Charlottesville, Virginia – A Black Lives Matter activist ruined a white student’s life by claiming she heard her threaten to run them over – only to later admit she may have misheard according to the Daily Mail.
Zyahna Bryant, then 19, claimed she heard fellow University of Virginia student Morgan Bettinger threaten protesters by saying they’d ‘make good speedbumps,’ during 2020 protests that took place in Charlottesville.
Although Bettinger did admit during a student misconduct trial that she had said something similar to a truck driver that was blocking the road, she insists she hadn’t said it as a threat.
She claims she said words to the effect of: ‘It’s a good thing that you are here, because otherwise these people would have been speed bumps,’ Reason magazine reported.
Bettinger – whose late father was a police officer – says she had merely been sharing her relief that the unnamed truck driver was there to protect the protesters.
She says she did so because she was happy his presence lessened the chances of a repeat of the infamous 2017 Unite the Right rally in the city, which saw anti-racist protester Heather Heyer run over and murdered by a white supremacist.
But Bryant initially insisted on Twitter that Bettinger had indeed threatened her and others, even though it was later claimed she’d only been told about the speed bumps comment second hand.
She tweeted: ‘The woman in this truck approached protesters in #Charlottesville, and told us that we would make ‘good speedbumps.
‘She then called the police and started crying saying we were attacking her.’
The allegation went viral and Bettinger was quickly identified. She was further criticized because her late father was a police officer.
Bryant and others called for expulsion from the school and launched an email campaign to have Bettinger expelled, tweeting: ‘EMAIL these UVA deans now to demand that Morgan face consequences for her actions and that UVA stop graduating racists.’
Bettinger was subsequently shunned at college, and even stalked around her hometown, making her fear for her safety.
UVA’s Judiciary Committee later found Bettinger guilty of making a legitimate threat, despite being unable to prove Bryant’s claim about her intentions.
Its ‘jurors’ told her that even saying the words in a harmless manner during the anti-racism protests of summer 2020 merited punishment.
Bryant also filed a complaint with the school’s Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (EOCR), where the student activist claimed Bettinger had made the statement five times and had discriminated against Bryant on the basis of race.
EOCR found that three of the five accusations could not be corroborated and Bryant herself later admitted she may have misheard the ‘speed bumps’ claim she attributed to Bettinger, which saw her reputation destroyed.
Most damningly, the report – which was brought forth because of Bryant’s complaint – found that the activist mostly likely did not heard Bettinger make the comment first hand. No eyewitnesses were able to corroborate Bryant’s version of events.
Bettinger’s lawyer Charles Weber has sent a letter to the President to overrule it, which was ignored. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) also sent a letter, which President Jim Ryan said it would be ‘inappropriate for me to intervene in a case that has been properly adjudicated.’
Her reputation is beyond repair and UJC’s ruling is still on her permanent record – ruining the now-graduate’s chances at law school.
Bettinger is now considering filing a lawsuit.
