Be Kind, A Rewind: An Objective Look at the Torch Investigation

[XLFD]

At yesterday's Ludington City Council meeting, Councilor Kathy Winczewski brought to our attention the editorial in that days City of Ludington Daily News (COLDNews) as being instructive as to how to keep the level of discourse in this period of Threatening Times.  Here's what it said:

I am being singled out for offering comments at the council meetings and allowing people to express their First Amendment rights on this website.  I must be a very bad person, indeed, as they encourage me to offer civil discourse, and insinuate that name-calling and threats are part of my forte.  Fortunately, they can go throughout my career of speaking in front of the city council, it's all on record at the Mason County Library website. 

I'll admit some of my speeches have been confrontational; I take offense at officials not following the law or practicing ethical behavior, and I take offense at inefficient public policy that violates our rights.  But I have always been civil in my presentation.  This has not always been the case with city officials.

And the recent hubbub with the purported threats on this forum involving two officials and two private marina owners only involves me because I affirmatively defended the rights of free speech and the non-threatening nature of the posts.  I did this in a very civil manner, despite the inquiry that took place when these officials allowed the records to be released. 

The witch hunt meeting was prefaced by LPD Chief Barnett decrying my  sincerity stating:  "The reason we’re all here primarily is because, frankly, our past experience with Mr. Rotta’s past website is information is given out in a less than accurate way."  I doubt whether I am 100% accurate in all my reportage, primarily because local officials like to keep public records away from the public, but the chief and other officials always say this without any example.  Please offer an example one of these days, I have drawn a blank.

Barnett would end the meeting with a statement containing only pronouns that can be interpreted as being very empathetic with the actual victim(s) of the inquisition:  “Frankly, I can understand why a person [Rotta] would be tired of this.  I can understand why a person [Rotta] would think that this is just not appropriate. Any civilized person would probably do their part to do what they can to limit this type of clubbing of people, but that’s not been the case in this situation.”  I totally agree chief.  

As you can see, he made a statement that I took as meaning me as 'a person', and yet by the context of his other discourse, he was not considering me as 'a person' he was considering who he had labelled as victims, two city officials he served under.  Spoken and written words can be interpreted different ways by the listener/reader.

Throughout the rest of the meeting, the first 'victim' John Shay called me crazy for having an interpretation other than his, called me a liar without any basis repeatedly, and slandered my character using the same creepy material he used back in 2013, which was just as false then. 

The COLDNews reports Shay as saying “You’ve been insulting me for eight years and so be it, spilling lies and vitriol and all that, and then you go here and on this there are posts about, get in a dark alley and physically assaulting and you don’t feel that’s in any way threatening, abusive, violent, harassing, malicious or harmful to any person or entity."

But even with the evidence in front of him, victim Shay can't tell the truth.  Jfc123 said "Shay and his disrespect, Krauch and his disrespect, a dark alley,.....lol!"  There are no verbs, even linking verbs in that sentence-- shame on you, Jfc123-- but only for that.  There is not a hint of a physical assault in that sentence or anything jfc123 wrote. 

When I initially read that passage I humorously envisioned Shay and Krauch in an extramarital gay liaison in a dark alley, and I'm not the only one.   I am not in any way claiming these two have any inclinations that way, mind you, it's just how I interpreted it, those two officials disrespecting each other in their tawdry ways.  The two massive raw sewage spills in the PM Bayou they have both effectively ignored shows they have no problem when they screw things up and everything gets a little crappy. 

                       This is not Councilor Michael Krauch and City Manager Shay in a dark alley

The second 'victim', Mike Krauch, is even more shrill in his victimhood even though he was not even threatened, unless you claim the verb-free alley tango above is considered threatening.   The one post by jfc123 where he says:  "I would also like 5 minutes in a room alone with him for his disrespect to my mother.  Actually would not need that long!  Maybe 10 seconds." refers by context to John Shay and is once again without meaningful verb other than 'would (like)'.  Ironically the previous sentence refers to someone he knows being threatened by Shay.

So consider that there has been no threat to Krauch or his family in the police record and listen to him at that odd meeting at 3 different times: 

“We’re public officials, but we’re not obligated to put up with threats of violence against our person.  I shouldn’t have to walk around this town with my wife, wondering whether someone is going to jump out from behind a wall and jump me or punch me or attack me in some way because somebody disagrees with my policies, and it was inappropriate. I absolutely felt threatened, and I feel threatened to this point.” [glaring menacingly at me for several seconds]

"You're a jerk." [to me]

"You’re despicable, and you think you should be on city council, what a joke." [again, to me]

The recordings show I was polite while defending my website, my members, and myself as I always will when we're in the right.  But he wasn't through at that meeting, he saved even more for the next council meeting to again make some more political statements against me and my website engaging his victimhood of threat-speech and punctuating it forcefully at times and ending it with a long glare at the crux of his anger, you know, like all frightened victims do:

September 12, 2016 Ludington City Council meeting from Mason County District Library on Vimeo.

Councilor Krauch [55:25 in]:  "You know I do have a bit of miscellaneous business, and I am not going to go back through the documents-- they are publicly available, they have been placed on news websites. Folks can form their own opinions. What I will say is that we are public officials, you are welcome to criticize my job performance, and you are welcome to call me names, you are welcome to compliment me if you feel that's appropriate.

What you're not welcome to do is you're not welcome to incite others, you're not welcome to threaten me on a website. And it is shameful that the operator of that website also happens to be a candidate for city council, thinks that's okay. We are not obligated to be threatened, our families are not obligated to be intimidated and threatened. And I am absolutely putting folks on notice that I will not tolerate it. Thank you."

Councilor's Holman, Castonia and my opponent Les Johnson ("Fully agree with you, Mike.") affirmed the outrage, before Krauch added:  "I reiterate, I compliment those who engage, I compliment those who take their time to come in here and speak to us and there are absolutely times we will disagree, there will be times we agree, and I appreciate that all.

The First Amendment is important, the right to freedom of speech is important, but with that right comes responsibility, and we simply do not have the right to threaten and intimidate others.  It is just not right (puts pen down forcefully, glares for seconds at me)."

Mayor Pro-tem Kaye Holman:  "And that is the name of that game."

Very true Mayor Holman.  I reiterate that nobody threatened Krauch on my website.  The name-calling, the slander, the intimidating behavior, and the threats have all come from city officials on the accused and on the witness (me).  The record illustrates that fact.  They have not only conducted an investigation without merit, but threatened to subvert the people's faith in the law by having the two "victims" use their own police force and city prosecutor.  

So Patti Klevorn, who was at the meeting and wrote an editorial that totally missed the mark on who I am and what this website is about, should look and listen to what is on the record for once, instead of falling for the political garbage spewing from city hall, meant to defame good honest small businessmen, and give a councilor candidate bad press so he is shunned.   Notice where the unkind words and real threats are all coming from in this episode. 

While the words I put forth in response to some posts I felt could be misinterpreted back in July are overlooked, simply because they ring so true and show my commitment for peaceful and meaningful conversation: 

"Remember that even in this day of rampant public corruption and terrorism the old adage by Martin Luther King still runs true.  "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."  In order to be a proactive citizen, be the light and the love-- expose the corruption, show how it affects our commonwealth, and propose better solutions for all.  The firmly established darkness and hatred will portray you as they really are, but the light of the truth and the love of the truth will persevere and triumph eventually."  

Let's hope it does.

[Willy]

[Willy]

[Willy]

I wonder if Shay and the Police scared people away from this forum. Since the Police waged the witch hunt, publicly naming users and the slanderous comments by Shay, the police and the LDN, it's possible that people are having second thoughts about sharing their opinions here on the Torch?

[XLFD]

That was part of the plan.  Why call a big press conference invite all the city-friendly local media and innocent parties involved (without telling them why), then announce news that was about a week old, that the city's prosecutor would not go forth with any charges, because there was nothing there?   Despite the machinations made at the conference by the two officials playing 'victim'.

Not only was it meant to attack the people who may respond on this forum, it was clearly a political move against my candidacy.  Keep in mind also that Shay was aware that I was doing some prying into the 2012 Creamery Corner's leak, so it may have been utilized as an attack in preparation to lessen my credibility.  When the defecation settles to the bottom and the water clears, we'll see who remains.