Another day, another fake hate crime. This time, police allege, the faker is a lesbian at Central Connecticut State University.
The Hartford Courant and other media have reported that Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) has expelled Alexandra Pennell, and now the unhappy college girl faces eight felonies and 17 misdemeanors. Although Pennell pleaded not guilty, police caught her on tape and she confessed to her roommate, the newspaper reported. Staging hate crimes is now a common occurrence. In May, for instance, police in Colorado arrested a pair of lesbians for staging a phony hate crime at their home.
The latest hoax began March 7-8, the Courant reported, when five notes were written on or slipped under the door of sophomore Pennell’s dorm room. “Mark McLaughlin, spokesman for CCSU, said all the notes contained homophobic messages and slurs and two told the students to ‘die’,” the Courant reported. The university, the spokesman said, “takes these things very seriously,” the newspaper reported.
A week later, 300 students rallied against hate. “Lexi [Alexandra] Pennell, a sophomore from Trumbull, was one of the targets of the notes and was one of the first to speak at the rally,” the newspaper reported.
“Central is my home just like it is everyone of yours, and I’m proud to call it my home," she said to applause. “I stand here today speaking to the person responsible for this, and all I have to say is that I’m not going to be run out of my home and I will not be intimidated by hate.”
Not surprisingly, her roommate, also unnerved by the notes, added her voice to those who say “NOH8,” as the bumper strip/Twitter patois puts it. “Her roommate, Siobhan Dooley, a junior, said the notes have made her feel unsafe, particularly in large crowds,” the newspaper reported.
“I don’t like that when I walk into the dining hall that I feel like I'm not safe,” she said. “I don't like that when I sit down, I think my attacker is somewhere near me, waiting for me to leave so that they can follow me back to my home to terrorize us. It's not a comfortable feeling and it's not right.”
The rally, she said, showed that there's support on campus for victims of such crimes.
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Photo of Central Connecticut State University
