Anna Ayers, a student at Ohio University and a member of the OU student senate, recently caused an uproar at the university after saying that she received threatening messages, including a death threat, due to being part of the LGBTQ community. Police now say that Ayers made the entire thing up and have arrested her for “making false alarms.” That wording seemed a bit curious so I went to the state code, which indeed has a provision that departs from the usual language of a false police report. Ayers is a journalism major at OU.
She wrote up her account in an article in The Post, a student-run newspaper, and said that she received a note that “expressed extreme hatred… because of who I am.” There was an outpouring of support and calls for investigations while Ayers continued to accept the support as helpful “during a pretty awful time.”
The police reported that “Ayers previously reported receiving a series of threatening messages, two of them in the Student Senate office, and one of them at her residence” and subsequent investigation by OUPD found that Ayers had placed the messages herself, prior to reporting them.”
That brings us to the criminal code.
“2917.32 Making false alarms.
(A) No person shall do any of the following:
(1) Initiate or circulate a report or warning of an alleged or impending fire, explosion, crime, or other catastrophe, knowing that the report or warning is false and likely to cause public inconvenience or alarm;
(2) Knowingly cause a false alarm of fire or other emergency to be transmitted to or within any organization, public or private, for dealing with emergencies involving a risk of physical harm to persons or property;
(3) Report to any law enforcement agency an alleged offense or other incident within its concern, knowing that such offense did not occur.”
Ayers clearly initiated and circulate a report of a crime knowing that it would “cause public inconvenience or alarm.” I just find it interesting to have this crime separate from the standard false police report charge. However, the reason appears to be a desire to snag those who do not actually go to the police under provision three, but still circulate a false account.
The concern is what constitutes initiating or circulating a false report. That would seem to include statements on the Internet or chat rooms where police allege a person knew that they were circulating a false story capable of causing “inconvenience or alarm.” That could present threat to some speech or speaker targeted by the government. It could come down to allegations of what constitutes knowledge of falsity. If police deny the underlying facts, is that enough for a reporter or a critic to be on notice of falsity? Notably, there does not need to be an intent to cause alarm or inconvenience. It is only required that it is “likely” to cause some ill-defined “inconvenience.”
This is a misdemeanor punishable with up to a year in jail.
I think that, if the allegations against her are proven, she should be expelled given the disruption to the school and the damage down to legitimate victims in this community who have real threats to report. I am less certain about the criminal punishment angle. I would not be inclined to impose jail time while certainly securing a conviction in the case.
What do you think should be the criminal punishment, if any?
You wonder why feeling hated makes them feel better. Or is it seeming to be hated, in the eyes of others? What’s going on in this mentally ill mind?
A form of Munchausen’s???
I’d put her to work on a domestic abuse hotline (with supervision) so she can see how her antics hurts real victims.
J H Kunstler had a really great article this morning about this sort of victimhood crap:
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Lost in Space
Speaking as a black woman… wait second! Can I do that? Well, why not. We’re now a nation consumed by make-believe, in which you can declare anything you want about yourself and insist that everyone else agree that it is so. If I identify this way, you must believe me! (Or else I will come after you with my cos-play mob and destroy you.)
The avatars out on the cutting edge of culture want to dissolve all the boundaries between all categories of everything — except us and them: their allies and their enemies. Everything else is slated to become — by force, if necessary — a big, turbid, zero-gravity soup of intersectional relativity. The reasons for this sanctioned insanity are not exactly what you think they are.
Case in point: The Sunday New York Times Magazine profile of one Jill Soloway, Hollywood producer / director and now memoirist of the book She Wants It: Desire, Power and Toppling the Patriarchy (“out this week,” note that little detail.) Mx. Soloway (Mx. being the newest engineered intersectional salutation) runs a movie production company named Topple, best known for putting out the TV show Transparent, about an older man who decides he’d be happier pretending to be a woman, and all the good family feeling that such a decision might engender, so to speak.
Gender was complicated for Mx. Soloway, for whom puberty arrived late, but with the sudden appearance of large breasts. “Do other people’s memories of their teenage years include things like soccer competitions or blue ribbons?” they write. “All I have is the memory of being suddenly overwhelmed by becoming sex to others.”
Aha, the curse of large breasts. What a life-annihilating affliction.
And yes, you read that right. Mx. Soloway now insists on being addressed as “they” (The Times obliges), invoking a linguistic hall-of-mirrors in which there are always two of you: the one located in space and the one in the mirror — shall we surmise? — or perhaps there is another explanation. One might goof on the narcissistic buffoonery of this stuff all the livelong day, but that would be tiresome and cruel, so I will just come to the point and tell you what is going on here, what it is all about.
It is about fashion, status, and prestige as has been the case in human social relations since earliest (hu)man put a banana leaf on its head, to the awe and wonder of others gathered ‘round. All three of those conditions depend on a person being special, a figure apart from the boring, moiling, deplorable mob of morons who agree to be hostage to their own biology. Biology is a disease to be overcome, and you can do that by asserting your will. For instance, in the case at hand of Mx. Soloway, you can get breast reduction surgery, cut off your hair, and wear baggy clothes. This does not make you a man, but it allows you to affect to renounce your “sexual assignment.” Anyway, who wants to be a man? (The enemy!)
Rather, you pretend to exist in a make-believe liminal realm in between, relieved of all the pain-in-the-ass tensions of being one or the other, and therefore, to some degree, the tensions of being a mature mammal. Is the game of “pretend” not the chief occupation of childhood, either a happy one or otherwise? And is not Hollywood all about the game of pretend? And so, in Hollywood, the most zealous pretenders acquire the highest prestige. The trick is to get other people to agree that your pretenses are bona fide (the Emperors New Clothes gambit). One way to accomplish that is to elaborate a fantasy that has already been set in motion as a fashion statement. With good old-fashioned American Puritanism coming back into fashion under the guise of Maoist authoritarianism emanating from the campuses, nothing carries higher status than anathemizing human sexuality, working every angle to abolish it, to banish it from the world, and to punish those who object.
There are a few little problems with this. One is, you’re still stuck with your actual biological sexuality, whether you like it or not. Every cell in the body is imprinted — except in rare instances of what used to be called “birth defects.” There’s no “returns” policy at the sexual assignment bureau. Accordingly, people who stop short of completely screwing up their bodies with genital amputation and radical hormone treatments are still subject to sexual promptings of the type associated with their cellular DNA. Mx. Soloway has demonstrated this in her own work, as The Times explains:
After the author [Mx S.] falls in love with a lesbian while still married, the two enthusiastically make a short comedy about female ejaculation. The Topple crew pitched in, building a giant vagina and helping with costumes. Mx. Soloway calls the film, inevitably, “If You Build It, She Will Come.”
One of The New York Times’s chief roles in our society has been to confer prestige on the people they chose to write about. The Times is a mighty churning engine of status-granting, locked in a feedback loop with the readership it is working to flatter so as to place them in the social hierarchy du jour. Unfortunately, what they have to work with du jour is cultural collapse, which is exactly what converts degeneracy into prestige. It’s an unappetizing process, and its products — supposedly “gender-fluid” adult mammals — have exactly such an unappetizing presentation. What is most fashionable these days is obviously unreal, and to become a fashion-victim of that can’t have a happy ending.
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I had to post the whole thing, because the WordPress filter will not let me post the link here. If you want to find it, google ” j h kunstler” or “kunstler blog”
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
he’s great.
Another leftist hoax! But hey, it doesn’t matter, right? She is raising “consciousness” and that’s what is important.
Can you say Duke rape hoax or Tawana Brawley?
Antonio
The Duke phony rape victim was a bi-polar, crackhead, stripper/prostitute. Tawana Brawley was a high-school kid. This is different and worse. There seems to be a psychological phenomena which obtains to rape and hate crimes. Real victims are slow to come forward and often don’t. Yet hoaxes abound. Maybe real victims feel a sense of violation they just want to forget about & the fraudsters want attention and sympathy.
and “spray painted swastikas” have often been proven to be vandalism committed by troubled jewish people. this is a psychological dynamic that appears in a certain part of every population. the great virtue of “To Kill a Mockingbird” was not sp much to just
to denounce segregation, but to explore the dynamic of a false allegation. again, it’s hard for regular folks to understand, but this is a certain identifiable sector of the crazed population who does things like this to manipulate others and garner sympathy and sow mischief.
Without knowing the contents of The Post article, it is difficult to judge this one. If all that the article says is that Ayers received a death threat, I doubt that she violated the statute even if that statement is false. I think the key word in subsection (A)(1) is “impending”. A threat of death sometime in the indefinite future is not “impending”.
Nor is Ayers report of a death threat likely to cause “public inconvenience or alarm”. It appears that subsection (A)(1) was intended to prevent someone from falsely reporting to the public some “impending” disaster such that the public would take steps to avoid adverse consequences. Yelling “fire” in a crowded theatre would be the classical example. A bomb scare would be another example.
It would be interesting to see how the State’s Attorney feels about this one.
When you focus on group identity, make some groups more equal than others and award celebrity status to victims you necessarily get frauds in the favored groups who seek fame or charlatans seeking revenge. Either way it’s predictable and damn unAmerican. Good on the cops for not letting her slide.
These types of crimes, I reference the just recent accusation of a woman in a convenience store claiming sexual assault despite a security video showing no such instance, will continue to increase as a means of pushing an agenda unless they are sternly and forcefully prosecuted to the fullest. Better to tamp this down now, “nip it in the bud” as Barney Fife would say.
Did you see the video? The woman in the store was wrong but her mistake was understandable–the kid’s backpack brushed against her ass, When she saw the video she retracted the accusation and apologized to the kid. It wasn’t a fraud; it was a reasonable misread of the situation.
No Mark
The woman’s first instinct was to put ‘black teenager and sexual assault’ together. Her second instinct was to call the cops. Absolutely nothing understandable about not stopping to think before letting the racist out of the closet. There is another interpretation lurking beneath most overt actions. She went straight to who she is. Regardless of why, she sees things in a racist formula.
She definitely gets a bell curve.
I’m gay and it’s O’k.
Immediate expulsion to be followed in due course by trial and whatever punishment a jury of her peers and the law decides. Her mental health is her problem, not the School’s or the State’s. However, regarding reentry to the School at some point, it would be nice if administrators had some documentary evidence that psychiatric conditions were being or had been addressed before being seen to decide on her reentry.
I am not very sure just why a person who makes false claims is now a subject of a mental health examination. Some people just feel left out and know how to open a door that will make him or her (but mostly a her) a hero in the eyes of other like minded fools. Oh, poor me, I am not relevant. But I know how to become relevant. Just watch out Duke Lacrosse.
Most false claims involve insurance fraud and their motivation is clear-cut and easily understandable: greed In the instant case it seems likely some degree of mental illness was at least a contributing factor.
The woman’s problem is on two levels: society’s-ya can’t have these false accusations going on and the perpetrator must be punished if only to set a standard, her own-she obviously has her wires crossed regarding how to get attention and why
Seeing that she wanted press/attention then she should be expelled, forced to perform some relevant civic tasks, and made to apologize to the real victims whose condition she has worsened.
She’s a first-time offender committing a misdemeanor. Whatever the usual scale is in her locale for such persons is appropriate. this isn’t difficult, unless you’re one of the mouth-breathers this was posted to draw in.
Marky Mark Mark – I have it on good opinion that this article was posted specifically for SJW keyboard gender fluid keyboard warriors like yourself.
If she faked the whole thing she’s guilty of provision #1. She’s also probably mentally ill which complicates the issue. But if her mental health were not an issue I’d expel her from school, fine her the amount the authorities wasted investigating her false claim plus $1,000 and give her 75 days in jail
There’s no reason to believe the voices in her head told her to do this.
Further arrest this pathetic progressive PODung sodomite for threat/hate crime against LGBTQs.
What? You mean some people who make a public point of their homosexuality are self-dramatizing attention whores? Say it aint’ so…
Clap her in jail for a short spell. ‘Tis a pity Ohio doesn’t have corporal punishments in its penal code. Some whacks with a rattan cane delivered in the public square or some time in the pillory would be condign punishment.
i think the pillory is bad, it encourages other passersby to violate the law by abusing the offender, which is bad. but caning would be good for some offenses, provides a painful negative punishment that is low cost and effective, and does not harm society by sending the offender to a jail to lay about lazily and learn more about crime.
A journalism major creating fake news? She should get an internship with CNN! 😹😹😹
Not the answer to Turley’s question, but it seems that there is a higher percentage than “normal” of false threat claims by LBGTQ people.
Is there any correlation between their LBGTQ status and a desire for victimhood – no matter how achieved or how fraudulent?
Is there any correlation between their LBGTQ status and a desire for victimhood – no matter how achieved or how fraudulent?
See G. J. M van den Aardweg on this point. Such a self-understanding is foundational to male homosexuality. (I don’t believe he discusses lesbianism in regard to this, however).
Great point!
I like 4 months with expelling her and a $1,000 fine. People need to understand that words matter, and have consequences. If that person is ever going to learn a life’s lesson, she should feel the pain.
Expel her. Freeze her transcripts.
She needs mental health counseling.
Yeah, right. Leave no junior grade clinician behind. Which of your kids is nursing at this particular teat?
Tabarrok is in need of some mental health counseling over his just Making Stuff Up.
David Benson is the King of Making Stuff Up and owes me sixteen citations (one from the OED) and the source of a quotation, after nineteen weeks, and needs to cite all his work from now on. – the irony of that statement is breathtaking!!!
Optional. Give her the choice of either a year or 6 months + public displays of guilt and public addresses confirming how evil was her behavior and public repentance. If she publicly agrees to go straight and permanently renounce LGBTQ make it only 3 months, along with meeting Trump and kissing his hand and telling him he’s great, and wear a MAGA hat for a year.
No cruel or unusual punishment.
What for? She just had a low self esteem. Just like so many other college students who are bad for being born white, or male. She needs to learn the lessons of life, which includes right (rewarded) and wrong (punishment). Not have a lesson in POOR ME.
i agree, it might help, but i think a lot of false accusation type offenders have been bipolar, and that is a psychiatrist level diagnosis that the regular counselor can’t make. and the shrinks are too busy already.
mental health services need expansion, for the good of regular society, to put it mildly
mental health services need expansion, for the good of regular society, to put it mildly
Rubbish.
Not rubbish at all.
The post-60s decay of social structure of neighborhood, ethnicity, church, family, wider kinship, have left more and more individuals isolated, atomized, culturally clueless and generally without social support. Mental health services have had to keep pace and they have not. They are still reeling from the damage done from the excesses of the 70s when antipscyhotic drugs came online and they thought they could just empty out the sanitariums. Which was a big mistake. Still rebuilding and the overall mental health picture is worse than ever.
Mental health services have had to keep pace
You’re assuming that additional increments of attention from psychiatrists have actually been helpful to people. Which, of course, it the wrong assumption to make.
The suicide rate has for 60-odd years bounced around a set point of 4.8 per 100,000 for women and 18.5 per 100,000 for men, with the highest rates recorded around 1972. You’re not going to make the case by pointing to other metrics of anomie like the use of street drugs, because those have fluctuated up and down over the last four decades as well.
why’s it wrong? in work as a family lawyer, I find mental health workers from family counselors up to psychologists and psychiatrists very helpful. these statistics you cite may be meaningful but only in larger context. suicide is not the only issue. general difficulties imposed on regular society is a big issue too. like all the problems caused by the belligerent and irrational homeless who refuse treatment but fall short of the usual standard of commitment.
the big problem revolves around current standards for compelled treatment. in short, they are too loose. NAMI spells it out.
https://www.nami.org/About-NAMI/Policy-Platform/9-Legal-Issues
9.2 Involuntary Commitment/Court-ordered Treatment
(9.2.1) NAMI believes that all people should have the right to make their own decisions about medical treatment. However, NAMI is aware that there are individuals with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder who, at times, due to their illness, lack insight or good judgment about their need for medical treatment. NAMI is also aware that, in many states, laws and policies governing involuntary commitment and/or court-ordered treatment are inadequate.
(9.2.2) NAMI, therefore, believes that:
(9.2.3) The availability of effective, comprehensive, community-based systems of care for persons suffering from serious mental illnesses will diminish the need for involuntary commitment and/or court-ordered treatment.
(9.2.4) Methods for facilitating communications about treatment preferences among individuals with serious mental illnesses, family members, and treatment providers should be adopted and promoted in all states.
(9.2.5) Involuntary commitment and court-ordered treatment decisions must be made expeditiously and simultaneously in a single hearing so that individuals can receive treatment in a timely manner. The role of courts should be limited to review to ensure that procedures used in making these determinations comply with individual rights and due-process requirements. The role of the court does not include making medical decisions.
(9.2.6) Involuntary inpatient and outpatient commitment and court-ordered treatment should be used as a last resort and only when it is believed to be in the best interests of the individual.
(9.2.7) States should adopt broader, more flexible standards that would provide for involuntary commitment and/or court ordered treatment when an individual, due to mental illness
(9.2.7.1) is gravely disabled, which means that the person is substantially unable, to provide for any of his or her basic needs, such as food, clothing, shelter, health or safety; or
(9.2.7.2) is likely to substantially deteriorate if not provided with timely treatment; or
(9.2.7.3) lacks capacity, which means that, as a result of the serious mental illness, the person is unable to fully understand–or lacks judgment to make an informed decision about–his or her need for treatment, care, or supervision.
(9.2.8) Current interpretations of laws that require proof of dangerousness often produce unsatisfactory outcomes because individuals are allowed to deteriorate needlessly before involuntary commitment and/or court-ordered treatment can be instituted. When the “dangerousness standard” is used, it must be interpreted more broadly than “imminently” and/or “provably” dangerous.
(9.2.9) State laws should also allow for consideration of past history in making determinations about involuntary commitment and/or court-ordered treatment because past history is often a reliable way to anticipate the future course of illness.
(9.2.10) An independent administrative and/or judicial review must be guaranteed in all involuntary commitment and/or court-ordered treatment determinations. Individuals must be afforded access to appropriate representation knowledgeable about serious mental illnesses and provided opportunities to submit evidence in opposition to involuntary commitment and/or court-ordered treatment.
(9.2.11) Responsibility for determining court-ordered treatment should always be vested with medical professionals who—in conjunction with the individual, family, and other interested parties—must develop a plan for treatment.
(9.2.12) The legal standard for states to meet to justify emergency commitments for an initial 24 to 72 hours should be “information and belief.” For involuntary commitments beyond the initial period, the standard should be “clear and convincing evidence.” Involuntary commitments and/or court-ordered treatment must be periodically subject to administrative or judicial review to ascertain whether circumstances justify the continuation of these orders.
I’d give her about 3 months and expel her and maybe a $1,000 fine. This kind of thing does not need to happen.