If Whole Foods had been unable to prove the Rev. Brown was lying — if it didn’t have a security camera trained on the right spot — it could have suffered massive damage to its immensely valuable reputation. A smaller grocer that couldn’t afford a network of security cameras to protect itself from lying customers might have been put out of business entirely.

Graffiti is a crime. If the Rev. Brown had Kryloned the word “fag” on Whole Foods’ front door, and been caught doing it, he would have been prosecuted. But what he did was far more damaging. Graffiti doesn’t hurt your reputation. You clean it off and move on. It doesn’t (as Brown’s fraud did) create international headlines that cast your business as a haven for intolerance.

Brown tied up public resources in filing a lawsuit. He made it less likely that the next gay person who claims to have been wronged will be believed. He did damage to the image of the great state of Texas, if not the United States of America herself. Which Texas lawmakers will introduce legislation specifically outlawing hate-crime fraud?

Thanks to the Web site fakehatecrimes.org (227 entries so far), it’s easy to keep tabs on the hustlers and mountebanks trying to sell bogus bias claims.