Most of you probably heard about the woman who was assaulted Wednesday on campus between the Presidents house and Maucker Union. She reported that she used pepper spray to get away from her attacker. This report made the local news and newspapers. What some of you might not have heard about is that this woman lied about being attacked. She went into the police station and told police that she had made up the whole story about being attacked. UNI police said that they were suspicious about her report. She reported that she was leaving the library heading to her car parked on Wisconsin Street. She said that no one else was around when she was attacked. The police found this strange that no one would be around, because the library had just closed and a lot of students park their cars on Wisconsin Street. Also a police dog was not able to pick up any scent of pepper spray at the scene. Even though the police thought that the story could be false they investigated it like they would any other report or case. The UNI police said that most people make false reports because they want the attention or they have some type of metal disorder. They do not know the reason why this woman lied about her attack. This woman was arrested and charged with making a false report.
I am glad that she admitted that she lied about the attack. If she had kept quite the UNI and Cedar Falls police would have put time and effort into finding her attacker. If they had found a guy that matched her description, it could have possibly have lead to him being charged with a crime he didn't commit.
Below is the website to the Courier's website that talks about the case:
http://www.wcfcourier.com/news/local/article_955e5b94-17e2-11df-a929-001cc4c03286.html
I am glad that this woman did in fact go to the UNI police and admit to her falsified story. We definitely do not need the police out looking for a suspect that does not exist - this just results in a waste of time and resources. It would have definitely made the situation worse if the police had "found" the perpetrator before they were innocently convicted.
I too am glad that she admitted she made up the story. Not only would it have been a waste of UNI's resources but also it sends out an alter to a lot of people on campus. I feel safe walking around our campus and the city of Cedar Falls; however, when you hear stories about someone being assaulted it makes you think twice as a person living in the town and it second guesses the UNI police in that they are providing a safe environment for the students. I think UNI does a good job making campus a safe place and with false accusations the undermines these tactics.
That's crazy! I don't understand why some people feel the need to make up lies for attention. It's just sad and pathetic. I often wonder what goes on in these peoples heads. Like, do they just think "hey, I'm bored I should make up a story and bring it to the police"? Plus, I'm sure the investigation cost money, so the police are out some. Although I guess maybe she has to pay some type of fine, which she should. But I do honor her for admitting that she was lying, because if she wouldn't of then that's just plain shady.
You often hear about these things happening on bigger campuses, but having something like this happen where you attend school makes you think hard about other people's thought process. The obvious fact that you go to is this girl wants attention, but why would you want this type of negative attention? As someone who has actually faced a real situation where they had to pull out pepper spray hearing a story like this does not make me happy. The more false reports there are the less credible females are about being attacked. I am happy that she confessed to making a false report because it is true that if the police department found a guy fitting her description it could ruin his life. Even if something like this is proved false after someone is taken in their face is out there. When I attended Simpson College a girl got really drunk and slept with a guy in a fraternity. Everyone found out about it and she was ashamed so she filed a rape report. The report was eventually see as a false report, but the guy and the fraternity were both already in the public eye and got a bad rap from the situation. So, even though it became false once an idea is out there, there is no taking it back. For this reason I think people need to look at another way to get attention. I am glad this girl got arrested and I think that there needs to be a good punishment for people who make false reports.
I also found the website to the Northern Iowan newspaper incase some people didn't read it already.
http://www.northern-iowan.org/uni-police-respond-to-false-alarm-1.2159829
I found this story interesting because it got me thinking about why someone would make up a serious story like that. It also makes me wonder if something really did happen, like the woman was assaulted and was told not to tell anyone about it by her attacker. But since she did tell the poilce, she could have been worried and that is why she went back and told them she was lying to protect the attacker. There was no evidence and that seems kind of far fetched but that thought just sticks in my mind because it could happen.
I ponder why someone would want to want to file a false report. I can maybe understand wanting attention, but even so, what a horrible way to accomplish it. This distracts the police, and limits their resources to follow up on actual crimes. I wonder how this feeling of attention makes you feel any more positive. It is good to know that she did eventually tell the police that the report was false. I wonder how many times police get a report like this, and almost ignore it, because there is either no way to follow up, or they think it is not true? Very interesting.
I had heard this story while I was at work at the Union and closing that Thursday night, which meant I got out around 11:30. It freaked me out big time, so I called my boyfriend to pick me up instead of walking home like I usually do. At that time I had ALWAYS felt safe on campus late at night. I had actually called my dad the next day and asked him to buy me pepper spray because I was that freaked out about it. I thought "well hey if she used it and it worked, then I should get some too!"
Glad to hear that it was a false report though.
This just makes everyone wonder, why? Why would she pull something like this? Was it for attention? Was it a dare that friends and she came up with? Was she bored and needed something to do to get a laugh out of? Just makes a person wonder why.
My biggest concern when I first heard about this is why the University didn't send out an alert message as soon as the police were contacted. I mean, yes in this case it was false, but in the future other cases could not be false and the student body needs to be aware of it immediately so they can take action to protect themselves.
There were some faculty that told their students, but for the most part they didn't say a thing. It was mostly student talk which we all know can turn into different stories.
All in all, I am glad she turned herself in and I hope she seeks the proper punishment that she deserves.
I had heard about this incident, but I didn't all of the details. Thank you for providing a few articles.
Besides the fact that I don't understand why this woman would seek such negative attention, I am appalled by the fact that she wasted campus resources. UNI and Cedar Falls both invest a fair amount of money into public safety and it should not be wasted by false reports. From what I understand, the woman wasn't even feeling threatened and called the cops -- the entire story was false.
With fake reports, the economics major in me wonders about future allocation of resources to these incredibly important departments. I don't want my safety to be sacrificed because people felt the need for attention. I want the police to treat each report as the truth and respond in a timely manner. Granted this is only once incident, but if it turns into anymore, I worry about the response of the police in the future. This is a serious offense and I hope she is properly punished for her immaturity and selfishness.
I remember reading this story in the Northern Iowan and thinking, "so he grabbed her arm and she just happened to have pepper spray ready?" I know that girls are told to always have their hand on their pepper spray when they're walking at night, but after talking to several people I've learned that they rarely do this. This girl's story just didn't seem very likely.
What's most unfortunate is that we have a lot of people issue false attack reports, and yet there are so many assaults, attacks, and instances of violence and rape that go un-reported. It's kind of like The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Ok, so what was the point of her making this up is what I'd like to know. The day I heard about this was the same day I heard about the Smiley Face Killers (yes, i'm slow on gathering information). So when I heard about the Smilys, AND this, I was sooo paranoid for the next couple of days, and still am! The only thing this girl did was make others paranoid about this situation happening to them. I can't believe someone would make this up. This actually does happen to people, and for someone to think of it as a joke is really sad.
I am glad she admitted to being wrong, because as stated, this could have led to a false conviction, and we certainly don't need anymore of those. Does anyone know who this girl is or how old? I haven't read the story yet, just gathered details from people telling me about it. It'd be interesting to know her motive for doing this type of crazy thing.
My first reaction to this post is sadness. It upsets to me think about what was going on with this girl to make such a large show of something that never happened. A book a read entitled "Sexual Violence" had a section that talk about "Crying rape". Although people might focus on the woman actually making up that someone attacked/raped her, there might be a bigger problem at hand here. A person who does something like this for something like attention is obviously dealing with some rough things, but the book states that this is more of problem for women who are actually victims of rape. Whenever a women "cries rape" it in turns makes victims of actual rape less credible. A jury or defense lawyer could say, "She made it up. She was looking for attention." This in turn could make the victim appear less credible and it could possibly inhibit her from receiving justice. By "crying rape" it is said that the credibility of true rape victims can be questioned and not taken as seriously. It's exactly like the little boy who cried wolf. When there was an actual wolf and he cried out for help he was denied it because people didn't believe him. I by no means think that after this incident the UNI police wouldn't respond as seriously if another incident like this would occur. I just hope that things like this don't down play the serious problem of rape on college campuses because they do indeed happen.