It’s something we hear about more often than we should. It starts with an allegation, leads into an investigation, and often times ends with the family fighting for their future. This is the world of the family court system, their…
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For those of us who are old enough to remember the September 11th attacks, it is a day that has forever been burned into our memories. The emotions we felt, the shock as this horrific attack unfolded are images that will never leave our collective minds.
While many of us feel compassion for the families, forced to watch the deaths of their loved ones, one individual has decided to release a completely unhinged video regarding the attacks. ‘That Vegan Teacher’ is no ordinary YouTuber. In fact, many have claimed her to not only be unhinged, but outright insane; this comes for good reason.
Over the years, ‘That Vegan Teacher’ has utilized bullying and threatening videos to, debatably, spread awareness toward the Vegan movement. In a recent video, uploaded on September 11, 2023, it was clear that she had crossed a line. Not so surprisingly, the internet has responded in uproar.
At the start of the video, which we will link here, the infamous YouTuber leaves a notation stating that she does not condone the attacks of 9/11. However, the entirety of the video seems to state the exact opposite. She starts out by discussing how the victims were killers themselves. How? Because they ate meat.
After making the above point, she proceeds to discuss how they “paid” for their alleged crimes, in other words, she justified why these innocent people deserved to die. But the video continues to go downhill. She then proceeds to advocate for Veganism, citing how “we now know what to eat when on a plane.”
It is clear that there something seriously wrong with this woman. It is clear that YouTube absolutely needs to take a stance against the type of content that she is producing. While Veganism in itself is a perfectly acceptable lifestyle, it is not acceptable to use that lifestyle to condone, or promote, acts of hate and pure evil. We are going to leave the full transcript for this video below. This is for those of you who do not wish to support her channel by watching its garbage.
The last thing you expect, when eating out, is discovering that a restaurant has taken out more than what you expected. When the bill should total around $30, it can be a rather nasty surprise to see that nearly $70 had been taken out of your bank account. For an elderly Shawnee, OK couple, this is exactly what happened.
The elderly couple decided to treat themselves to Abuelita’s, located just off of US-177. For them, everything appeared to be normal, that was until they got the receipt. A bill that should have been roughly $30.00, ended up draining their bank account.
Upon seeing the amount, they learned that they had actually been charged nearly double what they should have been (image below.) Upon reviewing their bank account, they found that the establishment took out $69.10 for a meal that should had only cost around $30.00. At this point, they contacted the restaurant. Upon bringing up the fraudulent charge, the woman on the phone, who had been their cashier, suddenly was unable to hear them. She proceeded to put somebody else on the phone and, just as before, he abruptly became deaf as soon as the concerns were brought up. At this point, it was clear to the customers that this was a deliberate theft.
Merchant copy of the receipt, which conflicts with the customer’s copy.
With no alternative options, the defrauded customers returned to the restaurant and confronted them in person. It was at this point that they “returned” the funds, giving the customers the above copy of the receipt. However, this too would be proven false. In actuality, the charge still went through and the bank had received no indication that the bill had been reversed. The reason? Because the above voided charge, never left the restaurant’s register.
Bank charges, showing the bill was eventually reversed.
At this point, the customer’s were more than willing to bring law enforcement into the situation. They again, contacted Abuelita’s in attempt to get the unauthorized portion of the bill refunded. This time, however, they informed the employees that if it was not returned, charges would be filed. Only then did the establishment refund the additional $40.02 charge. However, they had also refunded the actual price of the meal.
While this situation did work out for this elderly couple, there is still a lingering question: how many other customers have they done this to, who didn’t notice the extra charge? More importantly, how long have they been conducting themselves in this form of theft? War on Corruption, LLC., reached out the restaurant, but have yet to receive a response. Should that change, we will add it to this article.
The city of Shawnee, Oklahoma, once had a beautiful downtown area. With its historical buildings, countless local businesses, and even a historical museum, this part of the city was truly alive. That is no longer the case. These days, the once beautiful downtown is filled with trash, urine, and even fecal matter. The cause? a never-ending revolving door of homeless individuals.
In recent years, Shawnee has seen an influx of homeless activity. While this in itself isn’t the problem, it has created issues for local businesses. As more homeless people flood into the downtown area, vandalism, trash littering the ground, and even hostile interactions with locals has been on the rise. As a result, many of the city’s residents now avoid this part of town; for business owners, who are in this area, the effects have been devastating.
When looking at a livestream of the downtown area, even during the day, it almost appears to be a ghost town. Graphiti can be seen on historical buildings, parks, and other surrounding areas. the once beautiful park is now completely overrun with the homeless. Citizens often have confrontations with the homeless population. These conflicts derive from mental illness, drugs, or even refusing to give out money.
The park, which is located across from the public Library, is often littered with trash and even buggies. From the video, it is clear that this has become the residence of many of the homeless people. For this reason, you don’t often see people visiting this once beautiful location. While most cities have ordinances mandating that the parks be closed after a certain time, this doesn’t appear to apply to anybody wanting to sleep in it. Meanwhile, the police do nothing unless locals call in.
I continued to watch the stream and observed officers drive past people, regardless of the fact that they were sleeping on sidewalks. While you would presume there would be a city ordinance for this, apparently that is not the case. In this dynamic, the local community is paying the price.
Many of the stores remain open, though business is continuing to decline. Because of this reason, not only are business owners struggling, but this also effects their employees. While business owners have voiced concerns about the problem, there does not appear to have been any action from the city council. As a result, the situation for local businesses, as well as pedestrians, has gradually become dangerous.
This situation has no “easy fix.” However, doing nothing has already shown negative results. With the increase of the homeless community, there has been a decrease in locals who visit the downtown area. Confrontations, littering, drugs, and various other issues are already proving this point. Overall, the city needs to address the concerns of its citizens, it needs to find a better solution for the homeless population, and it needs to be more proactive in ensuring the safety for everybody.
Across the country, police have been getting slammed for various forms of corruption. Unfortunately, this article is going to be among that trend. Today, we are going to be discussing Fort Worth police officer, Taylor Stephens, a woman who not only appears to be vile, but has absolutely no regard for Constitutional rights, as viewed in multiple YouTube videos (links below.)
In a perfect world, officers such as this one, would be held to a higher standard of accountability. If an officer is shown to be corrupt, they are removed. However, all to often, this is not the case. Stephens has a notorious history within law enforcement. In 2018, in fact, she was terminated from the Fort Worth police department due to a man dying while in her custody; years later, for unknown reasons, this infamous officer was given back her job.
July 2018 Death
In 2018, five officers were involved with the arrest of Christopher Lowe, 55. Among them was none other than Taylor Stephens. While detained in the back of a patrol vehicle, Lowe kept advising the officers that he was having medical complications. One such complication being that he could not breath. It is important to note that within law enforcement there is a common expression: If they can talk, they can breath. However, this is not always true.
The interaction with Lowe was based on complaints that he had attempted to break into a residential home, a crime that was hardly worth dying for. regardless, as he desperately tried to get officers to take his complaints seriously, they simply ignored him. The officers made the presumption that he was just making up the medical situation in an attempt to avoid jail. As his situation continued to deteriorate, officers finally began to take notice.
It was at this point that they removed the cuffs and attempted CPR as they awaited EMS. As they discussed the situation with each other, they willfully planned to leave out details regarding their suspicions that he was under the influence of Narcotics. This omission of information very well could have sealed Lowe’s fate. The officers involved, which again included Taylor Stephens, were either suspended or terminated; she would be among the officers terminated. Although she no longer on the force, as a result of this case, that would not last. Since her return, she has terrorized the citizens of Fort Worth.
Time Post Reinstatement
Officer Stephens has shown no regard for her own department’s policies, nor has she shown regard for the very Constitutional rights that she was sworn to protect. According to one source, they are currently undergoing legal processes simply for recording the officer, who was acting within the scopes of her duties. The source, via email exchange, had the following statement:
I appreciate you helping to shine light on her, she charged me with felony stalking for recording her on a public sidewalk.
As many of us know, it is not a crime to film an officer in the scope of their duties. It is also not a crime to film a person in a public location as there is no reasonable expectation of privacy. However, according to the source, Stephens has taken this Constitutionally protected act to an entirely new level of extreme. With hope, we will be able to cover more on this subject at a later time as it is a currently pending case.
In video, we have seen her disregard for department policies. Virtually every department has a tobacco policy. To sum this up, it typically says something along the lines of, “The use of tobacco products, including vapors, is strictly prohibited while on duty.” Stephens, however, is clearly observed spitting chewed tobacco onto the pavement as she walks back to her patrol car. In the video, which is linked here, she is first observed using tobacco around the 1:20 mark. Later, in her patrol car, she is observed using it again starting at the 14:55 mark. Regardless of this clear violation of policy, no consequences have been issued to the officer. Because of this, we are left to question the integrity of her department as a whole.
With that question in mind, we looked into that very question. What we found can only be described as horrifying. Report after report of excessive force, wrongful deaths, and various other violations appear to be common practice within the Ft. Worth Police department. We’ll link a few videos below. With this information, it is of no surprise that Officer Stephens was reinstated. What is surprising is the fact that this abuse has been allowed to continue for as long as it has.
Situations like this only serve to make the overall law enforcement community look bad. While we are highlighting the darker side of the system, we are not oblivious to those who serve for legitimate reasons. Regardless of the career, there will always be those who abuse their authority. It is those individuals that we, as a society, should hold accountable.
We, at War on Corruption, LLC. are not saying that Daniel Holtzclaw is innocent, we are fully aware that he violated multiple policies which ultimately assisted in his downfall. In this article, we are merely discussing the topics that have led to debate. While we do acknowledge that there are many more questions surrounding his case, it is a very complex situation and would require multiple articles to fully address. Therefore, we are simply opening a door for discussion. At the end of this article, we have added additional links of information. These are so that any person interested may conduct their research and come to their own conclusion regarding the case. The article does not cover everything. This is due to the complexity of the case; it simply would require multiple articles to address the case in full.
Introduction
The case of Daniel Holtzclaw, a former Oklahoma City Police Officer, has always been shrouded with debate. Starting with the questionable tactics used by the investigators, questionable witnesses, and even the evidence itself, there has always been scrutiny. For years, we have sat on this story, unsure as to rather or not it was one that should be written. It is very complicated, it may potentially open old wounds, or it simply may expose just how corrupt our justice system actually is. Either way, we’ve finally decided that it was time to write the article that will, without doubt, be our most controversial one. We’re going to discuss the Daniel Holtzclaw case and the problems within it.
Where it all began
Rather or not Holtzclaw sexually assaulted multiple women remains heavily debated. What isn’t debated, however, is the fact that he did initiate traffic stops to which he failed to report. While this alone does not prove guilt, it is a clear violation of protocol. Regardless of this violation, it was learned that Holtzclaw had initiated stops in, such as this, before.
Originally, he was faced with a total of 36 sexual based crimes. Among these were rape, sexual battery, forcible oral sodomy, and the list goes on. Out of the 36, Holtzclaw would be convicted of 18. With this conviction, began a very heated debate. This is a debate that is still ongoing. The only question to ask is why are people debating his guilt?
Originally, Holtzclaw was charged with more than 30 counts of sexually based crimes. However, by the end of his trial, only 18 would land convictions. Why is that? The simple answer is due to the lack of evidence and credibility issues with the alleged victims. That leads us to ask the most obvious question, “who are these victims?”
The Victims
The women who made accusations against Holtzclaw had a few key similarities with one another. To start, they were all lower class, they were all Black, had interactions with Holtzclaw, and criminal backgrounds. While this has shed light into their credibility, this isn’t the main discussion when it comes to his victims. The discussion is rather or not Holtzclaw did anything at all. According to one victim, Tabitha Barnes, he apparently never lay a hand on her, though she had testified differently.
During the trial, Barnes had testified that Holtzclaw had inappropriately touched her breasts. Ultimately, her testimony was among the charges to which Holtzclaw was found guilty. But there’s a problem with her accusation, an issue that would come much later. As though having a change of heart matters, Barnes has done a complete 180 on her original testimony, now stating that he never did anything to her. In simple terms, she sat in a courtroom, under oath, and fabricated a story that got the former officer convicted. For this, you don’t need to take our word for it, you can watch the video for yourself, we’ve included it below.
While Barnes ultimately recanted her story, she was not alone in having a retraction in statement. Sherry Ellis Smith would later admit to never seeing Holtzclaw prior to the trial. In total, Daniel would be accused of more than thirty sexually based crimes, but only convicted of eighteen, giving him a grand total of 263 years in prison. We can go on and on about this subject, but the article isn’t about the victims. Ultimately, the question is, could Daniel have been innocent of the crimes?
The original accuser, 57 Y.O. Jenny Wiggins, the woman who initially triggered the investigation, has also been a focal point of debate. Prior to her being pulled over, it was discovered that her license had actually been suspended for around thirty years, she had also admitted to using the controlled substance, Cannabis shortly before the encounter. Furthermore, there would be no evidence on this victim linking her to Holtzclaw. The only link is in the interaction, to which he was in policy violation by conducting. The violation being that he failed to notify dispatch and disabling the car’s computer.
During the encounter with Holtzclaw, Wiggins claimed that he had her place her hands on the hood of his patrol car. However, there was no evidence on his car that supported this claim. The investigators explanation for this lack of evidence? The car was full of trash and therefore finding a fingerprint on the outside would be impossible. This is alarming because most of us know that the inside of a vehicle does not affect the outside. With that in mind, we have to ponder on how they were unable to find a simple fingerprint. Beyond this, we cannot ignore the fact that Wiggins actually had changed her story several times. In fact, the description she had given of Holtzclaw was completely off. She described him as having blonde hair and being several inches shorter than what he actually is. It’s important to note that Holtzclaw stands at just over six feet, a hard to miss feature. But this isn’t the only issue within the case. We will link a video that further discusses this in the links below.
The Evidence
Looking at the evidence used, at best, it wasn’t the greatest. In other words, it left a lot of room for debate, and it has. Aside the accusers, many whom had been discredited, and the later retraction, there was nothing that we could100% state tied Holtzclaw to anything criminal. The only thing we can say concretely is this: he broke policy by turning off the computer system in his patrol car, but that doesn’t mean he committed a crime.
The trial was a very heated and emotionally charged one, this was clear to anybody who followed it. Being charged for multiple crimes, primarily on no evidence aside from verbal statements, is absolutely terrifying, but it demonstrates a phrase that we have stated multiple times before: “Sex based crimes are the easiest to charge because they do not require evidence.” Did they have any evidence aside from verbal statements? They had one thing: one sample of DNA belonging to a 17 Y.O. girl, as well as an unknown male. Regardless of its location, this DNA is up for debate.
Under normal circumstances, DNA is a fairly reliable source of forensics. It’s so reliable that it’s used in virtually every criminal case. For the Holtzclaw case, however, it’s been one of many targets for debate. The DNA was located on the outside of the former officer’s pants, near the zipper. For some, this is concrete enough to suggest his guilt. But is it? Well, no. While we wish it were that simple, it’s not. If the officer had any form of contact with the girl, regardless of it being sexual or not, it’s very plausible that this DNA, being skin cells, would have gotten onto the former officer, including his hands. If he had done something as simple as using the restroom, that alone would explain why they were in the location that they were.
What we couldn’t find, when looking at this particular form of evidence, was anything implicating that semen was located in the area. The fact of the matter is, if he had committed such an act, this would had most likely been present. If not, at minimum, pre-ejaculatory fluid, and yet we have found nothing implicating its presence, an abnormality in that he allegedly committed more than one crime while wearing them, and yet that florfenicol evidence was not present.
Regardless of all of the issues, we do know that Holtzclaw was trying to get close to some of the women he had contact with, however unprofessional that might be, it doesn’t necessarily mean he was trying to force anybody into such contacts with him. During his career, he had a couple of major issues involving Facebook messages and visiting a residence of a woman to which he had contact with while on duty. While this isn’t conclusive evidence to support he did anything illegal, it ultimately did come back to bite him at the worst possible time. Again, while the DNA is questionable, as mentioned, we can’t ignore that it was there and where it was located. For this, we would call that a double-edged sword; it doesn’t prove guilt, doesn’t prove innocence, but really looks bad for him.
Conclusion
While we cannot say with 100% certainty that he is guilty, we can’t say that he’s completely innocent, either. Holtzclaw violated policy, he was looking for intimate interactions, he had attempted romantic relations with some of the women he interacted with and appeared to act impulsively. His actions, especially in disabling the computer, does leave the possibility that he may have committed crimes, but it’s not absolute. Ultimately, his case was reckless and poorly constructed, at best. In many ways, the case appeared to an attempt to disarm any potential civil unrest rather than the actual seek for justice. The victims are questionable, with criminal histories, and potential motive for wanting to ruin an officer’s life. Of course, this is just mere observation, one that is heavily debated.
Links
The following links are for informational purposes only. The links are not representative of the platform’s views or opinions of the case.
Recently, we covered a case from Berwick, PA. in which Nathain Hisey, at the accusation of a 6yo child, was facing serious charges. Since that time, a lot has apparently happened. For instance, he was initially evicted from his home, as a result of the accusation. However, because he refused to stay away from the home, which his family still resided in, they too have met the same fate. However, the stream of bad luck, didn’t seem to end there.
During the case, he was not only evicted, but he also lost his job, lost friends, and the list of losses just seems to go on. Was this right? To be honest, the eviction should had waited for a final verdict. At this point, he has no conviction, and for our platform, that is all that matters. Of course, as you may already be aware, the court of public opinion can be a vicious one. On the flip side to this coin, the accusation was from a very young child, and that matters.
According to the court documents, and those who know him, the assault was conducted orally. Unfortunately for the family, as well as the victim, this sort of assault can be very difficult to prove. But there are other elements to this. According to sources involved with the case, the child was able to give detail description of the assailant’s genital region, including a mole that he allegedly has in the area. So how did this man simply walk? The simple answer: the case may not actually be over.
According to the docket, which we’ve included at the bottom of this article, the case status says closed. However, the disposition of the case states, “Held for Court.” This sounds a bit contradictory. But don’t worry, we’re going to explain what it very well could mean in this case. At that point, this docket will make a lot more sense.
Initially, there is a police investigation, that should be a bit obvious. However, this investigation may still be ongoing even while the initial court proceedings occur. Within the docket there are four key areas that one would want to observe to fully understand what’s happening. Bear in mind, however, it can still be confusing. These areas are as follows: Disposition, Disposition date, Processing status, and Case status. It is important to understand, before we proceed, that the below information is only pertaining to this docket. Other states may have different methods, terms, and so on, that are used. It is also important to note that this information is based on the terms as we know them, though none of the WoC team live in this specific state.
Disposition
The disposition is the easiest part to comprehend. To put it in simple terms, this shows the current ruling made by the court. It can say innocent, dismissed, guilty, held for court, or it could have something else written in there. If the individual is innocent, guilty, or dismissed, the case is over. However, with a dismissed status, it could potentially be reopened in the future. But that’s not what this docket says. Instead, it reads “held for court.” At this point, you want to observe the disposition date. This tells you when that decision was made, this is critical information if you’re wanting to follow a case and know what’s going on at that time.
Processing Status
This status is important as well. Unlike the disposition, this one can be a bit tricky to understand. To simplify this, we’ll just explain it. In a court proceeding, evidence, statements, etc. are submitted. Once this everything has been turned into the court, you may see something like “completed,” as is the case of the docket below. Without understanding this, it looks like the case is completed. The easiest way to comprehend this is through the term, ‘processing.’ The term process simply means, ‘to present.’ If you’re done presenting information, then it’s marked as completed.
Case status
In this docket, case status is not talking about the court proceedings, but rather the investigation. Once the investigation is complete, it’s marked as closed. At this point, all of the evidence would have been submitted and, from there, the courts will decide rather or not they can proceed with litigation. To figure out if the court has decided to move forward, you have to look at the ‘Disposition’ status. In the docket, the status reads, ‘Held for court,’ with the date 9/27/2022. This means that following that specific court date, Nahtain Hisey was incarcerated until further litigation; the case is not closed but appears to be going into the criminal court system.
In our title, we asked a simple question: Did an accused child predator walk free? The answer seems to be no. This conclusion, regardless of the closed case status, is made by the fact that the disposition of both charges read, ‘held for court.’ This is a strong indicator that there is enough evidence that the court has decided to proceed with further litigation. To help you better understand, we have included that docket as well.
The horrific shooting, which occurred in Uvalde Texas, has been discussed on multiple platforms. The shooting occurred when an 18 y.o. coward, Salvador Ramos, proceeded to walk into the Robb Elementary school and began to open fire on both, children and teachers. While this was a horrific event that has devastated many families, this isn’t our focal point. Instead, we are focusing on the police department and how they (didn’t) respond.
It’s standard that officers are trained for deadly situations, this includes mass shootings. In fact, law enforcement agencies run drills for such events. With that in mind, it leads to one question: Why did it take the Uvalde police 77 minutes to stop the shooter? For this, we’re going to have to review the timeline of events. In doing so, we can make a determination of exactly how long it took the Uvalde police to actually respond.
While we can say that this event took place very recently, the shooting was actually planned long before it occurred. In September of 2021, we know that the shooter requested his sister to purchase him a weapon. The reason for this is because, according to Federal law, you must be 18 years of age to buy a rifle. However, you must be 21 years of age to buy a pistol. Thankfully, in this situation, his sister declined his request.
At around March 1-3, 2022, images of weapons would be posted to the shooter’s Instagram account. On one such post, the shooter states the following, “10 more days.” To this, a user, ironically enough, asked about rather or not he had plans of shooting up a school. Around two months later, he would purchase weapons for the shooting.
The shooter’s final day
At roughly 11:00 AM, Ramos sent a Facebook message. This message was directed to a German girl that he had met online. In this message, he states that he planned to shoot his grandmother in the face. He than proceeded to carry out the act, however she called law enforcement. He than proceeds to steal her car and crashes it near Robb Elementary, the final phase of his diabolical plan.
We know that he arrived at the school at 11:28. two minutes later, a teacher made a call to 9-1-1, informing them of the urgent situation. As Ramos proceeded to the building, he had already begun to fire rounds. He entered the building at 11:33, where he would roam around the building with the intent of taking as many lives as he possibly could.
The critical time in this sequence is 11:35. This is the time police arrived on scene. Although they proceeded to the door, previously used by Ramos, it was found to be closed. This meant the police could not enter the building. Presumably through another door, the police proceed to enter. Upon doing so, they are met with gunfire which results in grazing wounds.
Now, to explain what a grazing wound is. In short, it means that the officers were hit, but it barely went into them. Basically, it’s a very minor wound. Regardless of the fact that they outnumbered the shooter, the proceed to evacuate the school, leaving the shooter to take more lives. Within minutes, 16 additional rounds are heard from within the building. At 11:43, in what can only be an amazing display of incompetence, the Uvalde Police take to Facebook, posting that the school is under lockdown due to a shooter. They go onto to say the following, “The students and staff are safe in the building.” Since this time, the post itself was deleted but how could they have posted something so blatantly untrue?
At 11:43, the police again post to Facebook. In this post they claim to have the shooter in custody. If you have been following this case, you already know that this information is untrue, the shooter was actually fatally shot by a lone border patrol agent. While this information may seem minor, it’s important to note one major problem: Ramos was still very much alive and he was still firing his weapons inside the school.
It would be at 12:50 PM, around 77 minutes after the shooting began, that a border patrol agent, who refused to wait for backup, entered the school. This one brave man ultimately did what the Uvalde police were to incompetent to do: he eliminated the threat. How could the police have gotten so much of this wrong? Now, it’s time we review that.
What went wrong?
From reviewing the timeline of events, it is very clear that the Uvalde police were incompetent. But why? As I mentioned, law enforcement agencies typically train for this sort of event. Based on the fact that they were so quick to flee the building and stand around, it’s clear that this department on how to handle this situation. For that, I don’t blame the officers personally. To simply state this, they have no control over the training procedures. The blame in this instance would go toward the local government and the police chief. These individuals are tasked with ensuring that their officers are capable of handling events such as this.
Moving beyond that, we can hold the officers responsible for their abrupt evacuation of the building. Because of this choice, many more lives were needlessly taken. While I can understand the concept of fear, it is also important to recognize that these are men and women who signed up to run into danger, not away from it. While they stood outside, as we’ve seen, they proceeded to provide false information to the public. Stating that the individual was in custody, long before his life would be ended, is appalling! Not only did the combination of these two things make the department look bad, but it has also created a massive backlash on social media, more on that shortly.
Shortly after the threat was eliminated, the police would again state that he was in custody. Now, I don’t think I need to state the obvious, but I will. There is a fundamental difference in being fatally shot and being in custody. How so? One infers that the offender is still alive while the other one is rather obvious. By stating that he was in custody, they provided more false information in that they gave the perception that Ramos was still breathing. Now, let’s go into that social media backlash.
As a result of the horrific mishandling of this situation, the department’s Facebook page has been met with heavy critique. Reviews that slam the department’s incompetence are very common. To quote one such review, “great place to shoot kids. All the cops are cowards. 0/10 would defund.” This, and many other reviews, demonstrate just how the public feels about this department. However, the department had demonstrated exactly why the “anti-police” movement has gone into full throttle. People have every right to be upset at this department, and they absolutely should be. What this department did was unethical, and as a result of the department’s choices, many more lives were taken.
It’s clear that this law enforcement department has some serious integrity problems. It’s also clear that their training is in desperate need of an overhaul. Though they will continue to get backlash, for sometime, we do hope that they take this opportunity to review their policies and procedures. Even with much needed changes, it will not undo the events of that day. To those families, we can only offer our deepest condolences.
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On Facebook, our platform received a message from an individual claiming to be associated with the agency, to which we previously wrote about. If you haven’t read that article, we’ll give you a quick recap into the tragic events that unfolded for a mentally disabled individual. Bear in mind, that we have learned additional details since the previous article, they will be included in this one.
To summarize the situation, a detention officer with autism was placed onto the overnight shift. Initially, he felt that it would be more suited for him, he could get better adjusted, and so on. Immediately following this switch, a night supervisor appeared to make him a target. According to the individual, she would berate him in front of the residents (children who are in Juvenile custody,) as well as in front of other officers. Eventually, due to the hostile work environment, created by his supervisor, he began reaching out to individuals who outranked her. Below are the emails, that apparently don’t exist, if we were to listen to an alleged employee of this detention center.
Though redacted from the above image, the unedited version shows that this email was sent to a Major (yes they apparently use military rankings.) We asked about the response email to which we have been informed that one was never given, as far as he knew, it had been ignored. This leads us to email number two.
Upon not receiving any form of feedback, he proceeded to go up the ranking system. The above email was sent to the detention center chief, whom we mentioned in the previous article. Again, there was no response. He presumed that it was ignored for a second time. With that, he went outside of their ranking system.
On 4-26-2022, he proceeded to send this email to the HR manager. The date is important to mention, as it plays a critical role into a potentially illegal termination. Though there was no immediate response, on 5-1-2022, he had gotten a phone call from the detention center chief. The Chief requested a meeting between him, HR, and the employee. Here’s what we now know took place during this meeting.
Initially, they discussed his concerns and problems. However, near the end of this discussion, they took an abrupt change. According to the former employee, they proceeded to gaslight him, asking him if he may had done something that would have warranted the treatment he had received. Now, we as a platform, wish to go on record and say this: “THIS IS NOT OKAY! ABUSE IS NEVER ACCEPTABLE REGARDLESS OF WHY IT HAD TAKEN PLACE!”
From this point, he learned that an officer filed a complaint against him. The reason? He made her uncomfortable. Alright, so we’re going to interject right here. If you know an individual with autism, then you already know how difficult social situations can be. In other words, it’s not surprising that he would make somebody uncomfortable. What is shocking is the fact that she, right after he began sending emails off, felt the need to report him. We can speculate as to why. However, we’ll refrain from doing so.
So, as we stated, this horrible excuse of a meeting had taken place on 5-1-2022. Again, this date is important. By the time this meeting even took place, the former employee informs us that he had placed an application with the county jail. He informs us that this was done due to the lack of response from those to whom he sent emails. In short, he felt as though he had no support.
It’s important that we mention that apparently all county-based agencies utilize the same emailing system. This, as with the dates, is also important to note as you are about to learn.
On 5-5-2022, the former employee received this email via his county inbox; it came from the county jail. Now, if you read the previous article, 5-5-2022 is a very critical date. Within three hours of seeing this email, the detention chief pulled this man from his post, escorted him out of the facility, and terminated his employment as they stood in a parking lot. Yes, you read that correctly. The man couldn’t even give the former employee the respect of terminating him in his office; he had to walk him outside, in public. Furthermore, according to the employee, the weather wasn’t exactly sunny, as it had been raining for most of that day.
While their employees may claim that these emails do not exist, we do have the unedited versions of these. We know the names of who received them, we know the email addresses to which they were sent. This timeline, in our opinion, shows a clear indication that a man was purposefully targeted by his supervisor. When he attempted to report it, he was purposefully ignored until he proceeded with placing job applications. At this point, they did a gaslighting, under the guise of a meeting. They not only justified the abuse he was alleging, but they also went as far as to target a social issue that directly stemmed from his condition. Finally, when another agency contacted him, in retaliation OCJDC terminated him on the spot.
The termination not only makes it look bad for this man, who may now fail at obtaining this potential job, it was also illegal. In the United States, there are retaliation laws. Even if the State is a “Right to work,” or “At will” State, they can only fire you for legal reasons, a classification that retaliation does not fall into. Given the above timeline, the dates that we’ve seen on the emails, and the fact he did lose his job, retaliation does appear to be the reason for the end result. We are assisting him in acquiring an attorney. This form of injustice simply cannot be allowed to stand.
It goes to say that journalism has always been a challenging game to play. Providing accurate information, changing mistakes, being threatened, you name it and it happens. When you’re a freelance, or independent journalist, the stakes are even higher. In most cases there are no big companies to have your back. You have to distribute, write, and build your platform from the ground up. If you’re lucky, you’ll get a small team to help you. With all of the challenges that come with this field, one would think that being factual is a top priority. Afterall, it’s your platform’s image and reputation on the line. For the platform we’re about to cover, these things don’t appear to matter.
Freedom Public Press is a rather questionable platform, at best. Though it was founded in February of 2019, it only maintains roughly 508 followers. There is a reason for this. According to their Facebook reviews, they stand at a 1.5 rating, something that is extremely low for a media platform. But how is it that this independent journalist came to fail in this way? The answer to this very question is exactly what we’re here to discuss.
It’s Lead, and only team member, Shara Michelle, has made many calculated mistakes over the years. Though we have all made many mistakes, our platform included, we were able to bounce back. However, unlike her, we have always upheld one critical key: To provide truthful information to be best of our ability and to correct information that we get wrong. Furthermore, we have also been known to take in the suggestions of our followers. Though this information about our own platform seems trivial, it’s actually going to play into one of the things that has lead herself to stagnate in the virtual world.
Opposing views
As a journalist, the ability to accept opposing views is almost a critical trait to have. It doesn’t mean you can’t debate the view; it does mean that you allow the view to be spoken in a public platform. Freedom Public Press, on the other hand, has never understood the concept. Instead, their solution to any opposing view is to simply remove the comment. Not only does this eliminate transparency, but it also brings forth a lack of trust from those who may follow the platform. For any person who wishes to do freelance journalism, especially in written articles, this is a guaranteed way of ending your career. A truth that is openly displayed by their follower count.
Presenting information
The spreading of information is exactly what we do in this trade. Though this is often a passion, it is one that can be destructive for a platform if they’re not careful. Regardless of the subject matter, a good journalist can present information without a personal bias. Though we have opinions on many of the things that we write about, we try to maintain an objective outlook. This means that we need to be able to write without our personal bias or emotions being involved.
For Freedom Public Press, this has never been done. In fact, the platform has a prolonged history of simply fabricating information for its viewers to read. Naturally, this tactic has brought it a lot more harm than good. In one recent post, for instance, the platform is quoted to have said the following:
Does Meko Haze- Always use criminals to do his dirty work so they get the harassment charge? Stay tuned
Freedom Public Press: January 14, 2022
Although we have not found anything that would substantiate a question of this sort, we did find something else of interest. As it turned out, the lead “journalist” Shara Michelle, appears to have a personal vendetta dating back years. More disturbingly, what we found, was that this wasn’t the first time she had openly targeted, or spread outright slanderous information, about journalist, “Meko Haze.” Naturally, her post created a backlash of opposition, which she promptly deleted.
Outside of this, it appears that the entire platform was created solely for one individual case: Jamie Johnson, whom we have previously covered on this platform. Outside of that, it appears that they either share information from other platforms or share links to their YouTube videos, which we have no intention of promoting here due to their already questionable reputation. Outside of these things, we didn’t find much on the platform of notable worth.
Summary
If the intent of Freedom Public Press was to gain followers, it’s abundantly clear that it has failed. With emotional rants, outright slander and false information, and so on, the platform made many mistakes that stunted its growth. When mistakes were made, they didn’t do the responsible thing: retract the information and correct it. Instead, Shara stuck to her guns, as one may say, and effectively brought her own platform down. Deleting criticism is never good, though she has classified much of that as “excessive trolling.” When we viewed the comments that were remaining, yes, we did find trolling. However, we also found people calling her out.
The simple fact is this: when a platform destroys its own image, the trolls are going to come. That’s just a given. It is the job of any administrator to make a determination between who the trolls are, removing them, and who is simply being critical. In this aspect, she failed to do that, marking everybody into the troll category; this doesn’t work in the long term, it is only a temporary solution that will eventually backfire. For her, that is exactly what happened. Once this sort of backfire occurs, it’s virtually game over unless you rebrand yourself and learn from your mistakes. However, because her reputation is equally destroyed, she would have a very difficult time in doing that.
An independent media platform dedicated to sharing accurate news.
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