Vancouver police say an investigation has found a widely shared social media post about an alleged sex assault earlier this month was a case of misinformation.

Online posts about the alleged incident, including a GoFundMe campaign, began after the first weekend of November.

The posts alleged that a woman, dubbed “Amor” to protect her privacy, had been abducted while leaving the Princeton Pub, only to be “dumped” in a park hours later having been sexually assaulted and brutally beaten to the point that she lost three teeth. The posts further alleged Amor had been drugged, and that a predator remained at large.

“There was never a risk of harm to the public as a result of this incident, and the fear was spread wide by people who unknowingly shared information that was not accurate,” Sgt. Steve Addison said.

Police said while they had determined the details in the post were not true, the woman involved was not responsible for the misinformation.

According to the VPD investigation, Amor was out with friends and had left the pub in the early morning hours of Nov. 4. Police said she flagged down someone on an electric scooter, hitched a ride on the front of the vehicle, but fell off and struck her face on the pavement.

Somebody Gofundme’ed their Christmas shopping via this scam

I wonder about the motivations of whoever started the misinformation, but it also says something about the credulous public who spread it. Vancouver is one of the safest cities in North America. Crime severity, including violent crime, is not even top 20 amongst cities in BC, much less Canada. It’s safer to raise your kids in Vancouver than many rural BC towns.

And yet, fear over crime is rampant. It makes no sense. It’s how the conservative ABC swept the last municipal election. Conservatives win on fear and division. We’re seeing that with the misinformation about immigrant crime being spread in Europe, with the subsequent rightwing riots.