks on her face if that was, in fact, the case)? and how does refusing medical attention somehow mean that she wasn’t hurt?

I am disgusted by initial reactions to this story… from all sides it seems. There was no reason to legitimately doubt this story and now that there is obvious photographic evidence that this woman was indeed attacked I hope all those who instantly doubted her claims feel some shame for the crap they pulled…

In case you were looking, here’s the picture of the injuries Ashley Todd, the victim, sustained:

*Disclaimer* I am not trying to put Ace of spades or Allah Pundit on the same level as anybody at the Daily Kos. It seems to me that they considered these claims because they were being overly cautious where as the DK crowd pushed these claims because they hate anybody politically opposed to them. Besides both Ace and AP gave up these ridiculous claims once more evidence of the attack came to light.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin jumps on the “shes probably a liar” bandwagon… What is going on? I get the desire for caution but geeze. Yea there absolutely have been hoaxes before but what reason do we really have to believe this is one? Because she didn’t go to the hospital immediately (she went today reportedly)? Because the B carved into her face is backwards?

First, she obviously wasn’t horribly maimed (as the photo shows) so who cares if she went to the hospital? After all she is a college student and being an expert on college students, since I am one, hospital trips are damn expensive and I probably wouldn’t have gone if I only had some bruises and a not-so-deep cut. So lets all just get over this idiotic “she didn’t immediately rush to the hospital” criticism.

Second, the appearance in the picture that the “B” on her face is backwards PROVES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. There are a million different reasons it is that way, the positions the two people where in when he cut her, the picture could be backwards, the mugger did it that way on purpose for whatever reason, the mugger is an illiterate dumb ass who writes his Bs backwards (after all he is mugging people), or, yes, she may have done it herself, along with beating herself, for attention.

But lets just think about the assertion that she faked this for a second, since thats all the rage. For that to be true and for the hoax to not have been disproven nearly immedaitly by the police this woman would have had to go to this atm, a place with multiple surveillance cameras, take out money, find the blind spots of the bank’s cameras, beat herself up (or get someone to beat her up), then cut a B into her face (and since the B on her face is backwards that rules out someone else doing it, at least according to the “its a hoax” folks), then call the police and fake her way through the whole story.

Is this scenario possible? Sure. Does it seem likely at this point? Not to me.

There just simply isn’t any good reason to think this woman is pulling a hoax, especially since she wasn’t the one who went public with this information and, at least according to some of her twitter posts (by the way I wanna know what Malkin finds odd about Ashley Todd’s twitter), doesn’t even seem all that shaken up by this event. Those things all reinforce the idea that she isn’t pulling a hoax. And all the information we currently have makes me, at the very least, grant her the benefit of the doubt.

But I guess the concept of benefit of a doubt is dead for most others… I guess we will see who is right.

UPDATE: Seems that a celebrity gossip blog posting (right after a post on David Becham’s spitting habits, great source) and a upside down “B” prove everything now a days since people have already started posting hate mail on Ashley Todd’s Twitter (censored):

eitan: @atodd even MICHELLE MALKIN thinks you’re a f***ing liar and a racist fraud. nice job.

Also let me explain why Ashley Todd’s Twitter, or at least what we refer to as her twitter (its actually her profile on “life in the field” a site for College Republican volunteers), seems “odd”. The posts we are seeing on her site are not normal twitter status updates but instead they are posts in a specific discussion. That’s why they don’t seem to make sense as updates… because they aren’t updates most of them are responses to questions in a discussion with other College Republican reps.

UPDATE: More information including the fact that Ashley Todd has volunteered to take a polygraph test…