Muslim college student made up Trump supporter subway attack story to avoid punishment for missing curfew
Muslim college student made up Trump supporter subway attack story to avoid punishment for missing curfew:- A Muslim student who said she was harassed on the subway by drunken, hate-spewing white men shouting “Donald Trump!” found herself behind bars Wednesday after telling cops she made the whole story up.
Yasmin Seweid, 18, joined a growing list of local and national alleged hate crime victims when she told cops she was taunted Dec. 1 on the No. 6 train by three men who called her a terrorist and tried to snatch her hijab off her head while straphangers did nothing but watch.
But Seweid finally broke down and admitted to detectives that it was all a big lie.
“Nothing happened, and there was no victim,” a police source said.
“We dedicated a lot of resources to this — and don’t get me wrong, this is what we do — but we had guys going back and forth, looking for video and witnesses. And we couldn’t find anything.”
Police sources say Seweid made up the story because she didn’t want to get in trouble for breaking her curfew. Her strict, Muslim parents allegedly forced Seweid to shave her head over the incident and were upset that she was dating a Christian, sources said.
Seweid, a Baruch College student, was charged with filing a false report and was awaiting arraignment late Wednesday.
Seweid claimed straphangers stood by and did nothing while the trio mocked her and tried to tear the religious garb from her head. Seweid even provided police a description of the suspects, one of whom cops at one point thought they spotted on video following her when she got off the subway at Grand Central Terminal.
“She had numerous opportunities to admit nothing happened and she kept sticking by her story,” a police source said.
She even posted an emotional account of the attack on Facebook. “I was harassed on the subway last night,” Seweid wrote. “And it was just so dehumanizing I can’t speak about it without getting emotional.”
For a while, police believed inconsistencies in her story to be nothing more than typical lapses by someone who was traumatized. But the doubts increased when detectives could not find witnesses or any significant video. She left home and was reported missing on Thursday — only to turn up safe and sound on Friday. Suspicion went through the roof.
On Wednesday, after again being confronted with questions from detectives, she said she made it all up, citing family problems.
Seweid admitted that she lied to throw off her parents, who disapproved of her boyfriend, a source said.
The police source said charging her with a crime was appropriate.
Seweid’s father, Syeed, 55, said he didn’t know why his daughter made up the story.
“I have no idea,” he said. “She’s the one that can speak for herself.”
Albert Cahn, an attorney for the New York chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said the twist in Seweid’s case shouldn’t take away from the legitimate claims of bias and harassment against Muslims.
“We’re very disturbed by these distressing developments, but we hope that they do not detract from the numerous reports coming from the Muslim community,” Cahn said.
“Clearly this has been a trying time for her and her family. We hope that they receive all possible support in this moving forward. We still believe that anti-Muslim attacks are underreported.”
Days after Seweid’s false report, an MTA worker wearing her uniform and a hijab was harassed by a passenger who called her a terrorist, and told her to “go back to your country.”
That same week, a man threatened to kill an off-duty cop after she confronted him over pushing her 16-year-old son on a Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, street. The man called the Muslim woman “ISIS,” cursed at her and said he would slit her throat.
Officials say there’s been a spike in the number of hate-inspired crimes in New York since Trump was elected President. According to police statistics, reported hate crimes in the city more than doubled last month — with more than 43 cases, compared with just 20 in November 2015.
Source:- http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/muslim-woman-reported-trump-supporter-attack-made-story-article-1.2910944
