Reality is bad enough

In September, we were riveted by a video clip of Lt. Gen. Jay Silveria, superintendent of the Air Force Academy, denouncing the scrawling of racial slurs on the doors of five black students at the academy’s preparatory school. “If you can’t treat someone with dignity and respect, then get out,” Silveria declared.

It turns out, the underlying incident was a hoax. One of the black students scrawled the messages — apparently to avoid discipline for an unrelated misconduct.

Shame, shame, deepest shame. Shame that emboldens those who yearn to dismiss real hate crimes, which are happening with increasing frequency in America today — up 17% in New York City alone.

This goes in a file with a hijab-wearing Baruch College student who last year falsely claimed she had been attacked on an East Side subway car by Trump backers. And a Louisiana student who claimed that Trump supporters attacked her.

Precisely because the wolf of bigotry is prowling at the door, society can give no quarter and no sympathy for those who cry wolf.