Hoax Alert: Knocked Out in Norman (2024)

According to Itamar Eichner writing for Ynet there has been yet another so-called ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ in the city of Norman, Oklahoma. It is yet another incident which is worth examining through a more critical lens.

He writes that:

‘A Jew man was the victim of a severe attack in Oklahoma by a man who called him a "dirty Jew." The victim was taken to the hospital suffering from bruises and a cerebral hemorrhage.

The apparent antisemitic incident happened in Norman, Oklahoma when Harrison Hipp and his girlfriend passed by a pizza shop. A stranger approached Hipp and asked if he could try on his cowboy hat for a moment. “I said, ‘No, this is my hat, you know, sorry,’ and I was polite about it," Hipp told local media. According to him, at this point the man and his friends became aggressive.

‘I take off the hat and yarmulke and I start running and then he chases me and he says, ‘I’m going to get you, you dirty Jew.’ and I’m like panicking at this point because I know I’m going to get jumped,” said Hipp.

He added that the attackers stole his hat and kippa and slammed his head against the concrete multiple times.

The woman who was with him tried to prevent the attack. “I start trying to pull the original guy off of him and then I get thrown off of him and then a guy, grabs my arms and is like holding my arms, so I can’t do anything,” said Emily Rodriguez, Hipp’s girlfriend.

Hipp said the attackers left him bleeding in the street. According to him, his next memory was when he woke up in the hospital. He now has a long road to recovery, having been diagnosed with a concussion and brain bleed.

“I’m real messed up, I can’t go to work, I can’t function and for what? You know, I don’t know, just because I’m Jewish? It’s ridiculous,” said Hipp.

The victim believes that this is a hate crime and that he was attacked because he is Jewish. "Everybody that attacked me called me a dirty Jew, so I would like them all to be charged with hate crime,” said Hipp.

Officers from the Norman Police Department met Hipp at the hospital. The police said that so far no arrests have been made, though a possible suspect has been identified and all facts including allegations of a possible hate crime are part of the ongoing investigation.’ (1)

Now looking at the foregoing narrative; it rather appears – in the words of Agatha Christie - that something is missing and something has been added.

What is missing is the actual reason why Hipp was assaulted by the men. Them wanting his cowboy hat in Oklahoma is rather odd although possible and his refusal to let them try it on an unusual motive for a subsequent assault.

The more likely possibility is that the men asked to look at/try on Hipp’s cowboy hat and he mouthed off at them/insulted them provoking the resulting fight. This is supported by the vague account of Hipp’s girlfriend Emily Rodriguez which basically jumps straight to the fight and leaves out what happened before hand.

Nor does Rodriguez’s account seem to support Hipp’s account of being called a ‘dirty jew’ as she simply fails to mention such ‘anti-Semitism’. This is the ‘something added’ that I referred to earlier in that the text in that Hipp is claiming he was called a ‘dirty jew’ before he was knocked out and apparently kerb stomped. Yet he claims to specifically remember being called a ‘dirty jew’ despite having almost certainly had a concussion of which one of the most common symptoms is amnesia. (2)

In other words: Hepp is conveniently claiming to remember that he was beaten up because he was a jew not because he was being a proverbial dick over a cowboy hat.

The truth is very likely much simpler in that Hepp got beaten up for being as a proverbial dick about a cowboy hat and then has tried to spin this as an ‘anti-Semitic hate crime’ to get sympathy and also revenge.

After all: how many people remember someone calling them a ‘dirty jew’ just before they got kerb stomped?

References

(1) https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rkll25u6r

(2) https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/concussion/symptoms-causes/syc-20355594