Albany, N.Y.

The story isn't just falling apart. It's in shambles.

Video evidence doesn't show three black students being attacked by a gang of people on a CDTA bus, according to those who have seen it. What's more, accounts from other passengers contradict claims that the alleged attack was racially motivated.

This has turned into one of the oddest Capital Region news stories in recent memory.

And the damage it has caused won't be easily undone.

The assault is alleged to have happened early on Jan. 30, a Saturday morning, and that's when at least two of the three female students took to Twitter and Instagram with their claims.

"I just got jumped on a bus while people hit us and called us the 'n' word and nobody helped us," wrote one of the students.

"I got beat up by 20 people screaming racial slurs," wrote another, later adding that "a whole bunch of guys started hitting me and my two friends."

The women also claimed that campus police were indifferent to their plight, and that a CDTA bus driver declined to help.

There was skepticism about the claims from the start, but it isn't surprising that such a horrific story would garner significant attention. Most of the UAlbany campus was aware of the allegations by lunch, and university President Robert Jones sent out a midafternoon email to students that condemned the attack.

"I am deeply concerned, saddened and angry about this incident," Jones wrote. (I'm guessing Jones now wishes he'd added an "if true" to that sentence.)

The story, fueled by understandable outrage, spread across the Internet in the days that followed, staining both the school and its city. There was even a massive rally on campus in support of the women.

But was the story true?

That question seemed to fall by the wayside.

"I begged people to help us and instead of help they told us to shut the (bleep) up and continuously hit us in the head," one of the girls wrote on Twitter.

But those who have seen the videos say they do not show the women being assaulted by a group of people. There was definitely a fight — a white female student suffered a black eye — but it isn't clear how it started and seems to have involved a small number of people.

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Meanwhile, other minority students who were riding the bus have told investigators they didn't hear racial slurs and didn't see the girls being attacked, according to people who were shown the statements by Albany County District Attorney David Soares.

In short, the story just isn't holding up.

Now, there are those who will respond angrily to this column, who will see any questioning of the original narrative as a denial of the truth and an affront to a movement.

There are others who are already responding with glee as the story falls apart. They seem to think that disproving the students' claims means that there is no racism and that all black victims should forever be discredited.

But those are the shrill voices at the extremes, the people who don't care about the truth unless they can mold it to their pre-conceived notions. Ignore those voices as best you can.

How should the rest of us view this?

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I wish I had something profound to offer, but I'm running on empty. I'm mostly just baffled, and I suspect many others are, too.

I suppose I could offer some pablum about how we should all wait for the facts before making a decision, but what's the point? Spending five minutes on Facebook proves that notion to be entirely antiquated; people rush to judgment 10 times before breakfast.

Certainly, there is something to be said about the so-called culture of victimhood — the growing propensity of people to see themselves as wronged, even when they haven't been. That would seem to fit this situation, with the caveat that we never really know what's going on in another person's head.

The biggest problem with everybody claiming to be victims, of course, is that it makes the world less willing to believe, you know, actual victims.

If the claims made by the three UAlbany students prove to be false, which seems increasingly likely, will anybody believe some future student who has actually been victimized?

Will there be a rally for that student, or will the campus shrug with indifference?

What a mess. What a horrible, horrible mess.

cchurchill@timesunion.com • 518-454-5442 • @chris_churchill