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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.

6,854 published reviews in this topic

Fact CrescendoCrime & justice

Claim: Misinformation on Uttar Pradesh girl tongue sacrifice

Publisher’s rating: False

A viral post claimed that people in Bundelkhand, Uttar Pradesh, cut an eighth-grade girl’s tongue and performed a ritual to protect their village from COVID-19. The original review says the post circulated with an image of a woman with a severed tongue and was shared on Facebook on June 7, 2020. The review’s stated conclusion is that the claim that others cut the girl’s tongue was false. To investigate, the reviewers say they ran a reverse-image search and searched in English and Hindi using terms relating to Uttar Pradesh and a severed tongue. They report finding news accounts published around May 23 about a girl who went to a Shiva temple, where her severed tongue was found near the idol. According to the review’s account of those reports, the girl had cut her own tongue, and she was taken to hospital and survived. That distinction addresses the central allegation: the reported injury occurred, but the evidence described in the review does not support the post’s claim that other people cut the girl’s tongue and conducted a ritual. The review concludes that no one else cut her tongue to perform the claimed पूजा. The supplied excerpt does not identify the girl, link the underlying news reports, or provide further corroborating records, so those details cannot be assessed here.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Op Facebook is een foto geplaatst van een zwarte man die bij een antiracismedemonstratie in Rotterdam een blanke man bijna dood zou hebben geslagen. Gesuggereerd wordt dat de politie naar hem op zoek is. Bij de posting is het bekende nummer van Meld Misdaad Anoniem geplaatst.

Publisher’s rating: Wat kennelijk moet lijken op een opsporingsbericht van de politie, is nep.

The post implied that police were looking for a Black man pictured after he had nearly beaten a white man to death at an anti-racism demonstration in Rotterdam. It also included the number for Meld Misdaad Anoniem. The review checked the police implication and the alleged assault, rather than treating the post’s wording as established fact. A spokesperson for national police leadership said the linked message had not come from the police. A Rotterdam police spokesperson told the reviewer that police knew of no incident matching the account: a man allegedly rendered unconscious with a knuckle-duster during the demonstration. The spokesperson also said nobody had reported such an incident. Police had no information about the named supposed victim, Daniel Gerritsen. The review further noted that the post referred to another post containing Gerritsen’s name, but reproduced only a photo, so the link could not be clicked. It reported that the pictured man’s cigarette appeared to have been manipulated into the image: rather than being in his mouth, it seemed to be attached to his upper lip or moustache. These points undermine the post’s presentation as a genuine police appeal; the excerpt does not establish who created it.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

In een bericht op Facebook uit een man zijn ongenoegen over hoe het verhaal van George Floyd in de media is gebracht. Zo zou de Amerikaan die stierf tijdens een arrestatie in Minneapolis een "indrukwekkende criminele staat van dienst" hebben, met onder andere "gewapende overvallen en kindermisbruik" in zijn dossier. Bovendien zou Floyd mede gestorven zijn door druggebruik en gezondheidsproblemen. Maar klopt dat allemaal?

Publisher’s rating: Het bericht is grotendeels fout. George Floyd is nooit veroordeeld voor kindermisbruik, noch speelden gezondheidsproblemen een rol tijdens zijn overlijden. Een autopsierapport toont aan dat Floyd stierf door verstikking. Ook de aanvullende bewering dat er in de VS ruim tweemaal zoveel blanke slachtoffers zijn ten gevolge van politiegeweld is onjuist.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Im Zusammenhang mit den Demonstrationen nach dem gewaltsamen Tod des Afroamerikaners George Floyd wird ein Video geteilt, das zeigen soll, wie die US-Polizei selbst eines ihrer Autos beschädigt. Das wird auch im Posting behauptet: «Polizei demoliert ihre eigenen Autos» (http://dpaq.de/J9Knx). Im Video unterstellt die filmende Person, dass die Polizei vermutlich die Demonstranten für die Schäden verantwortlich machen wolle

Publisher’s rating: Das Polizeiauto wurde durch randalierende Demonstranten schwer beschädigt. Die Polizei entfernte später die demolierte Windschutzscheibe, um das Fahrzeug wegfahren zu können.

The claim concerns a video shared in the aftermath of George Floyd’s death that appears to show police damaging their own vehicle. The person filming suggests that police may want to blame demonstrators for the damage. The investigation says the circulating clip was only an excerpt from a longer video and that additional footage of the same incident was available, including footage showing demonstrators damaging the police car. To establish that the additional footage depicted the same vehicle and location, the review compared visible features across the videos. It points to matching distinctive building lights and streetlights, and says the car occupied exactly the same position, with its left front tire on the intersection’s stop line. Those visual similarities link the clips rather than relying only on their shared subject matter. The longer video also supplies the sequence missing from the short clip: it ends with police driving the car away, after the damage had been inflicted by rioters. The review further cites reporting and statements from Boston police about why an officer removed the broken windshield: it impaired visibility, and removing it allowed the car to be driven away. Thus, the footage in the post omits material context about both who damaged the vehicle and what police did afterward.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

De voorbije dagen regende het filmpjes en berichten op sociale media als protest tegen de dood van de Amerikaan George Floyd. Zo werd een video waarin een zwarte man werd gearresteerd en vervolgens meteen weer vrijgelaten wereldwijd massaal gedeeld. Volgens verschillende posts op Facebook, Twitter en Instagram zou de man een undercover FBI-agent zijn.

Publisher’s rating: De video dateert van 2019 en werd door de heersende discussie gepubliceerd. Bovendien is er geen bewijs dat de man een FBI-agent is en ontkent de Amerikaanse politie dat de man voor de geheime dienst werkt.

The review examines a video circulated during protests following George Floyd’s death, in which a Black man is briefly handcuffed and then released. Social media posts claimed that he was an undercover FBI agent. The review reports that the incident took place in Rochester, Minnesota, and that the police explained the detention as a mistaken identification: the man matched the height, weight and age of someone they were seeking. The timing of the video was presented without important context when it was recirculated. Rochester police said it had been recorded on June 1, 2019, and the person believed to have filmed it also confirmed that date on Instagram. Thus, it was not footage of an arrest during the protests following Floyd’s death, even though it was shared amid that discussion. The review says the video itself provides no evidence that the man worked for the FBI. It also reports that Rochester police denied he had ever worked for the agency. The evidence described therefore does not support the undercover-agent claim; the documented explanation for the brief detention is mistaken identity.