August 13, 2020

"Seven weeks after a biracial woman told police she had been sprayed with lighter fluid by a group of white men and then set on fire..."

"... police and the woman’s family say the investigation into the incident continues. But little information about the June 24 incident has been released as the Madison police and the FBI continue to investigate. Madison police spokesman Joel DeSpain said... 'There is nothing new to release at this time'...  Althea Bernstein, 18, of Monona, told police she was stopped at a stoplight, possibly on West Gorham Street at State Street, around 1 a.m. on June 24 when four white men approached her vehicle. One yelled a racial epithet. She told police one of the men sprayed her with lighter fluid through her open driver’s-side window, then threw a lighter or match at her, igniting the fluid on her face and neck. She said they looked like 'frat boys' and that two were wearing floral shirts and blue jeans. The other two, she said, were dressed all in black and were wearing masks.... [P]olice have not released any surveillance camera images.... The Bernstein incident has been a much-debated topic of discussion on social media, with many asking why police have not released any further information since it was initially reported."

The Wisconsin State Journal reports.

ADDED: Couldn't the police just tell us whether there is continual camera footage for all the intersections crossing State Street and whether there's an image of her car when it crossed State Street? Shouldn't that be easy? She's clear that it happened crossing State Street. In Madison, crossing State Street is very obvious. You know when you're there, and she said that's where it happened. Shouldn't the police at least be able to tell us that something or nothing happened as the car crossed State Street (or alternatively that there is no footage of the car crossing State Street)? This story was such a big deal at the time, and it stirred people up about racial hatred. It's important to get the truth out so we can feel relieved or wary, depending on the evidence.

163 comments:

Lucid-Ideas said...

Fake. News.

Lucid-Ideas said...

There was a sub-reddit that actually got shut down because it deigned to document fake hate crimes. The number of these incidents and their associated description was huge.

But it had to be shut down for narrative protection.

Gahrie said...

Let's put it this way...if the camera footage supported her case, how likely is it that the tapes would have been "leaked" by now? Where is the lawsuit filed by the media to release the tapes?

Geoff Matthews said...

This didn't happen like this.
She was participating in the riots, got burned by someone spraying lighter fluid, and made this story up so her parents wouldn't ground her.

Kai Akker said...

Arrests forthcoming imminently ..... 10-1
Frat Boys Found Guilty ..... 20-1
Partially corroborating evidence to come ..... 12-1
Rumors of crack use by complainant ..... 7-1
Rumors of erratic behaviors by complainant ..... 9-2
Sudden withdrawal of complaint ..... 7-2
Totally fake report ..... 8-5

Amichel said...

Hard to investigate something that never happened.

D.D. Driver said...

"[P]olice have not released any surveillance camera images.... The Bernstein incident has been a much-debated topic of discussion on social media, with many asking why police have not released any further information since it was initially reported."

That *is* super weird. Leave it to the fascist Madison cops to conspire with the boogaloos to cover up this totally real crime.

Anotherthing2 said...

One question after just reading your post. What women alone sees a group of men, white or black approaching their car, night or day and leaves the drivers side window down?

Jupiter said...

I really kind of feel sorry for her. But what she needs to do is fess up and get it over with. At most, they'll charge her with filing a false report, and give her 200 hours of community service, where she'll make some new friends and maybe learn a useful skill. At least she did not name any names.

I suppose what has her worried is the arson part. And rightly so.

Mr Wibble said...

The Bernstein incident has been a much-debated topic of discussion on social media, with many asking why police have not released any further information since it was initially reported."

Because there isn't any more information to release. She made the whole thing up.

traditionalguy said...

Cover Up City. Truth is a terrible thing appearing in the Narrative Press. Maybe a 60 year Investigation is what is needed here. That is what the FBI does for a living.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

two were wearing floral shirts and blue jeans. The other two, she said, were dressed all in black and were wearing masks....

Uh oh. Antifa and the boogaloo boys have joined forces! Behold the power of white solidarity. It can bridge the bridge the gap between the far left and far right.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

The Bernstein incident has been a much-debated topic of discussion on social media, with many asking why police have not released any further information since it was initially reported.


Well, at a guess it's because her story is a fraud, and they're slowly working to prove that

Bernstein, she said, “continues to deal with the trauma she experienced day by day.”

If he face had been burned by lighter fluid, she'd be dealing with the dmagage and pain from burns, for which they'd have pictures.

All those lacking, she made it up

D. said...

Oh noes another hoax that didn't gain traction.

Fernandinande said...

Juicy Smo-lay did it.

Either that or it's another anti-white racial hate crime.

rcocean said...

Floral shirts? She said they were wearing *Hawaiian* Shirts - Y'know just like Boogaloo boys that were sighted by the MSM at various riots. Someone noted on twitter, that she had just left a crowd of rioters that burn down a building, which means she might have burned herself at the same time she said she was attacked,

BTW, why didn't the police release more information on the CAR. Wouldn't that have been helpful? Or provided the public with something more than vague descriptions like: "White" "Young" "Looks like frat boys"?

And good to know they were wearing "black masks" and being careful about medical safety while they were carrying around batches of lighter fluid and lighters.

David-2 said...

It's a puzzler.

Yancey Ward said...

The story was always bullshit. She was almost certainly burned in the attempted arson earlier that night. For this hoax to take hold, she needed to take too much fentanyl and meth before going to the police.

madAsHell said...

Did she pay them with a check?

MadisonMan said...

My guess is that surveillance camera images of the incident do not exist.

Francisco D said...

The Bernstein incident has been a much-debated topic of discussion on social media, with many asking why police have not released any further information since it was initially reported.

The police are secretly rounding up men wearing Hawaiian shirts (i.e., Boogaloo Boys) in large numbers. One of them will crack under questioning.

The investigators owe a great deal to our resident Bedpan Commando for her very helpful tips about these White Supremacists who were paid by Carter Page on Putin's orders.

JCA1 said...

There really needs to be a betting site for whether these kinds of things end up as hoaxes. I would love to see the odds if money was actually on the line. My guess is you would have to bet $1,000 to win $10 that this is a hoax.

Dan from Madison said...

I'm not sure what the most ridiculous part of the hoax is yet.

Megan Markle calling her.
The interview on Good Morning America.
Zero information from the FBI or Madison Police, nothing to let us know that there aren't devils walking around this fair city igniting people because they are mixed race.
Her hilarious original call to the police.
The parents actually being on board.
The Mayor of Madison falling for it 100%.

There are probably other things that are ridiculous but these things stick out off the top of my head.

Carol said...

Riiight...sounds more like that woman who tried to blow up a parked car, poked her head inside the window as she threw the match and it blew up in her face. Damn!

But could still be played for effect, no?

California Snow said...

This has all the markings of another fake hate crime.

chuck said...

"Frat boys"? I smell a rat.

Rick said...

They can't release images because there aren't any.

A month ago, she [the lawyer] said she had advised the family against making statements to avoid compromising the work of investigators.

Sure.

tim in vermont said...

Probably because it matched the accelerant from the attempt to burn down that government building a short ways away a short time before this happened that she spilled on herself when she was trying to commit mass murder. OK, that’s just a guess on my part. It would be interesting to know if it was the same stuff and my bet is that we will never hear, just like we will never hear anything but the press stories about Charlottesville, because the press stories worked out great for the Democrats and the truth might be somewhat different.

Todd said...

In Madison? Really? Madison is a hot-bed of white supremacist? Not Georgia, not Alabama, not Texas but Madison?

It seems suspect that no additional information has been released. If we go by recent history either (a) it was faked and all involved are trying to extricate themselves so as to not harsh the narrative or (b) it was a bunch of Democrats and/or sons of powerful Democrats.

1 a.m, so (just like with Jessie) packs of white supremacists are on the prowl in Madison in the wee hours of the morning just looking for lone POC to attack. Oh and there are those damning "floral shirts"! That is how you tell the right-wing bogaloo-boys from the left wing KKK, the floral shirts!

Ann, good thing you have a gun, Madison is becoming a lawless hell-hole!

Mary Beth said...

"A lighter or a match". If one of these was thrown, wouldn't it be in the car with her? It's hard to get any distance with a match and it still be lit. A lighter would have to be a Zippo-style one, as far as I know, others would go out as soon as you let go of them.

"In the meantime, police have not released any surveillance camera images, as they did in other recent cases that led to arrests...Police have also released images of other persons of interest in the CCB incident."

Is the WiSJ trying to imply that they aren't releasing video of this to protect four white boys? My first assumption would be that there isn't any video or that video doesn't show what she says happened.

Fernandinande said...

Juicy Smo-lay did it.

Which reminds me,

“@JussieSmollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery. This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate.” -- Kamala Harris, who helped cover-up the hate rather than confront it.

Drago said...

What we require at this moment is that unique combination of lunatic conspiracy theorizing and self-declared mind-reading capability.

With that I'll ask the obvious and inevitable question:

Inga, do you think the Russians helped Steve Bannon develop a new hawaiian-shirt-related invisibility tactic that enables Bannon to manipulate naive, innocent, pure of heart, Howards antifa/marxist Heroes to do things they shouldnt and then disappear as if he was never there?

Temujin said...

Black Lies Matter.

I won't believe her until I see her interviewed by Don Lemon on CNN.

Just kidding.

Richard Dolan said...

Just remember, silence = violence. Or, as it was said in an earlier era, silence = consent.
You must believe her truth, and while you're at it, defund the police, now. It's Madison, after all.

exhelodrvr1 said...

Just following suit with the Harris/Biden lies

Mary Beth said...

Lucid-Ideas said...

There was a sub-reddit that actually got shut down


Hate crime hoaxes was killed in the purge, now there's r/hoaxhatecrimes.

Jupiter said...

"If he face had been burned by lighter fluid, she'd be dealing with the dmagage and pain from burns, for which they'd have pictures."

Oh, she got burned alright, and they have the pictures. That's why she had to make up this ridiculous tale. She was helping her boyfriend set fire to buildings, and got burns on her face, and Mom wanted to know where she got them. Then she wanted to call the police. Mom just doesn't get it.

It really is amazing, to me at least, that there are people who could hear this tale and not know, instantly, exactly what really happened. Four boogaloo frat boys roaming the streets of Madison during a BLM riot, terrorizing biracial motorists with lighter fluid for fun and profit? Right. Right!

Joe Smith said...

If this did happen as stated and the perpetrators are caught and convicted, I would be OK with the death penalty. Attempted murder by those means is truly horrific.

On the other hand, it she is found to have lied about the incident, she should suffer the exact same punishment.

As someone once said, there aren't enough hate crimes in this country, so black people have to do it themselves.

RobinGoodfellow said...

I’ll take “Things That Never Happened” for $800, Alex!

Calypso Facto said...

Jupiter said..."I suppose what has her worried is the arson part. And rightly so."
Only because it's an ATF investigation. The MPD would never be allowed to follow through. We'll see about the Feds.

MadisonMan said..."My guess is that surveillance camera images of the incident do not exist."
The INCIDENT did not exist, or the footage may NO LONGER exist, but the intersection in question has 2 traffic cams that should have been able to quickly confirm or rebut the accusation.

tim in vermont said..."It would be interesting to know if it was the same [accelerant]"
Lighter fluid in both cases, so yes, at least superficially.


Fernandinande said...

The Wisconsin State Journal reports

Scrolling and browsing thru their various news-ish articles, it's funny how they decide when race is important to mention (white man says something mean to black teenagers), and when they don't mention it at all (black men shoot into black crowd), or only off-handedly mention it at the end of the article in a suspect description, like a shirt color (black man attacks white jogger-woman).

Mike Sylwester said...

A month ago, she [the lawyer] said she had advised the family against making statements to avoid compromising the work of investigators.

Hate-crime hoaxsters always should lawyer-up quickly.

wendybar said...

The media is still ignoring the little 5 year old boy, Cannon Hinnant getting shot in the head point blank in front of his young siblings by a black man...It doesn't fit the agenda. If it were a white man who shot a black child, it would be on 24/7 and we all know it.

Ice Nine said...

>>"One yelled a racial epithet...She said they looked like 'frat boys' and that two were wearing floral shirts and blue jeans."<<

What? No noose?!

Gahrie said...

My guess is that surveillance camera images of the incident do not exist.

Anymore.

Narr said...

I just saw some pix of Ms Bernstein.

That's the face of a lying whore.

Narr
Ho, whatever

rhhardin said...

Lighter fluid is pretty rare.

Gilbert Pinfold said...

Frat boys. In June. In a university town where the university shut down due to a pandemic. Right...

Tommy Duncan said...

This will be "under investigation" until the rioting subsides in November. At that time this we be shown to be a fraud.

Sebastian said...

#397 at fakehatecrimes.org.

Known Unknown said...

Our hostess needs a "cruel naiveté" tag.

walter said...

Reporting that there's nothing to report.
Actually, I'm surprised they yanked this out of the memory hole.

Birkel said...

The story was a lie the whole time.
It was not a big story; that is another lie.
It was a lie in which some gladly participated.

Healthy skepticism and pattern recognition must be neither cruel nor neutral.

zipity said...


*sniff*

*sniff*

I smell A1 Prime BS.

Fernandinande said...

The media is still ignoring the little 5 year old boy, Cannon Hinnant getting shot in the head point blank in front of his young siblings by a black man...It doesn't fit the agenda.

Google says: Your search - site:nytimes.com "Cannon Hinnant" - did not match any news results.

And: Your search - site:washingtonpost.com "Cannon Hinnant" - did not match any news results.

But the local news is not completely ignoring it, what they're completely ignoring is the race of the child murderer: of the first six "news" articles from a news search on "Cannon Hinnant", none, as in zero, mention that the racial hate-crime murderer is BLACK, although two, or the six, had a picture of him. (And no, I didn't look any further than six articles)

If it were a white man who shot a black child, it would be on 24/7 and we all know it.

The MSM's black-supremacist racism is absolutely disgusting and also rather dangerous, and Hinnant murder is a better example of the MSM's dishonesty than the examples I mentioned above.

But what about Amy Cooper's racial reign of terror?!

google [site:nytimes.com "amy cooper"] "About 110,000 results", the first one starts off "When Amy Cooper, a white woman,..."

google [site:washingtonpost.com "amy cooper"] "About 1,580 results"
The first wapoo result also mentions that she's white in its first sentence.

(Note: yes I know the preliminary # of results returned by google is fake; the wapoo only mentions "amy cooper" 290 times, and the nyt only 291 times. Only.)

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

I'll bet my bank account she is a leftwing liar.

zipity said...


About a year ago, the small college campus I work at sent out a mass email about an "incident" when a student of color was walking on campus and was accosted by someone yelling racial epithets at her. Much hand wringing ensued.

Nothing. NOTHING was ever mentioned about it again. It must have been a hoax, but a Liberal college would rather have their tongue cut out than admit that.

Jupiter said...

The funny thing is, by now, the cops all KNOW that the story is a lie. Like I know there are four fingers and a thumb on my right hand. So, why don't they say so? Any ideas?

Butkus51 said...

It worked for Justine Smolliet, and it continues to work. In the end they never get called on it. They know that.

Thats how dems roll. It just is.

gerry said...

What women alone sees a group of men, white or black approaching their car, night or day and leaves the drivers side window down?

She was hunting for a five-way.

Bill, Republic of Texas said...

The media is still ignoring the little 5 year old boy, Cannon Hinnant getting shot in the head point blank in front of his young siblings by a black man..

We need a list:

BLM attacking a Ronald McDonald's House terrifying you sick, dying children and their families;

Antifa barricading doors to a police station and then trying to start a fire to burn the people inside.

Tomcc said...

I suppose it's a good sign that the credulous press is presenting this information rather than ignoring it and hoping that no one asks for a follow up. I find it truly unnerving that there exists a segment of our society that not only accepts these stories without skepticism, but also supports the idea that looters and rioters should face no punishment. Somehow, in the course of the last 50 years, we've managed to diminish (almost to the point of extinction) the ability to apply critical thinking.

GingerBeer said...

Was she bravely able to hold on to her "Subway" sandwich during the attack?

Dude1394 said...

All these should be considered fake until proven. Unlike fake black killings which rocket around the world as true so that BLM can rob, loot and kill.

IamDevo said...

Contrast the media attention this faker got with the near total silence on this:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/08/12/north-carolina-man-arrested-after-shooting-death-of-5-year-old-boy/

rehajm said...

Couldn't the police just tell us whether there is continual camera footage for all the intersections crossing State Street and whether there's an image of her car when it crossed State Street?

Answer: Yes.

Of course in Boston they spent millions on street corner cameras, microphones, air sniffers et al as part of the homeland security upgrades. They see you when you're sleeping. They know when you're awake.

...and what you're up to.

Yancey Ward said...

You know her parents have to know she is lying.

CJinPA said...

On July 14, same game: Police, family saying little about investigation of alleged hate crime

Give the news outlet credit for at least occasionally following up. I wonder what the other news outlets that first reported it have done to follow up.

JohnAnnArbor said...

They'll ignore the Cannon Hinnant story and find a new "Karen" to turn into a National News Story® about "How America is Full of Racists."

It worked for Justine Smolliet, and it continues to work. In the end they never get called on it. They know that.

To be fair, one of the two well-publicized Ann Arbor area post-Trump-election "hate incidents" ended in a hoaxer conviction. The other was a hoax too, but they did not pursue it, with an implied "extenuating circumstances" (may have been a nutty person).

mandrewa said...

I don't know what the truth is in this incident. It could have happened. Or it could be a made up story. There is a long, long list of similar stories which after investigation have proved to be utter fabrication.

Rarely do the authors of these extraordinary lies suffer any real punishment. the most publicized -- publicized because the press initially acted like it was true -- recent example of that would be Jessie Smollett.

What I do know is that the press is institutionally racist in how they report things like this. They are constantly lying by omission. It is an everyday thing.

The underlying truth, which the public doesn't know, is that ninety percent of the time when there is interracial violence between white people and black people, it is the black person that is doing the violence.

If you normalize that, that is take into account that blacks are only 14% of the population, that statistic will become even more dramatically one-sided.

Our leftwing press is censoring virtually all of these black-white atrocities. We have a major, major real problem with black hate crime.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Yep, IamDevo. Hack-D press and leftwing google not interested in covering this shooting

Greg The Class Traitor said...

To answer your question Professor Althouse:

Of course the police could tell you that

Now, how do you think the Mayor would respond to the police trying to tell people that an "important hate crime" was in fact a lie?

So now, you know why the police aren't saying anything. Because if they had video of the attack, it would be publicly shared, to hunt down the perpetrators

Big Mike said...

Seems obvious to me. The Madison PD is trying to figure out how to call the incident a hoax without calling the biracial woman a liar. Tough to fo, so it may take a while.

Not Sure said...

Why are the lefty commenters so strikingly missing from this thread? Silence is violence, y'know.

This would be a fitting spot for sunsong's swan song.

Lucid-Ideas said...

@Bill, Republic of Texas

Say. His. Name.

Cannon Hinnant.

If I'm required to hear daily about fentanyl floyd, I'm going to make it so other people hear about Cannon. Mention his name everywhere you post or comment.

I have fucking had it with the media blackout on the 99:1 ratio of violent crimes perpetrated by 'people of color' against whites as opposed to vice versa.

Cannon Hinnant.

Mike of Snoqualmie said...

Sounds like Diane Downs and her "bushy haired stranger" who killed one of her three kids and shot her in the arm.

PB said...

The demand for racism exceeds the supply. Another Jussie Smollett copy attempting to become politically relevant.

Greg The Class Traitor said...

Jupiter said...
"If he face had been burned by lighter fluid, she'd be dealing with the dmagage and pain from burns, for which they'd have pictures."

Oh, she got burned alright, and they have the pictures. That's why she had to make up this ridiculous tale. She was helping her boyfriend set fire to buildings, and got burns on her face, and Mom wanted to know where she got them. Then she wanted to call the police. Mom just doesn't get it.


Ah, thank you Jupiter. Being right for the wrong reasons isn't good enough, so I'll shut up about this one.

Mr. Forward said...

Vampires do not show up on camera. You would think the FBI would have figured this out by now. How many vampire fraternities can there be in Madison?

Pettifogger said...

If there were any evidence supporting her allegations, we'd know about it.

n.n said...

An abortion zone, a Smollett, "hands up", a drug overdose, rapping a white Hispanic-American (1/3?) on the ground, a twisted rung, a not rape or rape-rape, a transgender couplet's feud, a protest, an occupation, and a self-immolation, too. A black hole... whore h/t NAACP. When has the diversity racket got it right?

n.n said...

The demand for racism exceeds the supply.

It always has. Whether it is racism, sexism, or some other class-based judgment, America, Americans, are not in principle diversitists.

rcocean said...

Yeah, the police and the "Victim" certainly are tight-fisted with the information aren't they? My friends we have people so vicious that they burned an innocent 16 y/o girl with lighter fluids. And yet the police seem indifferent that these fiends are walking around Madison planning more hate crimes!

They seek them here,
They seek them there,
Those policemen seek them everywhere.

Are they in heaven?
Are they in hell?
Those damned elusive Nazi swells

tim maguire said...

Geoff Matthews said...
She was participating in the riots, got burned by someone spraying lighter fluid, and made this story up so her parents wouldn't ground her.


By far the most likely explanation. And at the other end of the "did it happen?" scale, the explanation you can rule out right away with certainty that it didn't happen is the one she gave to police. Not a snowball's change in hell that she was lit on fire at an intersection by white men in floral shirts shouting racial epithets. And you can break that claim into individual pieces (white men, floral shirts, shouting racial epithets) and none of those pieces happened either.

rcocean said...

The left-wing journalist actually leaves out details to make her story more believable. For example, the first story said the four Boogoloo boys drove up in a care. This journalist says they "approached her car". What, on foot? In a balloon? what exactly?

Then we're told it was a lighter OR a match. Huh? If it was lighter it would have had to hit her face and it'd still be in the car. Or did they put the lighter up to her face, in which case they'd have burnt their hand. The original story was they threw the lighter fluid on her face and THEN threw a lighter that hit her on the face. Maybe, like Smollett, she's changing the details, because we all have trouble remember how someone burnt our face. Its just one of those minor things in life we just forget about.



Gahrie said...

You know her parents have to know she is lying.

So? It's their chance to hit the lottery.

Rory said...

It took the Smithsonian three years to announce that, in a brand new building, security footage didn't pick up somebody dropping a noose. You can scroll through hundred of Google entries before coming to one about the followup.

MeatPopscicle1234 said...

And yet, where is the national outrage over the video showing the black guy lighting a woman on fire that he's tied up at a convenience store and then walking away? We have direct evidence this did happen (as opposed to another race-based hoax).

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

And no charges against Miriam Potter Carre. I’m sure DA ozanne is working diligently, intelligently, and caucasoidally on the case. Oh well, it would be racist to say her parents’ life mattered, as they no doubt would have agreed.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

could it be said that whenever video is withheld from the public

... it is because it is damaging to The Narrative ?

Johnathan Birks said...

What would be a good tag for this story? #Jussieing? #Smollettry? Or maybe go old school with #Brawlery?

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Inga is absent from this thread because the nimrod eagerly and predictably swallowed this crock of shit:

Inga said...
Another article about the incident, with a few more details.

An 18-year-old Black woman says she was attacked with lighter fluid and flame early Wednesday morning by white men yelling racial slurs. She sustained second- and third-degree burns.

Althea Bernstein works as an EMT while studying to be a paramedic and firefighter. She says she was on her way to her brother’s house at around 1 am Wednesday when she reached a stoplight on Gorham Street near State Street in downtown Madison. She doesn’t remember for sure which intersection it was.


She said she’s reasonably certain it was four white men who “looked like classic Wisconsin frat boys … Two of them were wearing all black, and then the other two were wearing jeans and a floral shirt,” she said. She said the way they walked made her think they were intoxicated.”

6/25/20, 4:21 PM

"Classic Wisconsin frat boys" In "floral shirts!" Inga's boogaloos!

Howard said...

Nobody cares. You people are losing this issue big time. Conway Twitty West isn't going to help you

BUMBLE BEE said...

If your business had cameras on that intersection wouldn't it be wise to, (ahem), have experienced a technical glitch that destroyed said footage? I mean she was coming from an arson orgy. Her pals might just be a bit peeved with your contribution to the case. Lose Lose as I see it.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Mom gotta cover for her nationally known douche bag daughter. What would the neighbors say?

Swede said...

Then they put on their MAGA hats and said "This is MAGA country!" as they lit a cross on fire and played hillbilly music and started to do-si-do.

The left isn't just stupid, they're fucking unimaginative.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

When is a half-black person not simply called “black”? When her surname is her mother’s maiden name, and she has never met her father.

Bay Area Guy said...

Were two Nigerian actors with MAGA hats and a noose involved?

If not, Justice!

tim in vermont said...

"It's important to get the truth out so we can feel relieved or wary, depending on the evidence.”

That was what would have been done in the old racist America. Now everything has to get by censors so nobody gets the wrong idea from facts that it’s better that they don’t know.

“All the video we see fit to show you.”

The Charlottesville trial is over. Where is the video evidence from that? It won’t be released and is under control of the Democrats, who have been using it for partisan advantage since whatever happened there happened. It’s not for the like of us to see what the censors won’t show us.

Jim at said...

It's an obvious lie. You can tell because there was neither a noose, nor bleach involved.

tim in vermont said...

"Lighter fluid is pretty rare.”

That’s what I was thinking too.

"Hate-crime hoaxsters always should lawyer-up quickly.”

Bingo. Next case. I used to pity the trouble that Russians under the Soviets had to go through to learn the real news, and sort of laugh at them. Well I know now that it’s not funny to live like that.

David Blaska said...

It was the WI State Journal's way of tip toeing around the increasingly obvious conclusion that Althea Bernstein will join that pantheon occupied by Tawana Brawley and Jussie Smollett. Madison's own "Hands up, don't shoot!" urban myth. The poor girl needed an excuse for why she got to close to the molotov cocktails thrown at the City County Bldg and the Movement needed a new martyr to replace the Black Jesus, Yesha Musa (aka: Devonere A. Johnson), who was revealed to be a shake-down artist with a robust criminal history.

My sources tell me there is no video of such an occurrence, which was fantastic (as in a fantasy) from the start. ("Four classic Wisconsin frat boys" carrying a quart of Kingsford charcoal lighter fluid up State Street from the deserted university campus!)

Is why.

Leland said...

Couldn't the police just tell us whether there is continual camera footage for all the intersections crossing State Street and whether there's an image of her car when it crossed State Street? Shouldn't that be easy? She's clear that it happened crossing State Street.

In Houston a couple of years ago, we had a tragic case of a child, Jazmine Barnes, being shot in a car while riding along in a car on a highway. The mother driving the car mentioned seeing a red truck that was confirmed by camera footage that was released to the public. The driver of the red truck was properly described as a white man. This set off national protests of a white man killing a little black girl over nothing. However, the investigation continued. They found the driver of the truck, who later received death threats from the public. But also somebody phoned in a tip that lead the actual shooter. It was a black man part of a gang that set out to do a gangland assassination and missed their target and hit the young girl.

I'd say there is good reason for police not to release video footage that they are unsure validates or invalidates the allegations. The trial shouldn't be in the press or in public, but in a court room.

Tomcc said...

"...depending on the evidence."
Evidence, you say! The sceptic in me suggests that it is either being ignored/discarded or manufactured at this very moment.

Bob Smith said...

The narrative nazis got me with Duke LaCrosse. Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.

tim d said...

why so many questions althouse? just call it like you see it, no need for the "cruel" pretense.

paminwi said...

Street cameras on State Street intersection.
They know what kind of car she has
They could probably trace her movements from both before and after “the incident” by reviewing tapes of an 8-10 block area around that intersection.
If they haven’t done that they are morons.
I hope the Madison police are NOT withholding this kind of evidence from the ATF.
I would love for THEM to have a press conference.
In all honesty I don’t trust the Madison police to do a good job with this kind of case at all.

gilbar said...

Greg The Class Traitor said...
many asking why police have not released any further information since it was initially reported.

Well, at a guess it's because her story is a fraud, and they're slowly working to prove that


Greg? i don't know if you were just being sarcastic; but this was Madison Police, they're Not working to prove it's a fraud, they're slowly working to HOPE people will just forget about this fraud
OF COURSE it was a fraud... OF COURSE the Madison cops are NOT going to say it is

robother said...

Hmmm. Describing her as "biracial" (was that term ever applied to Obama, or Kamala?) seems like a tell that even the media is backing away from this one. Kind of like the guy who shot Obama's metaphorical son was "white hispanic."

Michael said...

The root of the issue is that white supremicists do not spend one second thinking about hurting black people. Getting four louts to agree to spray lighter fluid (!) on a black woman is preposterous. Did not happen. As the wag said there is way more demand for the KKK than supply. Of course the press is easily gulled with these claims. Easily.

Krumhorn said...

Must have been some badass boyz up from south Beloit.

- Krumhorn

Unknown said...

DID THEY EVER CATCH THE KILLER OF OJS WIFE?

John Cunningham said...

Cannon Hinnant. For real news about the USSA, read the Daily Mail and the Sun.

Nichevo said...


Blogger Jupiter said...
I really kind of feel sorry for her. But what she needs to do is fess up and get it over with. At most, they'll charge her with filing a false report, and give her 200 hours of community service, where she'll make some new friends and maybe learn a useful skill. At least she did not name any names.


Why does she "need" to do that? Civil society "needs" her to do that, but she "needs" to a) protect herself from fraud and/or arson charges, b) perpetuate the evil narrative that white guys tried to set a black woman on fire.


Blogger Known Unknown said...
Our hostess needs a "cruel naiveté" tag.

Bat your eyes some more, honey. Jiggle and giggle and wiggle. Do your little-girl voice.


Ann Althouse said...

This story was such a big deal at the time, and it stirred people up about racial hatred. It's important to get the truth out so we can feel relieved or wary, depending on the evidence.

It was intended to stir up hatred and division, it's doing so, and it's important to hide the truth in order to continue doing so, to deny us relief.

WHAT DON'T YOU GET, BETTY BOOP?!

RobinGoodfellow said...

“Blogger MadisonMan said...
My guess is that surveillance camera images of the incident do not exist.”

Cameras are everywhere nowadays. My guess is that if any footage exists, it doesn’t show anything like what she describes.

5M - Eckstine said...

There is probably a definite percentage of people in the country who lie awoke at night fantasying about being the victim of a hate crime. The motives should be obvious.

Lewis Wetzel said...

Have they started insisting that to be anti-crime is to be racist? Cuz' that's where the geniuses in the Party of Science are going.

PJ57 said...

Madison's Jussie Smollet

Mary Beth said...

If the burn was from the earlier arson rather than an attack at the intersection, the police may not be saying there isn't video because they are pressuring her to name some of the arsonists.

I'm sure there are other reasons for the police to keep quiet, but this seems like one of the most likely reasons to me.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Yes Howard - we all know the collective left are a pile of liars and Hunter Bidens.

You should be real excited.

Clyde said...

Hmmmm... What word can you make from X-A-H-O?

Drago said...

Howard: "Nobody cares. You people are losing this issue big time. Conway Twitty West isn't going to help you"

Note the pride Howard exhibits over these hoaxes.

He is truly proud of them.

Birkel said...

Howard,
You are claiming Republicans are losing the racial hoax issue to the Democratic racial hoaxsters?

Let's agree to disagree.

Narayanan said...

Q#1 : have they impounded the car - which is both crime scene and evidence

Inga said...

So, it sounds like everyone here has already decided she lied, with no evidence she lied and granted there seems to be no evidence she is telling the truth either.

Narayanan said...

wendybar said...
The media is still ignoring the little 5 year old boy, Cannon Hinnant getting shot in the head point blank in front of his young siblings by a black man...
-------------==============
i read that the child was riding his bike and trespassed into neighbor-property-driveway-lawn.

neighbor trespassed right back and shot him on child's property-lawn-porch-driveway.
(that neighbor also had dinner with child and family previous day)

Chris N said...

At Peace Pavilion West, what you feel as a minority victim will be taken seriously by the Collective. There will be a review by the Community Empath Committee, and then a throughly scientific camera and social patrol and worker rights analysis.

Minority black and brown bodies will not be victimized by aggression, oppression and regression.

Original Mike said...

"Have they started insisting that to be anti-crime is to be racist? Cuz' that's where the geniuses in the Party of Science are going."

They've been saying that since Nixon, and probably before that.

stevew said...

As far as we know right now this is a non-event. There is no evidence of happened, and no admission that it didn't. This makes it a meh.

Original Mike said...

Here's something we do know happened: Chicago Looters Intent on Their 'Reparation' Terrorized Sick Kids at Ronald McDonald House

Martin said...

It would be important if something happened as she descibed. If it didn't hapen, it serves nobody's interest to make that known.

If she mostly or totally made it up, I would expect the Madison and Dane County authorities to suppress that fact until the whole thing goes away. Being who they are.

The story sounds about as likely as Jussie Smollett's or Bubba Wallace's. I could be convinced otherwise by real evidence, but as the number of hoaxes has far exceeded that number of actual incients, I do need to see something.

Was she taken to an ER, with second and third degree burns? Where? When? By Whom? Clinical report? When was she released from the ER or hospital if admitted? Pictures?

What did the forensic analysis of her car turn up? Should be lots of scorched surfaces and traces or more of flammable liquid.

There should be a lot more evidence than merely videos, and even if videos don't exist, answers to teh above would go a longw ay toestablishing that SOMETHING happened.

jeyi said...

Forget it, Jake. It's Mad Town.

jeyi said...

Forget i, Jake. It's Mad Town.

Hanoi Paris Hilton said...

Foregt it, Jake. This is Mad Town

chickelit said...

Is there evidence that she was at the riots where accelerants were used?

gilbar said...

serious question
how many people here, have tried flipping a match at anything?
next time you're lighting your charcoal BBQ, give it a try!
see how far you can flip it and have it light?
Start from about 6 feet away, and then move closer if you need to
Let us know how you did. Inquiring minds want to know

ps. I already know how this worked for me; i'll tell you after a few respond

Drago said...

Inga: "So, it sounds like everyone here has already decided she lied, with no evidence she lied and granted there seems to be no evidence she is telling the truth either."

There are now hundreds if not thousands of examples of your team creating and lying about hoaxes.

And you've jumped on every single one of them.

So yes, in this case she is a liar unless there is actual proof offered for this unbelievable situation, and not fake "proof" like your russian collusion/Kavanaugh gang rape lies.

Rory said...

"There is no evidence of happened, and no admission that it didn't."

Evidence is any information that makes the truth of an assertion more of less likely. So you weigh the evidence going either way.

Birkel said...

Royal ass Inga wants the race hoaxers to be neither believed nor disbelieved.

Cool.

historyDoc said...

The attack on this fine young lady sounds like something Haven Monahan or Rollo Tomasi might have done.

Joe Smith said...

I'm half Italian, some French, some Irish, A bit of German maybe...and a tiny bit Jewish if Ancestry.com is reliable.

Am I bi/multi racial? If not, why not?

Remember, when my Italian grandfather came to this country in 1920, Italians were not considered 'white.'

Where are my goodies?

stevew said...

Rory: FYI and to clarify, I would say at this point given what is known that this alleged event did not happen. But, we just don't know for sure. Yet.

Fernandinande said...

Remember, when my Italian grandfather came to this country in 1920, Italians were not considered 'white.'

"Sorry, but the Irish were always ‘white’ (and so were Italians, Jews and so on)"

They weren't segregated from white schools, neighborhoods, labor unions or marriage, etc.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Juicy Smoolette smoothie never really paid for his manufactured crime. Must be nice to be above the law. Perhaps President Kamala can make all crime legal for anyone committing crimes on behalf of the democratic party/mafia. Perhaps she can bring Portland brownshirts to all our cities.

but then again - there are all those MAGA hat wearing boogaloos wandering the streets of chicago at night. Just waiting to pounce.

DanTheMan said...

>>Remember, when my Italian grandfather came to this country in 1920, Italians were not considered 'white.'

As a young man in the 30's, my dad tried to join the US Navy. They told him they didn't take Dagos, but if he could speak Spanish they'd put him down as Filipino and he could be a steward.

He declined. And got drafted into the US Army in '43.

Narr said...


gilbar's on to something.

Flipping matches . . . it's the kind of seemingly useless skill that racist frat boys would have a lot of time to hone, especially with school out.

To throw/toss/propel a lit match (or more high-tech device) with proper range and azimuth requires some practice (or so I'm told by a friend).

Narr
It's even more difficult outside

DanTheMan said...

>They weren't segregated from white schools, neighborhoods, labor unions or marriage, etc.

My American father, born of two Sicilian parents in Tampa, would beg to differ. Italians certainly were were segregated from schools, unions, and sometimes church marriages.

Jews had it even worse. I'm not sure where your faulty assumption comes from.

Nichevo said...


MeatPopscicle1234 said...
And yet, where is the national outrage over the video showing the black guy lighting a woman on fire that he's tied up at a convenience store and then walking away? We have direct evidence this did happen (as opposed to another race-based hoax).


Might help if YOU provided a link, names, places, dates.

Joe Smith said...

"They weren't segregated from white schools, neighborhoods, labor unions or marriage, etc."

They lived in Italian ghettos. There were no labor unions for men using a pick and shovel.

Most (including my grandfather) never went to high school. There was no welfare...even if there was my grandfather wouldn't have taken it.

Of course they were white, but to Americans who had been here a few generations they weren't considered so.

And the Irish and the Italians have nothing in common except for shared discrimination. The Italians were quite a few shades darker than the average American. Discrimination was rampant.

Bunkypotatohead said...

The antifa people burning down Portland look like white frat boys too.

effinayright said...

What I want to know is....just how many times these lurid racist claims have been confirmed, as opposed to the number that have been proven to be faked or debunked wrt to lack of supporting evidence, or exposed as outright contradictions/lies as in Smollet's case..

Anyone keeping track?

Seems to me, given the sensitivity to alleged race offenses, the law ought to be amended to make FALSE CLAIMS about racism subject to severe jail time.

But only a GOP sweep would make this possible, and even then only on the federal level.


effinayright said...

Fernandinande said...
Remember, when my Italian grandfather came to this country in 1920, Italians were not considered 'white.'

"Sorry, but the Irish were always ‘white’ (and so were Italians, Jews and so on)"

They weren't segregated from white schools, neighborhoods, labor unions or marriage, etc
*************

Correctamente.

The idiot who made that original claim can offer no evidence for *racial* distinctions for Europeans, north or south. I invite him to provide evidence to the contrary...but they never do.

OTOH ^ethnic^ discrimination was a "thing" back then. But Italian-Irish intermarriage helped end that, as did Jewish marriages with goyim: see "Abie's Irish Rose", a comedy about an inter-faith marriage. It was enormously popular back in "melting pot" America.

It's very hard to argue that America hasn't been enormously supple in dealing with the infusion of many races and cultures.

MadTownGuy said...

Lighter fluid...was it Kingsford or Ronsonol? Just wondering. The containers are distinctive.

exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...

Fernandinande said...
Remember, when my Italian grandfather came to this country in 1920, Italians were not considered 'white.'

"Sorry, but the Irish were always ‘white’ (and so were Italians, Jews and so on)"

They weren't segregated from white schools, neighborhoods, labor unions or marriage, etc.

8/13/20, 9:14 PM

They were not segregated - but they weren't seen as exactly the same class of whites as WASPs or Nordic peoples either. As historian Paul Johnson notes, it's forgotten now how strong inter-white prejudice was in the early 20th century. People did indeed speak of the "English race" or "German race" and northern Europeans were believed to be racially superior to people of Southern and Eastern European stock.

Of course, inter-white prejudice still exists - but now it is based on beliefs and social class. Woke white professionals consider themselves superior to blue collar "deplorables." Inga thinks her white GOP neighbors are trash because they don't think like she does.

Tina Trent said...

The real purpose of these perverse laws is to manufacture social hatred towards the desired targets.

We've had hate crime laws in Georgia for two weeks and we have our first huge hoax, as the activists salivate in excited anticipation for the first case that will stick. It won't be this one. A black man claimed to have been assaulted by several white men who jumped out of a truck shouting racial slurs. His parents immediately began soliciting money. Video has already shown that he staged the imaginary attack, but the police don't dare admit this, and the media is silent. Meanwhile, the man talked his way into an apartment, sexually assaulted one of the three women there and shot a gun several times at the women, one of whom had an infant girl in her arms.

Question: why wasn't he charged with gender bias hate for targeting and attacking a woman's genitals? Answer: because the activists don't want to count heterosexual, biologically female victims of sex crime as victims of gender bias hate because, in the immortal words of Bill Clinton, "there are just too many of them."

Hate crime laws themselves are the real hoax.

Ryan said...

What are her two races? Jewish father / black mother?

Gabriel said...

Have to wonder if the people taking this story straight have ever used a match or a lighter.

Throwing a match hard enough to travel any distance (because it's light, won't travel far due to drag) and having it remain lit is quite an accomplishment. Yes we've seen it in movies, right, where it's faked.

Lighters, the Bic kind, do not stay lit once you take your thumb off them, that's a safety feature.

A big heavy Ronson-type lighter would stay lit, and throw well, but still be in the car and maybe even leave a bruise.

And all this from people in another car, 3 - 6 feet away? It is to laugh.

Gabriel said...

Have to wonder if the people taking this story straight have ever used a match or a lighter.

Throwing a match hard enough to travel any distance (because it's light, won't travel far due to drag) and having it remain lit is quite an accomplishment. Yes we've seen it in movies, right, where it's faked.

Lighters, the Bic kind, do not stay lit once you take your thumb off them, that's a safety feature.

A big heavy Ronson-type lighter would stay lit, and throw well, but still be in the car and maybe even leave a bruise.

And all this from people in another car, 3 - 6 feet away? It is to laugh.

dbp said...

Steve Sailer has been on this story from the start and his theories sound vastly more likely than that of our young burn victim:

"Miss Bernstein claims she wasn’t at the infamous riot that was going on in downtown Madison at 1 a.m. on Wednesday, June 24; she was just driving next to the riot.

That night the leftist Mostly Peaceful Protesters toppled two statues that had long been icons of Madison progressives—abolitionist Union Army hero Hans Christian Heg and “Forward,” a female symbol of progress designed by a woman sculptor in 1895—and they beat up a gay Democratic state senator, Tim Carpenter.

Most frighteningly, around 1 a.m. a week ago, the moment Bernstein says she was being attacked with lighter fluid, the Madison mob set fire, using lighter fluid, to the City County Building, home to the jail and the 911 call center. The call center had to be evacuated, but at least the fire was put out before the 180 inmates burned to death.

This set off a squabble between political leaders of the liberal Dane County, where Trump won only 23 percent of the vote, and extremely liberal Madison. The county officials were outraged that the city leaders had let BLM/Antifa set their mutual building on fire.

The coincidence that both the alleged arson and the documented arson involved lighter fluid has not been much remarked upon. (You can see a security-camera photo of a rioter spraying the jailhouse with the kind of lighter fluid used to get charcoal burning here.)

I don’t know what the real story is behind young Miss Bernstein’s politically correct fiction about homicidal frat boys and lighter fluid, but let me make a few wild surmises.

Perhaps her mom wouldn’t let her take the car unless she promised not to go to the riot. But riots sound like fun when you are 18, especially after going stir-crazy during the lockdown. And, of greatest importance for an 18-year-old girl, at a riot there are always boys.

By the way, for ten weeks, as you may recall, the Establishment told everybody that the current pandemic was the worst thing in the history of the world. But then in late May the conventional wisdom suddenly forgot about the virus and switched to the death of George Floyd as the most important event ever, so therefore young people should form vast mobs and Mostly Peacefully Protest. Is it any surprise that the number of new coronavirus cases in Madison has quadrupled over the past week?

But bad things tend to happen at riots, such as arson and, say, blowback from arson. While it can be exciting watching somebody try to burn down the county jail, lighter fluid and flame make a volatile combination. People can get hurt.

But getting burnt during the mob’s arson spree can be not just painful, but legally worrisome. Lighting fires may seem like summer-camp fun and games, but setting civic property on fire is a felony. And witnesses to felonies can be subpoenaed.

So before you go to the emergency room, you would need a scenario, a plotline involving lighter fluid.

Granted, four right-wing frat boys shouting the N-word and setting you on fire during a Black Lives Matter riot is a truly stupid story. But a lot of people will believe anything these days as long as it is inspired by antiwhite racism.

Now, I don’t know if any of my speculation is true. But you have to admit that something like this is more plausible than the spiel Meghan and poor Harry fell for."

Joe Smith said...

@ exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil

I was being facetious to make a point...the race-mongering on the Democrat side is appalling. I am tired of the goddamn boxes being checked. You are what you are...live your life.

Clues? said...

www.nbc15.com/2020/06/24/atf-offers-5000-reward-in-firebombing-of-city-county-building/
Article includes surveillance photos of “protesters” from the BLM riot less than an hour prior and only a few blocks up the street from Althea’s encounter with magical racist warlocks. Note the use of a large squeeze bottle of charcoal lighter fluid—so the saddest part of her story is the lack of imagination.

Clues? said...

Rahm Emanuel, the unlikeliest of heroes. He actually let the Chicago(!) PD follow the clues from Smollett down the one truly verboten line of inquiry. The unspeakable line of inquiry. And then when the truth proved DOUBLE PLUS UNGOOD, he didn’t stall, or redirect or bury it. That’s the most amazing part. Instead, he owned it and even backed his detectives and their investigation after the county prosecutor dropped the charges. Meanwhile, every “friend,” colleague, advisor, and mentor (yes, Him) was screaming at Rahm every step of the way to STOP, STALL, REDIRECT, BURY, and STFU. It would have been soooo easy. Nobody would have pressed him. The Smollett Legend would have become canon, with the media crucifying anyone who dared to doubt. But Rahm did not obey—it was his shining moment.

Will Mayor Rhodes-Conway do likewise? Has she any integrity? Seven weeks without a peep pretty much says it all.

(yeah, I had to look up her name... and I live in Madison... too depressing to keep track of which new lunatic holds the keys of this truly wonderful yet enigmatic nuthouse I’ve called home all my life)

David Weitzel said...

Althea Bernstein Webcast last night. No information I can find. Still in hiding it seems. Why no info? It seems so apparent. What is the real agenda.