THE HOUNDS OF BLAIRSVILLE An episode of a public radio show, “This American Life,” comes to mind today. The episode, “Tarred and Feathered,” is about PUBLIC SHAMING and how effective it is in terms of turning the target into a pariah. The first act of that episode, “The Hounds of Blairsville,” is a story about a man targeted on a public forum, similar to public pages in Facebook, by multiple “anonymous” accounts. The story occurred in a very small town called, Blairsville, Georgia. Gene Cooley was about to wed his fiancée, Paulette. Gene gets a call from the Police Station because Paulettes ex-husband had shot Paulette and then killed himself. Gene was absolutely wrecked, for obvious reasons. Gene flies out of town to his would have been in-laws for the funeral. Shortly thereafter, things got weird. For some unknown reason, his would have been in-laws and people at his town started openly hating him. It turns out, “people” have been saying things about Gene through the Internet in a forum called, “Topix.” Topix is a website for small towns that is supposed to be a local news site – “[b]ut in practice, its just a big message board where anybody can create an account and post a news item. And so more often than not, in places like Blairsville, its mostly gossip.” On the day of his fiancee’s murder, people appear to be commenting a lot about the murder on Topix. At first, the comments were sympathetic toward Gene but it took an ugly turn. About five or seven user names were being really hateful, derogatory, and nasty. These users called Gene a pervert, making it out like Gene was a child molester and a big drug user. Some of the accusations got really specific. One of these users said that Gene cheated on his first wife and the user claimed that he knows Paulette (the murdered fiancée) and Gene well, and how he witnessed both making out in public in a sickening way. Gene was flabbergasted. He had no idea who it could be that could hate him this much to make up such horrible things. Gene never participated on such Internet forums. He didnt even know what YouTube was. The odd thing is people in Blairsville believed the things being said about Gene as news instead of gossip. So people started treating Gene with such hostility in town – calling him at earshot as a pervert, a child molester. Two months after his fiancee’s murder, Gene has had enough of the town and moved to another 3 ½ hours away. But he also hired an attorney to get down to the bottom of things. It was hard to get to the bottom of the slanderous acts because of the anonymity of the users. But 1.5 years later, in a case in Texas, a federal judge ruled that Topix had to give up the TRUE IDENTITIES of any slanderous posters. So Gene’s attorney used that ruling to find out who the anonymous posters really were. And what he found shocked him. It turned out that there was only ONE person behind it all. All the usernames, controlled by one person, were all going back and forth on Topix, talking about Gene and thanking each other for their warnings about him. It was a woman who had gone to the trouble of making multiple accounts and then having fake conversations between those accounts. Her name was Sybil Denise Ballew. Gene was totally dumbfounded. Gene later learns that over 10 years ago, he and Sybil Ballew had both worked at a department store in town called Alexanders. Gene only worked there for three months and barely remembers that experience but he remembers Sybil clearly. The radio show interviewed Sybil. She explains that she didn’t like the way he looked at the younger girls in staff. She claims that he would look them up and down in a lusty way. So Sybil believes Gene had it coming. Sybil believes that Gene is the reason the womans dead. She reasoned Gene knew of Paulette’s ex-husband’s violent nature, yet Gene would display public affection toward Paulette. So Sybil concludes that because he knew this and he acted that way anyway, Gene was purposely getting Paulette’s ex-husband riled up. So, naturally, it is Gene’s fault that the ex-husband murdered Paulette. The interviewer from the radio show asked Sybil if she is proud of what she did to Gene. She answered, “Im proud of standing up for what I believe in, for what I know. Im proud of telling the truth.” Gene sued Sybil Ballew for libel and defamation of character. It turns out, Sybil thought that she could say whatever she wants on the Internet because of the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. Of course, this is wrong because under the First Amendment not all speech are protected. Defamation is not ever protected speech. Gene won the case. The jury ruled that Sybil Denise Ballew owed Gene $404,000, with $250,000 in punitive damages. I share this story with you for one reason. Something similar to this story is going on here. A number of user accounts have been accusing “Flips en Rogue” to be creating dummy accounts and saying slanderous things about “Flips en Rogue.” I have let this rolled off my back because I know the truth and I have dismissed such individual(s) as just having some serious mental issues. But the number of people being accused has been growing. And those people being accused as “Flips en Rogue,” who now know the absurdity of said individual(s), are not too happy. To this day, the individual(s), just like Sybil in the story above, does/do not recognize the wrong and continues to propagate the preposterous slanders. Personally, I do not care enough about these things to take all the necessary steps to stop it. But I reserve the right to do so. I know the truth. The people being accused know the truth. And as the story above illustrates, the truth can be easily revealed. More importantly, the lie comes with a price. I am not a litigious person. I do not believe, as strange as this may sound to you, that conflicts are best resolved in the court. I think it is a last resort venue. My position on this comes watching perpetrators of the genocide in Rwanda ask for forgiveness from the surviving families of those they slaughtered. These families accepted their forgiveness. How could I, with such knowledge, be so cruel over a petty Facebook slander driven by an inexplicable obsession? I post this story in the event that a person who is behaving like Sybil is reading this message. This is not a threat but a kind warning of the consequences that come from such conduct. The story above is true. The litigation is true. Please Google it. The Vhong Navarro case has been a fun and engaging sideshow of our real lives for many of us for many reasons. And we should keep it that way. We should not allow our conduct here to affect the more important aspects of our lives. I think it is fair to say that $600K in damages would have a detrimental effect on someone’s life. While I can exercise compassion and restraint to almost-inhuman extent, I have no control over other people. Remember, you when accuse “Flips en Rogue” as being another user, you are accusing another person that is not me. The truth is, I do not own or control another account but this. Forewarned is fair warned. It is not worth it so you should stop.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Apr 2014 14:05:55 +0000
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