Countercurrents

Police Call Department of Homeland Security To Investigate Anti-Trump Graffiti As Domestic Terrorism [More]

Seems like overkill, doesn't it?  Has the First Amendment been eroded this much. so that, appropriate vandalism charges aside, there's no room for offensive political disagreement?

If so, that's important to know about, and important to alert others to. That's how I found out about this  -- from a post on a Facebook activism page that had the effect of getting all kinds of people stirred up and angry, including some good people I know who are generally fairly critical about what they accept as real.

Funny thing, though -- you go looking for the story itself and you find it happened last December, and while it did make the news, no one else is reporting a domestic terror/DHS connection. Could it be they all missed the most significant part of the story and Counter Current News scooped them all?

Perhaps-- we've seen sins of omission and commission by the media so many times before it's hard to keep track. So who are these guys at CCN?

Unfortunately, they don't tell us and the story itself doesn't give an author byline, so we can't check his/her qualifications, credibility and reliability of past work. They do tell us they're not responsible for inaccuracies, but who exactly "they" are is unknown, as the website is registered via a proxy service.

So we seem to be at an impasse here, with CCN making a shocking claim and the rest of the world seemingly in the dark. What to do...?

Why not contact Atlanta PD and ask?

"Our investigation found that similar graffiti was placed around the country. It was removed immediately," Elizabeth Espy, Director of Public Affairs for the Atlanta Police Department told me. "We did not classify it as domestic terrorism."

We have persons unknown telling us one thing, with no evidence aside from their making unsubstantiated claims. We have someone willing to go on record under her own name,with attendant professional risks if she's proven to be wrong, telling us something altogether different.

If CCN is going to stand by their story, they'd best be prepared to provide some corroborating details, including if they spoke with anyone at Atlanta PD and to whom. They certainly didn't indicate they were dealing with a whistleblower who needed to be protected, so that shouldn't be a factor now. (Then again, perhaps there's something in the video I can't get to load in three different browsers.)

The object lesson here is one that can't be overstressed -- do some due diligence on information before just assuming it's gospel. Otherwise, we end up wasting time and energy on virtual snipe hunts. That not only calls our credibility into question, but keeps us from focusing on stuff that actually is important.

And yeah, I've embarrassed myself before on that, by sharing tip links without checking close enough.

UPDATE: This evidently was the source CCN relied on, so we at least know they were acting in good faith:

It would have helped had the source link been included.

Using that, I've been able to locate the story by NBC's "11 Alive News Staff," and it indeed says "According to Atlanta Police, Homeland Security has been notified."

I'm kicking this one back to Ms. Espy and bringing Channel 11 into the discussion.  We'll see what they have to say.

UPDATE:

Me to Ms. Espy: This is the source others used:
http://buckhead.11alive.com/news/news/1863492-two-donald-trump-swastikas-found-atlanta

"According to Atlanta Police, Homeland Security has been notified."

Is that true?

I've contacted 11 Alive to ask who told them what.

Please advise.

Thank you.

Ms. Espy: Yes we have our own Homeland Security unit with the PD.  Not United States Homeland Security.

It's nice to finally get that out of her, considering what I'd repeatedly pressed her on in earlier email correspondence, including:

• I'm trying to determine the validity of a report that your department has reported the Trump swastika graffiti you encountered in December to DHS as "domestic terrorism." The only one I can find reporting on this is an alternative political website. Can you confirm or deny the allegations ... and provide any other information/elaboration if it is true?
• After she replied "Our investigation into the graffiti did not classify this as domestic terrorism," I wrote back "I take it by your response that this was NOT reported to DHS by APD?"
• Her response: "Our investigation found that similar graffiti was placed around the country.  It was removed immediately.  We did not classify it as domestic terrorism."

It wasn't until I sent her the NBC link this morning that I got back the reply about APD having their own Homeland Security unit, which, by the way, makes a point of including the DHS logo and "If you see something say something" slogan on its handout materials.  I suppose I could ask WHY it was reported to the APD HS unit, but really, what would be the point?

So, OK, Counter Current News, it wasn't literally DHS as you guys reported, but that's kind of beside the point. You mistake wasn't as big as mine, which was to assume somebody was purposely embellishing your story, and for that, I owe you a humble apology.  

As I said earlier in this post, I've embarrassed myself before by not checking.  I believe this is the first time I've done it by checking.