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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

Deutsche Presse-AgenturCrime & justice

Die Festnahme eines Mediziners in der Schweiz sorgt für Diskussionen in den sozialen Medien. Unter anderem kursiert die Behauptung, der Arzt sei festgenommen worden, weil er die Maßnahmen im Zuge der Coronavirus-Krise öffentlich kritisiert habe

Publisher’s rating: Die Polizei nahm den Arzt fest, weil er Drohungen im Internet verbreitet haben soll. Bei einer Hausdurchsuchung wurde nach Angaben der Staatsanwaltschaft eine Schusswaffe sichergestellt. Der Mann wurde in eine psychiatrische Klinik eingewiesen.

The claim concerned the reason for the provisional arrest of a 58-year-old doctor in Wettingen, Switzerland: social-media posts alleged that he had been detained for publicly criticizing coronavirus measures. The review reports that the Aargau cantonal police issued a statement about the arrest on 12 April 2020, which had taken place on the Saturday before Easter. According to that statement, the man was suspected of making threats against relatives and authorities—not arrested simply for his pandemic views. [S1: “Die Kantonspolizei Aargau hat am 12. April 2020 eine Mitteilung zu der vorläufigen Festnahme am Karsamstag in Wettingen (http://dpaq.de/VsY9i) veröffentlicht. Demnach soll der 58-Jährige Drohungen gegen Angehörige und Behörden verbreitet haben.”] The review says dpa checked the police account by asking Alex Dutler, spokesperson for the Aargau senior prosecutor’s office, who confirmed it. It also cites Dutler’s interview with Swiss Radio and Television (SRF): he said investigators found a firearm in the house, and that doctors examining the arrested man considered him medically unfit for detention. The review therefore describes a police intervention based on suspected threats and concerns about possible access to a weapon, rather than an arrest for public criticism of coronavirus policy. [S1: “Alex Dutler, Sprecher der Aargauer Oberstaatsanwaltschaft, bestätigte der Deutschen Presse-Agentur die Darstellung der Polizei. Im Interview mit dem Schweizer Radio und Fernsehen sagte er zudem, die Ermittler hätten im Haus eine Schusswaffe gefunden. Der Festgenommene sei nach Ansicht der untersuchenden Ärzte aus gesundheitlichen Gründen nicht haftfähig gewesen (http://dpaq.de/rxgbL).”] The review also addresses the asserted connection to the doctor’s pandemic views. Dutler said the intervention would have occurred even if the arrested man had not been a coronavirus critic. That statement supports the distinction between the doctor’s public position and the grounds described by police and prosecutors; it does not establish that criticism of the measures played no role in the broader online discussion. [S1: “Weil sich in den sozialen Medien diverse Nutzer mit dem Arzt solidarisiert und behauptet haben, er sei wegen seiner Thesen zur aktuellen Pandemie festgenommen worden, stellt Dutler klar: \"Die Intervention hätte auch stattgefunden, wenn der Verhaftete kein Corona-Kritiker wäre.\"”]

台灣事實查核中心Crime & justice

傳言引述美國媒體報導指出：「美國 FBI已經警告我們華人區，將會有暴動，因為美國有六十萬的無業流氓，最近監獄又釋放很多罪犯出來...他們會出來生事、暴動搶劫，向我們華人下手」？

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim attributes to an American media report an FBI warning that unemployed people and recently released prisoners would cause riots and robberies, targeting Chinese communities. The Taiwan FactCheck Center identifies the cited report as ABC News’s coverage of an FBI analysis concerning possible hate crimes against Asian Americans during the coronavirus outbreak. The issue it examined was whether that report contained the claim about unemployed people, released prisoners, and impending violence.

台灣事實查核中心Crime & justice

網傳男子當街被打屁股影片宣稱「台灣要學學外國、罰100萬台灣人也不怕！他們有的是錢！要嚴懲這樣、再亂趴趴走！捉到就是這樣的下塲！」？

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim uses a video of a man being beaten on the buttocks to suggest that a foreign punishment was imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and urges Taiwan to adopt a severe penalty for people who go out. The review identifies the footage as an earlier incident in Mexico, not an enforcement action connected to the pandemic: it says the video shows “2019年6月，墨西哥一名男子因竊盜被警察持球棒打屁股” and that the event was “與新冠病毒疫情無關。” To trace the footage, the review reports searching English terms including “Police” and “Baseball bat.” It found a June 10, 2019 ViralTab article with three videos, the third of which matched the circulating clip. The review also recounts the dialogue heard in the footage: a man pleads for the beating to stop, while another voice asks whether he will steal again. The article placed the incident in Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel region. As a further check, the review translated the search terms “警察 球棒 打屁股” into Spanish and searched for them. It found a June 1, 2019 Radio Fórmula report about a man accused of theft who was handcuffed to a patrol car, partially undressed, and beaten on the buttocks with a baseball bat. It also found a June 3 El Diario report whose image matched the circulating video and which likewise described the event as occurring in the Sinaloa Cartel region. Together, these findings show that the clip was repurposed from a 2019 theft-related incident to support a claim about pandemic penalties in Taiwan.

FACTLYCrime & justice

A woman in UP threw her five children into the river as they had no food to eat during the current lockdown

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a specific incident in Bhadohi district, Uttar Pradesh: a woman threw her five children into the Ganga, allegedly because her family had no food during the lockdown. FACTLY’s investigation accepts that the children were thrown into the river but disputes the stated reason. It reports that Bhadohi Police said the incident followed a quarrel with the woman’s husband and mental stress, rather than hunger. The key distinction is therefore not whether the incident happened, but whether food scarcity caused it. The review describes checking the police explanation against other available information. It says police shared a video in which the woman mentions the fight with her husband, and images of food items from her house. FACTLY also says it used the family’s details to look up ration records on Uttar Pradesh’s NFSA website. Those records showed the family received 14 kg of rice and 21 kg of wheat on 8 March 2020, which the article says was in accordance with NFSA norms. Taken together, the police account, the described video, the food images and the ration record support the review’s conclusion that the specific claim attributing the act to hunger was false. The excerpt does not establish every circumstance of the incident independently; its reported evidence addresses the asserted motive and the family’s access to food.

boolshat.comCrime & justice

the US does not have the death penalty

Publisher’s rating: False

Research from related reporting documents capital punishment in U.S. states, contradicting the claim that the United States does not have the death penalty. A report on Tennessee describes state officials discussing execution methods and says that “Most U.S. states that allow executions use lethal injection as their primary means.” It also identifies other authorized methods: “Death by electricity or gas is authorized in nine states,” and “Five states authorize a firing squad.” These are descriptions of state laws, not merely discussion of a foreign system or an unrelated use of the term “death penalty.” A separate report on Florida describes an actual scheduled execution: James Robertson, who had been sentenced to death for murder, “is set to receive a three-drug injection at Florida State Prison near Starke starting at noon.” The report further says Florida had carried out executions in 2025 and that Robertson “would be the state's 17th execution of 2026.” Together, the reporting establishes that the death penalty exists in the United States and is used by states, though the excerpts do not address every jurisdiction or the federal system.

The QuintCrime & justice

Followers of a priest beat up a cop after the priest defied the lockdown

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media video appearing to show a priest and several people attacking a police officer. Its accompanying message said the officer had taken action against the priest for violating lockdown rules and that the priest’s followers then beat the officer. The Quint concluded that this account was false: the footage was not evidence of an attack arising from lockdown enforcement. The review traced the circulating clip to a longer video uploaded in June 2019—before the nationwide lockdown described in the claim—on CWE (Continental Wrestling Entertainment), a wrestling-entertainment channel owned by Indian wrestler The Great Khali. That video was titled “Singham Dubey Interrupt Shastri While Doing Puja.” To investigate the footage, The Quint says it first noticed that the clip looked staged and clipped, then used a keyframe in a Yandex reverse-image search. That search led to the longer CWE video. The review also checked other videos from the channel and found that Singham Dubey, the police character in the footage, appeared as a fictional character in multiple videos. The article therefore identifies the scene as choreographed entertainment, not a real incident of a priest’s followers assaulting a cop over lockdown enforcement.