Skip to main content

PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Crime & justice fact checks

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

6,853 published reviews in this topic

Fact CrescendoCrime & justice

Claim: Muslims not attacked police sub inspector in chennai marina beach

Publisher’s rating: False

The post claimed that Muslim youths who had misbehaved with women while under the influence of cannabis at Chennai’s Marina Beach attacked sub-inspector Akilan, and that hundreds of Muslims later surrounded the police station to demand the arrested men’s release. Fact Crescendo investigated whether that account matched the incident shown in the circulated image and post. The review searched for reports of an attack on Akilan at Marina and found none for the recent period described in the post. It then traced the same post and images to a 2017 viral claim, and located a Dinakaran report dated 22 August 2017 describing the underlying incident. That report said Akilan was attacked after warning two men who were drinking alcohol on the beach; it identified the men as Hariram and Dinesh. The review says one was caught by members of the public and handed to police, while the other escaped. The review also contacted Marina police station. A station clerk told the fact-checkers that the incident was old, the men involved were not Muslim, and nobody had surrounded the station to seek their release. The review therefore concluded that the post had altered a real incident by adding a religious identity and an alleged protest that its cited reporting and police inquiry did not support. Its conclusion concerns this specific post; the excerpt does not establish details beyond the investigation described.

Fact CrescendoCrime & justice

तमिलनाडु के चेन्नई में एक पुलिसकर्मी पर मुस्लिम भीड़ द्वारा हमला किया गया है, ये तब हुआ जब इस पुलिसकर्मी ने नशे की हालत में धुत तीन मुस्लिम युवकों को में महिलाओं से दुर्व्यवहार करने से रोकने की कोशिश की थी

Publisher’s rating: False

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Bewaffnete Frauen auf der Straße und im Supermarkt - angeblich in Deutschland: Unter der Überschrift «Unbeschwert shoppen - Deutschland 2020» zeigt eine Foto-Kombo zwei Bilder. Auf dem linken sind drei Frauen abgebildet, die Pistolen im Holster führen und nebeneinander eine Straße entlanggehen. Das rechte Foto zeigt eine Frau vor einem Regal in einem Supermarkt; sie führt ebenfalls eine Waffe mit sich. «Frauen haben es in Deutschland leider nicht mehr leicht», wird dazu kommentiert.

Publisher’s rating: Das eine Bild wurde 2009 in Israel aufgenommen und das andere im Jahr 2010 in den USA.

The claim presented a collage of armed women as evidence about life in Germany in 2020. The review traced the two photographs separately and found that neither depicted a German scene: the image of three women came from Israel, while the supermarket image was made in the United States. This addresses the central implication of the caption, rather than disputing that the women or weapons appear in the pictures. For the photograph of the three women, the review describes a reverse-image search that led to social-media posts. A comment on a 2016 tweet identified the women as Israelis and linked to a photographer’s page showing the image. The photographer, Jean-Claude Coutausse, identified the women as military police officers and said he photographed them in West Jerusalem in November 2009. For the supermarket image, a reverse-image search led to the Alamy stock-photo database, whose listing placed the photograph in a Brentwood, California supermarket on July 29, 2010. The collage therefore combined photographs from different countries and years, rather than showing the claimed German setting. The review’s account supports the identification of the photographs through the photographer’s page and the stock-photo listing; the excerpt does not describe independent confirmation beyond those sources.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

«Berlin. Polizeigewalt gegen circa 10 jährigen Jungen»: So wird in einem Facebook-Post ein rund eineinhalb Minuten langes Video kommentiert. Im Video ist zu sehen, wie mehrere Polizisten - einige davon beritten - einen Fahrradfahrer in einem Park bedrängen. Sie bringen ihn zu Boden und nehmen ihn fest. Ein Mann, der sich der Gruppe nähert, wird ebenfalls von der Polizei zu Boden gebracht.

Publisher’s rating: Die Videoaufnahme entstand im Mai 2019 in Hannover. Der Fahrradfahrer war zum Zeitpunkt des Vorfalls 17 Jahre alt.

The post described in the review labels the footage as police violence against a boy of about 10 in Berlin. The review identifies the video as showing officers, including mounted officers, confronting a cyclist in a park, taking him to the ground and arresting him; a man who approaches is also brought to the ground. The review places the incident in Hannover, not Berlin, and says the cyclist was 17 at the time, rather than about 10. It dates the recording to May 2019. The review gives the incident date as 30 May 2019 and locates it at the north shore of the Maschsee in Hannover. It says that a hotel at that location is visible in the background at the start of the video. These details support its identification of the setting and distinguish the footage from the post’s Berlin description. The account also supplies context omitted from the post’s framing: before the recorded events, the cyclist reportedly spat at officers on horseback, and he was reportedly intoxicated. The review notes that the video prompted debate about whether the police control was proportionate, and that Hannover police subsequently issued a statement about their legal authority to use physical force as “immediate coercion.”

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Ein Video der gewaltsamen Festnahme einer Frau in Berlin sorgt in sozialen Netzwerken für Empörung. In einigen Posts zu dem Video heißt es, die Frau sei nach der Festnahme «auf der Fahrt in die Dienststelle» an inneren Verletzungen gestorben. Mancherorts war sogar von «Mord» der Polizisten an der Frau die Rede und von einem «Krieg», der angeblich bevorstehe.

Publisher’s rating: Es gibt keinen seriösen Beleg für die Behauptung, dass die Frau gestorben ist. Die Polizei Berlin dementiert dies, bestätigt allerdings die Festnahme. Ihr zufolge wurde die Frau leicht verletzt. Das Landeskriminalamt ermittle gegen die Polizisten wegen des Verdachts der Körperverletzung im Amt.

The claim concerned a video of a woman being arrested in Berlin. Posts about the video alleged that she died from internal injuries while being taken to a police station; some also described the incident as murder by police. The review reports that a Berlin police spokesperson directly denied that the woman had died, while confirming that she had been arrested. Police said she was slightly injured, and the Berlin State Criminal Police Office was investigating the officers over suspected assault while performing official duties. The review describes what the widely shared video shows: officers initially struggled to pull the woman’s arms behind her back while she was on the ground, and one officer then struck her twice between the shoulder blades. It also reports that police said the woman had allegedly kicked an officer in the stomach and tried to bite another officer’s arm before the arrest. These details document the incident and the allegations around it; they do not establish the social-media claim that she died. The account identifies the police spokesperson’s denial, a police statement about the encounter, and remarks by Berlin’s police president in a parliamentary committee as evidence bearing on the death claim. The police president said she knew of no death following a police operation. The review further notes that several early posts alleging the woman had died were later corrected or deleted.

FACTLYCrime & justice

Human meat found inside the Mc Donald’s meat factory in Oklahoma City

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media post alleging that human meat had been found inside a McDonald’s meat factory in Oklahoma City. The review also describes the post’s additional allegations: that authorities found human meat in 90% of McDonald’s meat factories and horse meat in 65% of them in the United States. The review identifies the accompanying video as having been created on Huzlers, rather than as evidence from a factory inspection. To check the claim, the review says it searched Google using the terms “Human meat found in Mc Donald’s meat factory” and found earlier reporting from the Independent and Snopes. It reports that the Independent described the factory story as false and traced it to a Huzlers article; it also says Snopes had published a fact-check on the story. The review describes Huzlers as a site that lets users create prank stories and quotes its “about” section characterizing its content as fictional entertainment. These findings identify the story’s stated origin as fabricated content, not documented discovery of human meat. The review further reports that McDonald’s, responding to a user who asked whether human meat was used in its burgers, said it used beef and chicken. On the evidence described in the review, the viral video and allegations were presented as a fake-news story, not as a substantiated finding at an Oklahoma City factory.

YouturnCrime & justice

மினி பாகிஸ்தான் ஆகும் சென்னை: மெரினா கடற்கரையில் கஞ்சா போதையில் பெண்களிடம் தவறாக நடந்துக்கொள்ள முயற்ச்சித்த திருவல்லிக்கேணி பகுதியை சேர்ந்த 3 இஸ்லாமிய இளைஞர்களை தட்டிக்கேட்க சென்ற உதவி ஆய்வாளர் அகிலனுக்கு சரமாரி வெட்டு.

Publisher’s rating: Fake