That incident with the lady in the restaurant happened around here. It didn't come down as you describe, at all. The woman appeared honest and stuck to her story, while the students were alternatively hostile and defensive, cried "racism!" loudly and often, and changed their stories to the police and to the press several times. And, oddly enough, my opinion is that the same thing was going on there that I believe happened here -- the students were deliberately baiting the woman. (They loudly said something like, "If they think 9-11 was bad, wait until they see what's going to happen soon . . . ") And another parallel besides the deliberate baiting and the "race card" - given that stories came out after 9-11 about vague threats made by Mohammed Atta and others that were NOT acted upon, the woman felt it was a good idea to notify the authorities.
You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't.
the students were deliberately baiting the woman.Apparently, the woman was easily baited. Her son did not buy the bait story, according to her own version of the events. I also find interesting that her son was never shown telling his side of the story.
I wonder if the son's recollection varied from the mother's recollection of the events.
At any rate, I live in Florida, and I had 24 hr coverage of the story. My recollection is that the med students were cleared, and the toll-violation fine given to them was publicly revoked by the police, after the officers had time to review the toll video tapes.