Thursday, October 23, 2008

WTF!?!?

We have people killing bear cubs and wrapping the corpses in Obama signs. We have tires being slashed at Obama rallies. We have McCain supporters being beaten with their own signs. And now we have this?

Pittsburgh Police are investigating a report by a campaign staffer for John McCain that she was mugged and the letter B was cut into her face following a robbery in Bloomfield last night.

Police say the 20-year-old woman, who is from Texas, reported that the attack occurred after she withdrew money from an ATM at Liberty Avenue and Pearl Street.

She said a man armed with a knife demanded her money. She gave it to him and began walking toward her car, which has McCain stickers.

Although the robber had moved away from her, he became agitated when he saw her car, punched her in the back of the head, pushed her to the ground and carved a B into her face, she reported.

Police said the woman declined medical treatment at the scene.

Update: Added photo above and...

Wonkette is highly skeptical, noting the photo of the victim features a backward "B" - the kind you would write if you were, say, looking in a mirror. They also note that Pittsburgh's other paper, the Post-Gazette, includes this aspect of the story:

“This is what she’s telling police,” police spokeswoman Diane Richard said. “We can’t substantiate it at this time.”

Wonkette points out the similiarity of the story to the infamous Morton Downey episode in the San Francisco Airport:

In 1989, as fascination with Morton Downey Jr’s TV show began to wane, he was involved in an incident in a San Francisco International Airport restroom in which he claimed to have been attacked by neo-Nazis who painted a swastika on his face and attempted to shave his head. Some inconsistencies in Downey’s account (e.g., the swastika was painted in reverse, suggesting that Downey had drawn it himself in a mirror), and the failure of the police to find supportive evidence, led many to suspect that the incident was a hoax and a plea for attention. A few months later, the show was canceled.

Further scrutiny is called for.

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