The basic idea behind a hate crime is to punish those who target certain people simply because of their race or other factors like sexual orientation. While this helps to deter those who feel the need to hurt others because they are different, this also seems to open up certain groups to use the law to their advantage. This occurred over the weekend after a mob of Muslims attacked a couple and then tried to have the victims arrested for a hate crime.

This scene unfolded in a Columbus, Ohio neighborhood as a small dispute turned ugly. Over the weekend, a couple observed a mother yelling and hitting her child in the common area of the Pinellas Court apartments. Samantha Morales was one of the witnesses, and she stepped into help the child. The mother and child appeared to be refugees. When Morales came to the aid of the child then being beaten with a shoe, neighbors around the scuffle erupted.

A group of five African men then surrounded Morales and began to attack her. They appeared to be defending the actions of the mother who Morales was trying to stop from beating the young child. Even though the group out number Morales as she acted alone, one of the men tased Morales. A full sized man with the backing of 4 other people tased the woman.

When Morales was tased, her boyfriend stepped in to defend her. Ricky Boyce had initially stayed out of the argument that started between his girlfriend and the woman hitting the child. Boyce reacted as the situation escalated and even more people jumped into beat Morales.

As Morales was tased, she fell on the ground. A group of women in traditional Muslim dress joined the gang assaulting Morales. They kicked the victim as she was dazed and confused. Boyce pulled the woman off of his girlfriend and admitted to hitting at least one of the people who were actively attacking her.

After the brawl had been broken up, the police were called by members of the attacking mob. This scene was reported as being a hate crime, and the attackers quickly claimed to be the victim. In the minutes after the police arrived, Boyce was detained. As the police quickly discovered, the attackers were not truthful about what they said happened as there were far more victims than they reported.

The news reported that two Muslim women were beaten during a hate crime and transported to a local hospital. One of the Muslim women quickly became the voice of the alleged “hate crime” as a picture circulated of her severely injured face. When Rahma Warsame reported the incident, she made no mention of the fact that she was beating the tased Morales during the altercation that ended in her injuries. The news reports also failed to mention that Morales was also transported to the hospital via ambulance for her wounds.

With pictures circulating of Warsame wearing the traditional Muslim headgear and scabs on her face, she told a story of Boyce seeming to act with provocation. She told reporters that he attacked her and yelled racial slurs as he was doing so. There was no mention of the original attack, the group having Morales pinned or anything beyond Boyce attacking the women.

A variety of witnesses stepped forward to confirm the stories of both Boyce and Warsame. Even though Boyce was detained at first, the fact that many witnesses shared different details lead the police to confirm this was not a hate crime. According to local police:

“There was no indication that there were any kind of threats made or that this was ethnically or any other way biased. There’s no indication whatsoever that this was a hate crime.”

While the police made several statements concerning the investigation, Warsame continued to hold herself out as the victim. She also enlisted the services of Romin Iqbal, the legal director for Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Columbus. Iqbal contents that Warsame, even as she beat Morales after being hit with a taser, was a victim. CAIR described her role in the beating on Morales as being her trying to break up the fight.

When Morales was questioned about the two women that were transported to the hospital, she stated: