[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yep, I remember the upsidedown and backwards "KKK" carving.

When people fake these "hate crimes", they generally have little or no knowledge of crime beyond what they see on TV. The cops usually can see right through their story because their stories are almost always based on stereotypes of what they think a crime should be, not what they really are. And their stories are generally not thought out well and are full of inconsistencies. It's more difficult than people think to fake a crime like this and the people who fake them are not generally very bright.

[dighton]

'... in this work [by Sydney Smith] there is naturally a chapter on self-inflicted wounds.'

'Oh.'

'Yes, oh. How a genuine wound inflicted on a person trying to protect himself or herself from an assailant with a knife is usually on or in the hand, sometimes the wrist, the inside of the wrist. That's point one. The characteristics of a self-inflicted wound are, made in a safe part of the body unless of course we're talking about throat-cutting et cetera, so not for example the inside of the wrist where there are dodgy things like veins but for example the forearm, the top or outside of the forearm.' He made gestures in case I had never bothered to find out what a forearm was. 'Where Susan, er, was wounded.

'Next thing, the cut will not penetrate what we medical johnnies call the true skin, that's your corium, a quarter of an inch or so deep in places like that. As with Susan's wound. Then, the cut follows the curvature of the body if that part is curved, like the forearm. You can see how that wouldn't happen with a real stab. I'd have liked to take a better look but it's a pound to a pinch of s**t that Susan's wound did that. And the last thing but perhaps the most telling, I've never quite understood why, but they all seem to have a dry run or two first, little tentative nicks alongside the main wound, even the cut-throat brigade -- I've seen it. Anyway, there were a couple of those on Susan's arm. And there we are. I'd take my chance with a jury on it.'

-- Kingsley Amis, Stanley and the Women.

[Arleigh]

The cops usually can see right through their story because their stories are almost always based on stereotypes of what they think a crime should be, not what they really are.

In the Brawley case, one big fat red flag was the rape accusation. Whites almost never rape blacks.