Thread by @socialistdogmom

i wanted to wait until i had official confirmation that no lawsuit would be filed, but apparently another local media outlet is writing up a story on this and i wanted to tell you myself, though the timing is very ugly.

earlier this year, i had a short-lived opinion column covering city politics (a subject i am very passionate about!) in a local weekly paper. it quietly disappeared two months ago.

my relationship with cville weekly came to an end after the attorney for the police benevolent society, representing an individual officer in this case, threatened to sue both me and the paper.

specifically, the cop’s lawyer claimed i had defamed her client in this piece.

archive.is/0WB4T

i don’t know how i could possibly have been clearer. at no point have i ever claimed this individual police officer personally holds white supremacist views. i explicitly said that i do not allege anything of the kind.

what i wrote and what i will continue to say is that the charlottesville police department has been in absolutely no way held accountable for their inaction two years ago today.

the image of a charlottesville police officer with his arm around members of a white supremacist militia is a perfect illustration of a department choosing over & over to ignore the community it serves. it’s a picture of willful ignorance and complicity. of harm through inaction.

i’m not surprised a police officer and a former prosecutor would try to weaponize the legal process to silence a critic. i am surprised that the paper reacted with such incredible cowardice.

the threat itself was just that. a threat. from a bully. it is not an actionable legal claim, it’s an empty threat from a bully.

i assume anyone threatening me with a lawsuit would at least familiarize themselves with my work first. i don’t give in to bullies. far scarier people have threatened me with a lot worse than a lawsuit.

but the paper did give in. i understand they have business interests to protect. i underestimated the degree to which mainstream journalism is very much a business.

i was sad to see the column end. it was a great experience and i loved working with the editor of the paper. i hope to have the opportunity to write for a publication (and for pay!) again.

but if nothing else this experience underscored for me the importance of the very precarious journalistic space i’ve carved out for myself. i write for and about a community i love and feel entirely accountable to.

i’ve accepted that the way i choose to write means i’ll die poor and it may well get me killed. but i’ll never stop telling the truth. even when, especially when, it hurts some cops’ feelings.

honestly you’d think the lawyer threatening to sue me would know i don’t scare easy. a nazi threatened to kill me for my coverage of the murder trial in which she was the defense attorney.

mic.com/articles/19266…