Some people are saying that the recent alleged hate crime at UVa, in which a candidate for student council president was attacked at 2 in the morning by a heavyset white man who told her that "no one wants a nigger to be president," is just that: alleged. John Rosenberg has more on the skepticism some are showing about Daisy Lundy's allegations, along with a number of links to articles about the popularity of hate crime hoaxes on college campuses.

As a UVA alum, I am, sadly, inclined to believe that this is the real deal.

First, here is a summation of her injuries from local news reports.*

"Daisy was released from the hospital the morning after the attack, having suffered a mild concussion, a sprained ankle, and torn ligaments in her knee. She was able to attend the Wednesday afternoon rally on her behalf, wearing one of those space age plastic, full-leg braces."

Unless she's as demented as Scorpio in "Dirty Harry", she's telling the truth.

Second, I know the layout of the area where she was attacked very well. A determined attacker could easily wait undetected to ambush her there. Especially if he'd stalked her and knew her routine.

Third, I am white, male, southern, and conservative, but based on my experiences there 10 years ago, I have little doubt there are white students on grounds who hate the idea of a non-white president so much that they'd physically attack an African-Korean American candidate they thought might win. It's not most white students to be sure, but I heard too many racial slurs and saw too many non-whites turned away from "open" fraternity parties when I was there to think otherwise.

This incident graphically illustrates the other problem with histrionic political correctness in academia. When REAL racial incidents occur, it's assumed they're fake.

--WahooAlum

* This news summation by way of Wahoo Pundit. Here's the URL: wahoopundit.blogspot.com

"I have little doubt there are white students on grounds who hate the idea of a non-white president so much that they'd physically attack an African-Korean American candidate they thought might win."

While I suppose there could be some small number of people who care about this generally, I can't imagine anyone risking significant jail time over something as meaningless as a class president election.

I still find the whole thing suspicious. I also think it's pretty sad that we have reason to be so suspicious of these claims.

I dunno: Tawana Brawley.

What about an old boyfirend? What about someone rolling her around at her institgation? I'll bet we see this on Law & Order.

SPOOKY VERY SPOOKY

I don't know what to think here. It's certainly possible that she was assaulted, but I wonder.

It just seems like a curious constellation of injuries ... the diagnosis of concussion could be made on the basis of a patients say-so ("I was hit on the head and I now have a headache"), and a sprained ankle and "torn ligaments" of the knee seem like curious injuries to have suffered after an assault. They seem more consistent with a fall. (Is the diagnosis of "torn ligaments" based on actual physical findings like bruising, point tenderness or joint instability, or Daisy's claim that she has knee pain from having been roughed up?)

I'd have expected bruised or broken ribs, some kind of facial scratches - stuff like that.

Does she say that she injured herself while running away? I just have a very hard time imagining what (an) attacker(s) would have to do to to produce this curious set of injuries.

I don't know which is worse ... that she really was assaulted or that she's faking it.

Loren