Audio from two 911 phone calls and video footage of the alleged racially motivated assault at a New York college has been released, providing more evidence why the women who made the accusation are now being charged with false reporting.
The three women claimed they were attacked by more than a dozen white people who hurled racial slurs at them as they rode a bus back to the State University of New York at Albany campus. But video footage from the bus and cell phone cameras showed that one of the alleged victims threw the first punch and that one of the accusers is the one who used a racial slur — against a white passenger.
Now some of that footage has been released, but it is difficult to tell what exactly happened. The 911 audio is more damaging, showing one of the accusers saying “I think it’s so funny” and “I beat up a boy” before the call connected to a dispatcher.
When the call connected, the accuser then tells the story that she was “jumped” on a bus and that it was a racially motivated attack.
Last week police charged the three women with assault, criminal mischief and filing a false police claim.
The incident, which occurred in late January, sparked protests at the campus and a fountain of support for the accusers. Even now that evidence has come to light showing they were not the victims of a hate crime, there are some in the community standing by them.
The Upstate New York Black Lives Matter Organization has issued a letter supporting the women, calling the evidence against them “inconclusive.”
“As city and university officials encouraged citizens not to ‘rush to judgment’ in believing three black women, they wasted no time in attempting to discredit your account via inconclusive recordings and selective witness testimony,” the group wrote. “To some, the lack of clear audio capturing racial slurs during the melee is enough ‘evidence’ to conclude no slurs were uttered at your expense.”
The group also accused Albany County District Attorney David Soares of “blatant misconduct and prejudicial incompetence” for filing charges against the women, saying it showed a double standard with how the office handled recent “abuses perpetrated by white police officers.”
The group may have been referring in part to the death of Donald Ivy, who was killed by police officers last spring. A grand jury failed to indict the officers involved, so Soares didn’t press charges. Soares noted the lack of dashboard cameras to capture the scene.
Ivy drew suspicion of the officers as he walked home with his coat sleeves pulled over his hands to keep warm. The officers were looking for a concealed weapon.
For his part, Soares, an African-American, did not seem happy with the grand jury’s decision, after he was asked if racial profiling was responsible for Ivy’s death.
“If you’re asking the district attorney of Albany County, I’ll give you one answer,” Soares said. “But if you’re asking David Soares, the guy who wears his Red Sox cap on a Sunday, I’ll give you a different answer.”
It doesn’t seem possible that Soares would charge three African-American women with filling a false police report so soon after Ivy’s death if his office wasn’t convinced that the case is solid.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
