Ladies & Gentlemen:If it wasn't for Joseph Gidjunis, you would have never heard about "any" of this! Two days ago I sent Joe a pretty harsh letter explaining how I felt The Daily Times was covering up stories and again misleading people. I expressed how Joe Carmean allowed a so called quote from me supposedly stating I had said the information on the Blogs could not be trusted and in some cases were untrue. I responded with a letter to the editor clearly explaining that I made that statement about "comments," not posts from the Blog Site Owners.
In Sunday's paper the Editorial Board once again, (even after I wrote a letter to the editor) claimed that I had stated the stories on the Blogs were not true. So I drafted a letter to Joe stating I did not appreciate that as well as their lack of coverage about the graffiti.
Joe immediately replied and asked me to call him right away and I did. We spoke about the graffiti and he couldn't believe it was that serious around town. When he got the time to actually look, (4 days later) it was time to write an article.
Now perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut and let the Daily Times lose out on a VERY serious article, or would it be better for "everyone possible" to see what was happening to the City of Salisbury under Chief Webster & Barrie Tilghman's leadership? I chose the latter.
It shouldn't be a war between who is better when it comes to reporting and "crime." There are certain issues that must be exposed and if the Daily Times choses to cover things up, (which has happened many times with Barrie Tilghman's involvement) it's the people that pay for the paper who really lose out.
Think about if "YOU" were Mayor right now. Wouldn't you be out there asking for all the help you could get to make sure this comes to an immediate end? You're not seeing the leader of this City do anything but hide and wait till it all goes away. That's how rotten politicians work Folks. I'd be out there sitting on the rooftop with a hot cup of coffee at night and wait for these SOB's to show up and nail their a**es!
I have been told flat out by the Police Department that 4 years ago they used to patrol the Plaza ON FOOT! I was also told they used to sit on the rooftops at night and wait for things to happen. The Plaza was a much safer place back then and IMO it's the next Old Salisbury Mall. They don't want that area to do well. They want it to fail so prices go down, nobody will want it and Barrie and her friends will buy it all up for 10 cent on a dollar and again act like they saved the City!
Getting back to The Daily Times though. Your title alone, (the graffiti happened last Thursday night) is 5 DAYS LATE! "Ignoring it will only make the problems worse downtown." If it weren't for Joe G, you planned on ignoring it the whole time and instead used the information you had on hand for an article that was supposed to come out in another 2 weeks and filled today's paper up with what you had. A fortunate situation that you had already been researching this information but sadly 5 days too late.
This is what gets me about The Daily Times as well. Why should it take 5 days to expose a story? There's no real legal ramifications to this story. IMO, this is why the Blogs are doing so well. Anyhow, my thanks got out to Joe G. at the Times and for the Editorial Board, you're all full of sh*t. Nice try though.
If "any" of those Editorial Board Members would like to do some community service and help clean things up, well, you wrote the information, you know who to contact then. My guess is that they'll all sit back and write about it. Till then, I'm not cleaning the mess up. I'll let the City do it for me. I'm a writer too now. LMAO!
One last note. IMO, I would have had Police Officers on the roofs of these buildings immdiately, as in last night for sure. We were fortunate the two days before we had rain. Last night there was a full moon and it would have helped. Nevertheless, driving around during the daytime, (as I produced photos of Chief Webster driving around during the daytime in his black cruiser in an earlier post today) isn't going to cut it Chief! Yeah, going home to Ocean City and the thought of returning TO DO YOUR JOB would cut out of your FUN TIME at Seacrets. Mike Lewis would have done things differently, is my point. Oh, and his Wife would have understood why he wasn't home!
17 comments:
YES YES YES JOE! You are right, Thanks to you the public is now aware of how much publicity a tagger can gain by being doing some graffiti.
Not only that, but for taggers it is great that someone was kind enough to post their work online for them. Otherwise the tagger would have to post it himself to show his home boyz. This would be bad because there would be a digital trail leading to them.
Oh yeah, might the taggers also express their appreciation to the fact that you pointed out nobody will remove any work of the graffiti writers because it's "the other persons problem, let them deal with it". This means that all graffiti enthusiasts can enjoy putting up their work with no fear of it being removed while everyone points fingers at each other rather than removing it right away. YAYYYY. Great JOB!! Your site is GREAT!!!
Let me explain a little something to you G®@pHïX,
This is REALITY! This IS what the City of Salisbury has BECOME! Being an Idiot and HIDING it from the Public is exactly what is wrong with this City, County, Country!
Don't THINK you're "protecting" us by HIDING the truth. We'll deal with REALITY as a TEAM! NOT as a single regime run by people who are in power. WE pay the taxes around here and as the Mayor wants to proudly point out, WE'RE the ones who have to clean it up!
That being said, EXPOSE it till the Police Department straightens it out and they are put in a position where they MUST do their job, (what they're paid to do).
So if you think this is only going to bring them back out and make things worse, GOOD! That will make the Police Department's job that much easier!
Might I add, the City is welcome to REMOVE the graffiti themselves within 24 hours if they'd like, at their own expense! Perhaps your mesage should be directed at them for NOT taking it all down within the 24 hours required? IF it's so important, IF it's such an eye sore, IF the City actually cared, perhaps they'd remove it themselves and PROTECT the taxpayers?
PB,
I saw him too but he was on the other side next to Red Door with his lights on giving a ticket in the parking lot. It was a little earlier than you saw him but why not on the Plaza or Downtown?
I really need to add this remark.
IF the Mayor & the Police Department were doing their job, this wouldn't be an issue.
Newspapers are being paid a HUGE amount of money to INFORM the Citizens and that's what's supposed to get people interested in buying their paper!
The fact thayt people like you feel things like this should be covered up only shows that you, nor the Police Department are capable of doing their job!
We're going back to the OLD WAYS of doing things around here and it's called THE TRUTH! The Blogs are exposing the TRUTH and it's killing people like Chief Webster, Barrie Tilghman, Mike Dunn, Gary Comegys, Lynn Cathcart, Jim Rapp, John Jacobs, Dave Winslow and many others!
Barrie has had control of the NEWS for far too long and the City is falling apart. Sure they're mad about a guy like me exposing everything but you know what, I'm exposing the TRUTH and the truth hurts people like them!
Enough said!
I'm a writer too now. LMAO!
Hey Wit,
I'm also President of "The What A Guy Club" too. LOL
Joe, We both agree it is a problem. We both agree that the city is incabable of dealing with the issue. We both agree that the paper published it 5 days after the fact. No dispute there - heck I'll even agree that the police department could probably be better run.
My issue is that you are posting EVERYTHING the taggers hit. They in turn get to use YOUR SITE as a gallery to display their work. Most taggers now-a-days use the interenet to promote their bragging rights. Such postings could be traced back to the poster. But in this case the tagger doesn't even have to risk getting traced. You've posted it for them.
Cover up? Nobody is talking about covering up anything. I understand your posting a photo or two with a bunch of text. But right now your site is the sole showcase for every single piece the taggers produce.
I think we can agree to disagree on the approach of how to make the public aware of the problem. I simply think driving through town is evedence enough. My fear that your posting every image benefits the taggers more than encourage authorities to do something about it.
Sorry fer ticking you off there. Tell ya what, I'll deal with the taggers, you deal with the authorities. Maybe we can get them to do the right things for a change (I'm not being a smart a$$ here, this is a sincere statement).
I knew that lame ass excuse was going to come up. "Dont post pictures of the graffiti or they will just do it more" waa waa waa Gimme a break. Let those assholes keep on defacing the downtown area! Joe should post every single image of graffiti we can find, THEN maybe the sorry ass police department will HAVE no choice but to do something about it!
Agreed!
You contact me at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com and we'll go from there.
You show me you're honorable and I'll prove to you that I'm a worthy partner and hopefully "we" can make a difference in the City of Salisbury.
I have several people who are very high up in local positions who are truly willing to do whatever it takes to make things better.
The ball is now in your court.
Well bury_voter — How well has THAT strategy been workin for yeh?
I simply think this problem is bigger than the police. But maybe I'm only thinking of the problem that NO OTHER CITY HAS SOLVED.
G®@pHïX squints through all the gun smoke at iyeska trying to see if he recognizes the face.
;-P
I can sorta see Graphix point, but I think if'n it riles people up here to do somethin', it's worth givin' the criminal his 15 minutes o' fame.
Now, if'n I had Mr. A.'s talent, I'd put somethin' over the photo, like a rubber stamp that says, "Criminal," or better yet, "$500 award leadin' to the arrest of this criminal."
Then let the li'l scum show off his artwork, link away throughout the Internet, and let's see if any o' his buddies'd like t'sell him out fer a few bucks.
Pigs do squeal, ya know.
--CD
nosweat, my sentiments exactly!
I actually agree with you a bit there chesapeake. If Mr. A attached SOMETHING to deflate the graffiti artists ego rather than simply publish it for a world wide audience, that would be helpful indeed. But he's not doing that. He's simply publishing the Graffiti for all to see, just as the tagger painted it for all to see.
By the way, Salisbury DID hear about THIS from the DAILY TIMES back in November 12, 2006 so I wouldn't say it's a "cover up". It was a full color 2 page article complete with a glossary of graffiti terminology.
Since that "exposing" article taught our local kiddies the graffiti slang, back when it was just at the Salisbury Mall, how has our town benefited? Oh yeah, MORE GRAFFITI.
Graphix,
For what it's worth, I've been extremely busy and I can assure you I'm working on the subject. I just spent 2 hours with detectives and officers and things are on the move. I haven't forgotten you.
Hey Joe,
If it's any consolation after my smart alec opening to this thread (which by the way do I regret it's tone and apologize).
Although I don't agree with you on all issues you publish or how you publish them, but I do honestly respect and value that you care enough about the community be as involved as much as you are. Same goes with the readers. I think it's safe to say that any who take time to read this content are likely those with an interest in the welfare of our community. Our kind are small in number when compared to the population. I can appreciate seeing it in others.
Post a Comment