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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Crime & justice fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about crime & justice. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

6,849 published reviews in this topic

El Detector / Univision NoticiasCrime & justice

W. Mitchell Nance, un juez de Kentucky, negó la adopción de niños por parte de parejas homosexuales.

Publisher’s rating: Falta Contexto

The review examines whether Kentucky family-court judge W. Mitchell Nance denied adoptions to same-sex couples. It reports that in April 2017 he recused himself from handling adoption cases sought by same-sex families, citing a conscientious objection. That was a decision not to hear those cases himself; it did not mean the court stopped accepting or processing them. The review says the other judge in the same family court, John T. Alexander, handled such cases, so Nance’s recusal did not prevent the adoptions from proceeding there. (“El magistrado, que ejercía en un tribunal de familia -que se ocupa de casos como divorcios, custodias y adopciones- sí se negó a tratar casos de adopción solicitada por familias homoparentales en abril de 2017, al recusarse a sí mismo de hacerlo. Pero eso no impidió que en dicha corte se recibieran y procesaran casos de este tipo, pues el otro juez del mismo tribunal los atendía,”) The account cites the recusal order Nance filed on April 27, 2017, in Kentucky’s 43rd Judicial Circuit, which includes Barren and Metcalfe counties. The order said he believed adoption by a “practicing homosexual” could not promote a child’s best interests. The review explains that he removed himself from those cases, rather than establishing a ban on adoption by same-sex couples or barring the court from considering their applications. (“Lo que quiere decir Nance, en palabras más sencillas, es que la adopción es un proceso en el que se busca el bienestar de la niñez, al ayudarle a conformar una familia. Pero el juez Nance creía que “bajo ninguna circunstancia” esto se cumpliría si entre los solicitantes de adopción había un “homosexual practicante”. Por eso se recusó y descalificó de seguir procesándolos.”) The review also reports that same-sex adoption was legal in the United States from 2015, and that Nance was found guilty of judicial ethics violations and misconduct by Kentucky’s Judicial Conduct Commission on December 19, 2017, receiving a public reprimand. Those details provide context for his action but do not change the distinction at the center of the claim: Nance declined to handle the cases, while the court continued to process them through the other judge. (“Finalmente, el 19 de diciembre de 2017, tres días después de que se formalizara surenuncia, Nance fue encontrado culpable de faltas a la ética y mala conducta por parte de la Comisión de Conducta Judicial de Kentucky, aunque solo recibió una amonestación pública porque ya estaba en proceso su jubilación.”)

dpaCrime & justice

Deze beelden tonen undercoveragenten bij de boerenprotesten.

Publisher’s rating: De beelden van politieagenten in burger zijn zo'n twee jaar oud en hebben niets met de huidige boerenprotesten te maken.

The claim concerns photos and video shared as evidence that undercover police officers were present at the farmers’ protests in the Netherlands. The review distinguishes the possibility that undercover officers may have attended those protests from what the circulated images establish: it says the images themselves do not show the claimed connection. It notes that the protests had been taking place since late June 2022 and that social-media posts speculated about police using undercover officers to inflame tensions. (The review describes that speculation as a claim, not as an established fact.) For the photo, the review traces it to a video of a demonstration against coronavirus measures in The Hague on 21 June 2020. It reports that the video was uploaded to YouTube the following day and that the photo is a screenshot from that video. The location and event therefore differ from the 2022 farmers’ protests, despite the image appearing to show people in civilian clothes by a police vehicle. The review traces the separately shared video to another demonstration against coronavirus measures in The Hague, this one in August 2020. It says the video was posted on Twitter on 20 August with a caption claiming that the police arrest unit was being attacked. These identified origins place both pieces of media about two years before the farmers’ protests at issue; they do not establish that the depicted people were undercover officers at those protests.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaCrime & justice

මෑතක වැල්ලවත්තේදී සිදු වූ මංකොල්ලයක් ද ? (VIDEO)

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned CCTV footage circulated as evidence of a recent robbery at an apartment building in Wellawatta, Sri Lanka. The investigation examined whether that footage showed a local, recent incident. It reports that the video itself displayed a date of July 7, 2021, and that the investigators found no report of such a robbery video being broadcast by major local news channels. [S1: “වැල්ලවත්ත ප්‍රදේශයේ මහල් නිවසක දී සිදු වූ මංකොල්ලයක් ලෙස සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ සංසරණය වූ CCTV දර්ශන පෙළක නිරවද්‍යතාවය සොයා අප කළ විමර්ශනයයි මේ.”] [S1: “සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ හුවමාරු වන CCTV දර්ශන හොඳින් නිරීක්ෂණය කිරීමේදී දැක ගන්නට ලැබුණේ, 2021 වසරේ ජූලි 07 වන දා වූ දර්ශන පෙළක් ලෙසට එම CCTV වීඩියෝ පටයේ සඳහන් වී ඇති බවයි.”] [S1: “නමුත් එවැනි වීඩියෝවක් ප්‍රධාන පුවත් නාලිකා ඔස්සේ විකාශය වූ බවක් අපට දැක ගන්නට නොලැබුණි.”] The article says the investigators took still images from the footage and used reverse-image search. They report that this led them to identify it as footage of a 2021 robbery in Uttam Nagar, West Delhi, India—not a recent incident in Sri Lanka. The article also says that Zee News crime editor Jitender Sharma posted the footage on Twitter on July 7, 2021, and that The Times of India reported that four armed people had broken into a property dealer’s home and stolen cash and jewellery. [S1: “අප මෙම වීඩියෝවෙන් ලබා ගත් ඡායාරූප Reverse Image සෙවුමක් සඳහා යොමු කළ අතර එහිදී අපට දැක ගන්නට ලැබුණේ , මෙම වීඩයෝව මෙරට සිදුවීමක් නොවන බවත්, මෑතකදී වූ සිදුවීමක් නොවන බවත්, ඉන්දියාවේ බටහිර දිල්ලියේ, උත්තම් නගර්හි දී 2021 වසරේ සිදු වූ මංකොල්ලයක් බවයි.”] [S1: “එම CCTV දර්ශන 2021 ජූලි 7 වන දින Zee News නාලිකාවේ අපරාධ අංශයේ ප්‍රධාන කර්තෘ Jitender Sharma විසින් Twitter ඔස්සේ පළකර තිබුණේ, මෙලෙසින් ආයුධ සන්නද්ධ පුද්ගලයන් 04 දෙනෙකු දේපළ වෙළඳාම්කරුවෙකුගේ නිවසට කඩා වැදී ලක්ෂ ගණනක් වටිනා මුදල් සහ ස්වර්ණාභරණ කොල්ලකා ඇති බවට The Times of India වෙබ් අඩවිය වාර්තා කර තිබුණේ මෙලෙසින්”] Thus, the footage’s dated and traced provenance contradicts its presentation as a recent Wellawatta robbery. The article’s conclusion identifies the scene as the 2021 West Delhi robbery recorded by a camera at that home. [S1: “අපගේ විමර්ශනයෙන් පෙන්වා දෙනු ලබන්නේ, මෑතක දී වැල්ලවත්ත ප්‍රදේශයේ දී සිදු වූ මංකොල්ලයක් ලෙස හඟවමින් සමාජ මාධ්‍ය ඔස්සේ සංසරණය වූ මහල් නිවසක සොරකමක CCTV දර්ශන පෙළින් දැක්වෙන්නේ , මෙරට වූ සිදුවීමක් නොව, 2021 වසරේ ඉන්දියාවේ බටහිර දිල්ලියේ සිදුවූ මංකොල්ලකෑමක්, එම නිවෙසේ CCTV කැමරාවේ පටිගත වී තිබූ ආකාරයක් බවයි.”]

FACTLYCrime & justice

A group of people abducted their ward councillor for neglecting the issues, and not visiting the ward after getting elected

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerns a video said to show residents abducting their councillor because he had not visited the ward after being elected. The review identifies the person in the video as Tufail Ansari, councillor for Ward No. 79 of the Varanasi Municipal Corporation, and places the incident in November 2020 in Ambiya Mandi, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. It reports that the dispute was about an unresolved sewage-water-logging problem, rather than simply a failure to visit the ward. According to the review, streets in Ambiya Mandi had experienced severe waterlogging for two to four months because of improper sewage management. Residents had complained several times, but the issue remained unresolved. The review says locals took Ansari while he was walking in the streets, tied him to a chair and placed him in sewage water for almost an hour, while protesting what they saw as local-administration negligence. This account supports a connection between the incident and unresolved ward problems, but does not support the video’s broader claim that the abduction was because Ansari had not visited after his election. The review also notes that Varanasi municipal elections had been held in 2017 and the next election was due in 2022. It uses that timeline to reject an alternative implication that the councillor was campaigning for an upcoming election. Its conclusion is that the video is being presented with a misleading account of why the locals restrained him.