The Place Where Ludington Talks

Ludington's Lynching of Claire the Book Girl

Background of the Story

Even if you are not from Ludington, you may be familiar with Claire "the book girl" Whitcomb and her loss of the ability to do her job of book selling in the Ludington area because her vendors permit was revoked by the Ludington city clerk. You may have got the information from the local media or even here at the Ludington Torch, where it was linked to the original story broke by Rob Alway of the MCP.

A brief synopsis of the situation: Claire registered (as seen below) with the City of Ludington to sell educational materials door-to-door for the summer. City officials allegedly received numerous complaints about her activities to the point where they were forced to pull the permit for the safety of all in Ludington. Claire acknowledged the revocation and restricted herself to selling to the rest of Mason County, outside the cities of Scottville and Ludington.

Two of the local TV stations picked up on the story (see their take on TV 7 & 4 video and the corresponding article) and then the Associated Press put it out on their wire, where it was published in a variety of places throughout the web with the AP's take on it, including:

The Grand Haven Tribune

The Elkhart Truth

Iron Mountain Daily News

Midland Daily News

Marquette's Mining Journal

Washington Times

Huron Daily Tribune

These stories were incomplete. We are fed a diet of hearsay information from a city official defending their action of pulling the vendor's permit, but nothing solid. Unfortunately, the way news is dispensed nowadays, the accuracy of such stories are trumped by the alacrity of its publication. Words of officials are taken as the final say.

After doing some further research behind the pulling of Claire Whitcomb's permit, I have come to the conclusion that what happened to Claire was little more than a public lynching. Whether you had a negative encounter with her or not, her plight should serve as a learning experience to show the damage that rumor and hearsay can do, and illustrate how well-meaning officials can operate clearly outside of the law without being called on it-- except by this forum.

To those who believe the terminology is misleading, Wikipedia defines "lynching" as punishment for an alleged crime or offense carried out by an informal group without legal process or supervision from a court or tribunal through a legal proceeding . Consider this as the story progresses.

Background of the Characters and Events

Claire Whitcomb is a senior of a Texas university selling books and other educational materials distributed by Southwest Advantage. The Southwestern Advantage website informs us they still make house calls. "We want to hear your stories. We want to look in your eyes as you tell us about your kids & your family. Our products help you and your children on personal levels. It only makes sense that we sell them with a personal touch."

Claire and Some Satisfied Clients

As noted, Claire received a permit in May to sell books in Ludington and Scottville, the rest of Mason County does not have such permits, nor do many other municipalities. One could argue that permits are unnecessary and redundant if general laws are followed by prospective vendors, or argue that the permitting process is an unconstitutional infringement on the free market and rife with potential improprieties by officials and cronies. Such arguments are fairly valid in my view, but the Ludington City Council in the past didn't think so.

In Scottville, Claire had some undisclosed complaints, according to their city manager/clerk, Amy Williams, which would have led her not to renew her permit that expired about four weeks before Ludington's revocation. There seems to have been no complaints regarding Claire inside of Ludington before the weekend or noted throughout the rest of Mason County. In this era of videotaping, no incidents involving Claire have either been videotaped. The only video proffered at all is one of Claire allegedly riding off in her vehicle by a Christa Soller. She would be the lone person who filed a formal complaint with the Ludington Police Department (LPD) involving Claire.

The Extent of the Problem

The first problem documented in Ludington was on July 13, when an unidentified complainant living at the corner of Franklin and Diana stated Claire was "pushy":

You will note that R/O Sailor admits herein that two months of selling had went by without any complaint before (formal or informal) to his knowledge. Christa Soller's complaint is next, where she describes her ordeal to officer Wietrzykowski:

As seen in the complete report (LPD Incident Reports Whitcomb.pdf), the dates of the three incidents at the Soller house are not included, the report itself saying the interactions occurred that very morning at 8:45. The police reports the heinous felonies and misdemeanors of name-dropping, dropping by at 8:00 PM, touching a front door, yelling "Hello", and apparently revisiting a house to sell something after being told "no".

The Notes on Claire Whitcomb Vending Permit.pdf does reveal a third instance, where Gary Boerma reports that on July 21, his daughter was visited by Claire, who allegedly told the saleslady that she was not interested because she was a teacher and had her own curriculum. Then, he relates, Claire grabbed his daughter's arm as she turned to leave. He also related that a friend of his daughter had had Claire come to their house, try the doors, and tried to climb in through the windows.

All of this was second hand information, hearsay and rumor, that was accepted as factual without even any sort of verification through the one's allegedly making the statements or by Claire herself. Odd, since (minus any clear intent) the hearsay that merited no formal report is of a simple assault and another is of attempted breaking and entering. As you can see, without any investigation into the inflammatory rumors, the permit was pulled.

Lastly, late on July 22, another LASD teacher, Tanya Gasaway, called in to complain about Claire, mentioning other totally legal acts she did like coming back a second time, talking to her children, and dropping personal info: Emails Chief of Police.pdf. You will also note a letter sent from City Clerk Deb Luskin to the full council and other justifying her decision to pull Claire's permit, echoing the hearsay and non-criminal complaints investigated or not by the LPD.

The Ludington Lynch Mob

So was this a lynching? Most assuredly, this was a punishment (revocation of her license to sell in Ludington) exacted on the Book Girl without any legal process or proceeding. The negatively toned news accounts, forever plastered across the internet, will follow Claire Whitcomb well after she finishes selling her last book. An eternal stain on her good name, for if you look at her Facebook page beyond the incriminating video of her driving away from a house you are overwhelmed by the positive posts from other local folks.

But let's take a look at the lynch mob, who have decided that the public needed to be saved from a door-to-door saleslady who was good at her job. I sent our city clerk an E-mail with three questions, which she expediently replied to on the same day.

1) Why was Claire Whitcombe's permit to solicit book sales in the city revoked?

2) Under whose authority was this revocation made?

3) Did the LPD have any credible criminal complaints against her?

She answered:

1. The permit was revoked due to the number of complaints received to the police department, phone calls from the public made to my office, residents coming to the front office counter and complaining as well as giving specific examples that went against Article II Sections 34-61, 34-63, 34-104,34-135. These sections of the Charter are provided to each vendor, solicitor, who takes out a permit to vend or solicit and I explain to each vendor or solicitor when they take out a vending permit that if we receive any complaints the supervisor in each situation will be contacted and if the complaints continue I explain that a permit will be pulled. I pulled the permit as the Code refers to Article II Section 10-36 which states that a vendor, solicitor must first register with the city clerk.

2. The City Clerk under this code section has jurisdiction to revoke the permit and I made the decision to revoke this permit.

3. Yes

The sections cited were in order Trespassing, Meddling or tampering with property, Begging and soliciting alms by accosting or forcing oneself upon th..., and Window Peeping. I found no first person account of anything in the record that indicated any willful violations of these. Even the hearsay entered into the record do not indicate Claire did any of these.

Regardless, section 10-36 of our city code does give her the jurisdiction to issue permits, but does not allow her to unilaterally revoke them-- or for that matter does not give anybody in the city any authority to "pull" a permit. A look at our city charter (section 10.2 (h))does not allow her the power to revoke any license or permit-- just to issue them.

So what we have here is a woman guilty perhaps of being good at her job, who rubs local teachers the wrong way with her heretical education books, who has not seriously been charged with any crime, or who has been given any kind of due process, ran out of the city by our officials. Sounds like another excellent civil rights lawsuit against the City of Ludington if she decides to do so.

Claire Schmoozing with More of Her Clients

Let's consider: this girl jumped through the needless local hurdles to register in Ludington, did nothing that has been determined to be illegal or unethical, and because one official without authority revokes her license on unverified rumor (without any dissent from the complicit city council), she immediately becomes the "book girl from Hell" with her story splayed everywhere, without even an attempt by the media or our officials to allow her the opportunity to defend her actions and her name.

Is there any better reason for eliminating the local licensing process and for getting our local government out of the business of choosing which businesses succeed or fail?

Epilogue

As part of my FOIA request to the city dealing with this issue, I received a copy of the revoked permit. Claire Whitcomb's copy taken from her Facebook page was presented at the beginning of this article:

Besides the handwritten "Permit Pulled", did you notice any other differences in the two permits? Claire covered her own addresses and phone number, because she valued her own privacy. The FOIA Coordinator of Ludington had no such consideration and allowed those two bits of information to be shared with everyone. Yet they routinely cover such private information on other public records they have given me over the years.

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Permalink Reply by John Doe Jr on August 13, 2015 at 8:26pm

Chiefy Queefy has sat there through several meetings and HAS heard several facts with documents submitted as evidence, of the corruption and illegal actions of those in front of him. Queefy has sat there and done nothing!! Even though he has the power to investigate the facts himself. It is HIGH TIME that the Chief of Police Barnett steps down!! The only thing going through his SELF LOATHING mind is whose lives he will destroy after the meeting, and what to say for the next prayer. I AM APPALLED!!!