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Author Topic: France: anti-semitic train attack was a lie
lagatta
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2534

posted 14 July 2004 10:01 AM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
It turns out that the horrible alleged anti-semitic attack against a woman on a suburban Paris commuter train turned out to be a sham: the woman appears to be a compulsive liar who makes up such stories to attract attention. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3891609.stm

This story attracted not only great media attention but denunciations from politicians, associations and representatives of the Jewish and Muslim communities.

I remember a similar occurence over 10 years ago when there was a spate of real far-right attacks on North African and Black youths in France: a young woman of North African descent made up a story about being set upon by skinheads to excuse playing truant from class. In both cases, there were indeed serious racist incidents as a background.


From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 478

posted 14 July 2004 10:09 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
It's such a strange story, isn't it?

The participation of the boyfriend throws me a bit. If she had done this entirely on her own, I would have guessed that she has some kind of syndrome, akin to whatever it is that drives some mothers to make either themselves or their children sick, just so that they can then be treated.

But why the boyfriend? I feel sorry for her, I think ... But I would also worry about her child -- I'm not sure I would trust her, unsupervised, with a child.


From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Mr. Magoo
guilty-pleasure
Babbler # 3469

posted 14 July 2004 10:23 AM      Profile for Mr. Magoo   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I propose we call it "Tawana Brawley" syndrome. Or, to meet CanCon regulations for the coining of neologisms, perhaps "Dar Heatherington" syndrome.
From: ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø, | Registered: Dec 2002  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 478

posted 14 July 2004 10:34 AM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Munchausen syndrome

I'm not saying that I think that this explains this case. Who knows. And I'm no great believer in the way medicine currently classifies or treats such disorders.

Neither, though, do I think that they are best treated as crimes.


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lagatta
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2534

posted 14 July 2004 11:07 AM      Profile for lagatta     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Well, I think it was clear there was a mental health problem involved - the young woman was not after compensation, just attention - and got that in spades. Here is more on the story from the Guardian - of course babblers who speak French can find out a lot more through Le Monde or Libération on line. I'll be interested in following how anti-racist organisations react to this sham story.
From: Se non ora, quando? | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
BLAKE 3:16
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2978

posted 14 July 2004 11:30 AM      Profile for BLAKE 3:16     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Thanks lagatta. It will be interesting to see the fall out. The anecdote below isn't really parallel because the mass media wsn't involved

A number of years ago I had in some involvement in a campus activist group which was responding to allegations of sexual harrasment made by a "student". Word got out and more attention was paid to on campus misogyny and was quite positive. A while later, we discovered the student wasn't a student, the whole story had no corroboration, and the people mostly didn't exist. In the mean time the case had had good effect on promoting awareness of sexual harrassment and violence against women.


From: Babylon, Ontario | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged
Mr. Magoo
guilty-pleasure
Babbler # 3469

posted 14 July 2004 11:53 AM      Profile for Mr. Magoo   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
In the mean time the case had had good effect on promoting awareness of sexual harrassment and violence against women.

And none of that was undone when it was revealed that it was a case of crying wolf?


From: ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°`°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø,¸_¸,ø¤°°¤ø, | Registered: Dec 2002  |  IP: Logged
DrConway
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 490

posted 14 July 2004 12:05 PM      Profile for DrConway     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Precisely what Mr. Magoo said. The good that a consciousness-raising event is necessarily somewhat dissipated if it is found that someone was lying.

It may come as a surprise to you, BLAKE 3:16, but people don't like being motivated by lies, regardless of what the end result is. I know if someone lied to me to get me to do something I'd be a little hacked off, and I trust my reaction would be fairly routine and not out of place.

Look at how pissed a lot of Americans are about Bush's wild claims of extensive amounts of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Yes, the US dumped off a dictator, but in the process has done a lot of irreparable damage to its domestic and international relations.

As to the article itself:

I'm shocked that a person lied about something that gets really strong reactions from people; it's not like lying about being mugged, or even falsifying an insurance claim. We can understand the motives for those even if we don't like what the person(s) did in those cases - either the person wanted sympathy, or got greedy and wanted money.

But to lie about having swastikas painted on you and being attacked with no one else rushing to your aid?

I am especially displeased about this, because it taps into racist attitudes against people of color:

quote:
The woman initially described the men as being of North African appearance, and said they tipped her 13-month-old baby from her pram.

As well, it taps, unintentionally, into the "new anti-semitism" that's being pushed by certain commentators who are trying to shoehorn a complex issue into a familiar paradigm and in the process opening up a Pandora's Box of misinterpretation and misrepresentation of the attitudes of people of color vis-a-vis Israel.

The damage done here is incalculable. Now, maybe the next person to report such an incident truthfully may not be believed. Maybe now right-wing idiots in France will feel emboldened and will really commit new attacks, feeling that some of the sympathy attaching to the victims might not be present.

*gives head a shake*


From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
skdadl
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 478

posted 14 July 2004 12:05 PM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The erosion of public trust is certainly a problem, Mr Magoo: I agree.

The obvious first victims of this incident are French Muslims -- that huge population of immigrants from the former colonies in North Africa, especially, who have unquestionably suffered a great deal and for a long time in France (as in their homelands).

But anyone who works on anti-racism campaigns has got to be concerned when a high-profile incident turns out to have been a case of crying wolf. People do become inured to these things, cynical, even -- and that is not what we want.


From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged

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