Mother horrified after 14-year-old's dog bite wound used to spread lies about fake Black Lives Matter assault
A mother in Stockport, UK, revealed her frustration after pictures of her son taken after he was bitten by the family dog were used online to create a false narrative about how he had been brutally attacked by Black Lives Matter protesters.
The mother, who was not been named to protect her identity, revealed to LancsLive that she had taken snaps of her 14-year-old son's arm after it had been badly mangled following an attack by their dog this past May.
She said she had shared it online to reassure her family and friends that the teen was doing okay after the bite and that the dog had been euthanized but that they were recently circulated on social media under a false guise.
She said people were using the pictures to claim that her son had been attacked by Black Lives Matter protesters who have recently taken to the streets to speak out against police brutality and racial inequality.
Facebook posts with the images of the teen's bloodied arm claimed BLM protesters had "attacked two Manchester lads with machetes."
"The 'thugs' well actually they are terrorists are the BLM gangs for who this kind of brutality and violence is the norm," one post read. "Look at their actions then another give your heads a good wobble and figure out who the real bad guys are."
"Someone just sent me this, two Manchester lads got ambushed in London when going to the shop by about 20 black men with machetes," another person wrote. "Apparently the lad is in hospital now."
The mother revealed that such posts had been shared "worldwide" and that her attempts to stop the spread of the disinformation and the "pack of lies" had not come to much. She insisted the pictures had nothing to do with "race hate" but had received a lot of backlash from those calling her a liar.
"He's just a boy and it's upsetting him because it's a reminder of what happened," she said. "People keep showing him the pictures. A lot of people are tagging me in the pictures. It's just disgusting. It's a pack of lies."
"I don't know who started it or how it happened, but I just want people to know the truth," she continued. "I've commented on a few posts, saying it's not a machete attack, it's my son, but I've been getting all sorts of abuse. I've been ambushed by a lot of people calling me a liar."
"People are worried because they've seen these pics flying around. There are people [trying] to find the victims. But it's nothing to do with race hate. No one was attacked with a machete. It didn't happen. It was just a family accident."
Protests have erupted around the world following the Memorial Day death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old truck driver who died in the custody of four Minneapolis police officers.
Floyd's disturbing death was caught on video by a bystander and captured officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on his neck for almost nine minutes as he begged for his life, called for his mother, and gasped, "I can't breathe."