The ball is no longer in my court. It's up to my readers now to demand the City of Greensboro raise the veil of secrecy and give us the truth-- all the truth. I believe that my posts I'm Betting This Changed Everything and Hacking The GPD have exposed significant facts that were not covered in Yes! Weekly's stories on Greensboro Police Surveillance that implicated Greensboro City Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter to be a Confidential Informant when in-fact she is a Citizen Source of Information-- a roll filled by any citizen who dials 9-1-1 and asks not to be identified when reporting a crime in progress-- like when a van load of angry adults stop in front of a candlelight vigil and start throwing empty beer bottles at children.
Last night I e-mailed both those links to Mayor Robbie Perkins, the Greensboro City Council, Greensboro Police Chief Ken Miller and City Manager, Denise Turner Roth. I demanded Chief Miller call a press conference to explain the difference between a Confidential Informant and a Citizen Source of Information as they are defined in the Greensboro Police Department's Directives Manual and to explain that Marikay Abuzuaiter is in-fact a Citizen Source of Information. In a post script to that e-mail I also called for the resignation of Mayor Robbie Perkins who I believe is attempting to use this incident to his political advantage at best and at worst is behind the leaks and or padding of documents.
Did Yes! Weekly Editor, Brian Clarey, and journalist, Eric Ginsburg, make mistakes? Again, I'm the pot calling the kettle black. Every journalist and every blogger that has written about this story to date has made mistakes some very tiny and some huge. Mine were some of the biggest among them. I don't necessarily like the way Yes! Weekly handled the story but that's just my opinion. When challenged, Brian Clarey manned up and stood up for his employees and his decisions. As Lex Alexander pointed out in a separate incident yesterday, most bosses don't have it in them. I promise you we'll never see that level of leadership from the current crop of management at the News & Record. I highly respect Brian Clarey for standing up against me for Eric. Not many people get that from me and those that do earned it.
Eric Ginsburg did what any young journalist would do. He found a lead and chased it until he found a story. He did his job and continues to do his job. Eric made mistakes-- so what? He did a good job. And it's not over yet. Eric still has almost 18,000 pages that he has yet to read, he will find more that the City of Greensboro doesn't want you to know. That's why Mayor Perkins arranged for City Attorney Mujeeb Shah-Kahn to lie before City Council last Tuesday night and why the City of Greensboro is dragging their feet on calling for an investigation.
But what Eric has is only the tip of the iceberg. You see, given enough time to purge the evidence the City will make the claim that Eric Ginsburg fabricated the lies and altered the documents to promote his anarchist agenda. And Eric won't have the financial resources to beat the City. I'm telling you because I've had my own personal experiences with how this city operates and to what ends they will go to win even when they're wrong. We need a Federal investigation to find out what the City is hiding that Eric doesn't have and I encourage all of you to join me in demanding we get it now.
I'm willing to let Eric and Brian's mistakes slide. I hope Eric and Brian will allow my own to slide as well. But the fact that GPD and City of Greensboro officials have allowed this to go on for as long as it has without pointing out the truth that Greensboro City Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter is in-fact a Citizen Source of Information just like tens of thousands of law abiding citizens of Greensboro and not a Confidential Informant tells me that someone high in Greensboro City Government or the Greensboro Police Department was and remains complicit before, during and after this event took place.
And that, my fellow citizens, is an indication that we have reason enough to believe that a crime has been committed at the highest levels of Greensboro City Government. Like they say, it's always the cover-up that gets you. If Chief Miller won't call for an investigation then we need an emergency meeting of the Greensboro City Council now to do so.
Last night I e-mailed both those links to Mayor Robbie Perkins, the Greensboro City Council, Greensboro Police Chief Ken Miller and City Manager, Denise Turner Roth. I demanded Chief Miller call a press conference to explain the difference between a Confidential Informant and a Citizen Source of Information as they are defined in the Greensboro Police Department's Directives Manual and to explain that Marikay Abuzuaiter is in-fact a Citizen Source of Information. In a post script to that e-mail I also called for the resignation of Mayor Robbie Perkins who I believe is attempting to use this incident to his political advantage at best and at worst is behind the leaks and or padding of documents.
Did Yes! Weekly Editor, Brian Clarey, and journalist, Eric Ginsburg, make mistakes? Again, I'm the pot calling the kettle black. Every journalist and every blogger that has written about this story to date has made mistakes some very tiny and some huge. Mine were some of the biggest among them. I don't necessarily like the way Yes! Weekly handled the story but that's just my opinion. When challenged, Brian Clarey manned up and stood up for his employees and his decisions. As Lex Alexander pointed out in a separate incident yesterday, most bosses don't have it in them. I promise you we'll never see that level of leadership from the current crop of management at the News & Record. I highly respect Brian Clarey for standing up against me for Eric. Not many people get that from me and those that do earned it.
Eric Ginsburg did what any young journalist would do. He found a lead and chased it until he found a story. He did his job and continues to do his job. Eric made mistakes-- so what? He did a good job. And it's not over yet. Eric still has almost 18,000 pages that he has yet to read, he will find more that the City of Greensboro doesn't want you to know. That's why Mayor Perkins arranged for City Attorney Mujeeb Shah-Kahn to lie before City Council last Tuesday night and why the City of Greensboro is dragging their feet on calling for an investigation.
But what Eric has is only the tip of the iceberg. You see, given enough time to purge the evidence the City will make the claim that Eric Ginsburg fabricated the lies and altered the documents to promote his anarchist agenda. And Eric won't have the financial resources to beat the City. I'm telling you because I've had my own personal experiences with how this city operates and to what ends they will go to win even when they're wrong. We need a Federal investigation to find out what the City is hiding that Eric doesn't have and I encourage all of you to join me in demanding we get it now.
I'm willing to let Eric and Brian's mistakes slide. I hope Eric and Brian will allow my own to slide as well. But the fact that GPD and City of Greensboro officials have allowed this to go on for as long as it has without pointing out the truth that Greensboro City Councilwoman Marikay Abuzuaiter is in-fact a Citizen Source of Information just like tens of thousands of law abiding citizens of Greensboro and not a Confidential Informant tells me that someone high in Greensboro City Government or the Greensboro Police Department was and remains complicit before, during and after this event took place.
And that, my fellow citizens, is an indication that we have reason enough to believe that a crime has been committed at the highest levels of Greensboro City Government. Like they say, it's always the cover-up that gets you. If Chief Miller won't call for an investigation then we need an emergency meeting of the Greensboro City Council now to do so.
