Exposing an anti-gun hoax?

Last week Dr. Joseph Sakran alleged, in an article in the Baltimore Sun, that an implied death threat had been placed on his car.  On Twitter he provided a picture of the printed threat, and another of it placed beneath a windshield wiper on his car.  (He's since deleted the Twitter images.)

Astute Twitterati observers analyzed the images.  They very quickly realized that the reflections in the windshield, and the surrounding environment, showed that the vehicle was parked in a domestic garage (presumably his);  and the photograph of the paper, taken in what looked like a normal home, showed his bare leg.  In other words, they gave the appearance that he'd printed out the "threat" himself, in his own home, while wearing little or nothing, then put it on his vehicle's windshield himself before taking the photograph of it.  To add even more evidence, according to some commenters, the photographs' EXIF information showed that the picture of the pristine, newly-printed paper in his hand had been timestamped before the one of the paper on the car.  This gave the appearance that he'd printed the paper, then placed it on his vehicle.  What's more, the paper showed no weathering or signs of having been blown around in the wind of the car's passage, making it unlikely to have been placed there days before he took the pictures.

Pro-gun activist David West has put together this video report showing what he alleges is Dr. Sakran's fraudulent claim.

Of course, Dr. Sakran hasn't bothered to reply to these allegations.  Instead, he deleted his tweets, and went on to pontificate about the "threat".

After finding the alleged threat in his car, Sakran said, he took a couple of pictures — placing it back on his windshield for one — and then threw it in the trash, ready to ignore it. On Saturday, he changed his mind.

In a thread of tweets, he talked about partners he has worked with in preventing gun violence, and patients he has cared for.

“We have the opportunity and the responsibility to make communities safer for Americans," he wrote. "For the person who thought they could Silence me by threatening my life, you clearly know nothing about me..... Thank You for showing me that our movement is making a difference.”

Fortunately, deleting his tweets didn't erase the evidence.  The Internet is forever, and enough people had made copies of them that they've been preserved.

Isn't it amazing how often such allegations are made by or about leftists, concerning alleged "threats" offered to them, and are used to whip up support for their positions?  They seem to make a habit of it.  Fortunately, in today's online world, with lots of investigative tools available, falsehoods can usually be detected - at least, so far.  Sadly, if enough of them make enough mistakes in their claims, leading to exposure, the rest will learn from them, and get better at it.


*Sigh*


Peter