Children made up story about white man urinating on black child: police

[demmiblue]

GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A story about a white man urinating on a 5-year-old black child and calling her a racial slur was fabricated, police said.

Grand Rapids police and prosecutors late Friday, Aug. 24 said they determined the story was not valid and said no charges would be issued against a 60-year-old man arrested following the initial report on Wednesday.

Police said several children, all 7 or younger, were playing together sometime before 6 p.m. Wednesday when one of the children urinated on the 5-year-old girl.

Kent County prosecutors said the parents of the children, in talking with them, ultimately determined the children "concocted the story to avoid trouble."

https://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2018/08/children_made_up_story_about_w.html?utm_campaign=mlive_sf&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

[juxtaposed]

1. kids will be kids, at times we will be also.

[LisaL]

5. Tell it to the guy who got arrested.

[CatMor]

9. The man who was falsely accused wouldn't agree with that

[BigmanPigman]

2. "But, but little kids never lie!"

Bull shit! They LIE constantly. Fortunately adults are usually smart enough to figure it out. I taught elementary school for almost 20 years and you wouldn't believe what I heard every day. The problem is that their parents always believe them (it was NOT like this when I was growing up). The fake prez and GOP certainly aren't setting good examples for kids AND adults.

[Jake Stern]

22. Seen and heard it all as a Para

The teacher hatched some ducklings as part of a lesson. The kids were told to not handle the ducklings but I walked up on one who swore he wasn't messing with them. . . .


. . . . .while he was holding a duckling in his hands.

[femmedem]

3. KnR because a correction should be as visible as a false story which damages a reputation. eom.

[Loki Liesmith]

4. KnR indeed

[JDC]

6. I will bump that up myself.

[cwydro]

7. OP of the other thread should edit.

Thanks for posting this.

[janterry]

8. I knew it was made up as soon as I saw the story

it just didn't sound true....too outlandish.

[Jake Stern]

10. So when can we expect a retraction and apology from Michael Harriot?

I'm guessing the the 1st of Never.

Self-righteousness means never having to say you're sorry.

On Edit: I hope this guy finds a good lawyer and sues the living shit out of the company the runs The Root.

[demmiblue]

11. A lot of people reported on this. But, who knows what the author of this piece will do:

https://www.theroot.com/its-official-white-feminists-are-the-worst-wypipo-in-t-1828519986

I read The Root when a story pops up on my Twitter feed and have no problem with the term wypipo (sometimes, I say it in my head about racist white people... lol), but Michael Harriot...

[mythology]

21. Michael Harriot is a racist idiot.

Why anybody follows his column is beyond me.

[USALiberal]

12. Kick

[SMC22307]

13. Seven or younger? How depressing.

Hope the man arrested is OK.

[sarah FAILIN]

16. The kids got the idea from somewhere

It's sad that this is how it happened. I've seen kids come up with whoppers, but this story could have got the man badly hurt.

[SMC22307]

19. He still could get hurt. His mug shot is out there...

and all it takes is one crazy who missed the "fabricated" news.

[RhodeIslandOne]

14. Sadly this man has mental illness

These children learned from somebody how to pick on the weak and most in need in our society.

[Raine]

15. Should be a lesson in this

don't always think the worst of people because of who they are.

[keithbvadu2]

17. Falsely crying wolf lowers the credibility of real events.

Falsely crying wolf lowers the credibility of real events.

[LuvLoogie]

18. My bad. On another thread, I said the only difference between this guy and trump is the money.

My apologies.

[Tipperary]

20. Color me not surprised. I wondered how a five year old could be playing in an "alley" without

adult supervision. Now that I see it is all made up, a lot of things fall into place. And I hope that kid that peed on the little girl gets some serious attention. That is not normal.

I will bet that the story is not retracted from the Root. Nor will the op that first was posted about this story be amended, which will not be surprising - but is just plain wrong.

[JHan]

23. The Root updated the story ..

https://www.theroot.com/prosecutors-say-white-man-who-peed-on-5-year-old-black-1828598921

I'm not a fan of Michael Harriot ( yes I know of his stupid anti-hillary article and other pieces he wrote I disagreed with) but he's one contributor out of many there.

It's nothing new for publications to be caught between publishing stories which may turn out not to be true vis a vis just reporting events as they occur and happen. In this case, a Sex Offender was alleged to have committed this act, and within that context, skepticism was shelved and Harriot allowed to publish his piece. This really isn't that unusual, particularly since children were involved.

And for a publication devoted to highlighting racial injustice, covering stories that are an exception to a pattern of racial injustice is actually unusual: https://www.theroot.com/south-carolina-naacp-president-claimed-he-was-racially-1826069258