Citizen Fights Drug Dealers
Posted by Jeff Pruitt - 7/28/08 @ 6:40 pm - Filed Under Featured, Local Politics
The JG had a front page story today about a man fighting local drug dealers in his neighborhood at much great personal risk. So was this story about Phil Marx you ask? Nope, some guy from Lima, Ohio. So why won’t they write about Marx’s story? Could it be because he’s critical of the FWPD? Nah, that would mean the JG has a pro-establishment bias and I’m sure that’s not the case.
To be fair, the above story was written by the Associated Press and the JG might be working on a local story, I don’t know - I hope so. It sure would be nice for the media to shine some light on a local citizen who has spent the last twelve years fighting for his neighborhood. He’s the kind of person who should be encouraged and held up as an example, not simply ignored…
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just “Cuil” the new cool search engine and this story is on-line.
What?! I truly truly hope that the Phil piece is just around the corner. The dude is like my hero. He inspires me to believe that maybe JUST MAYBE ordinary folks can STILL make a difference.
Kristina
Jeff,
As you probably know, I have very little respect for the Journal Gazette. I think their poor coverage of local politics last year was reprehensible, and it is a large part of what prompted me to cancel my subscription.
But my dissatisfaction with them goes back much further than this. Frank Gray came to my home and interviewed me shortly after my home was attacked in October 2006. He is truely a skilled writer, and I appreciated his ability to summarize my rambling statements into a comprehensible story. But something was missing.
What I told Mr. Gray was “I have had problems here for several years with the drug dealers and the police seem unconcerned about this problem.” His article translated that as “I have had problems here for several years with the drug dealers.” I’m not sure why he chose to entirely leave out the part about the police. I guess you’d have to ask him.
Also, a few days after Molotov night, a member of FWPD Command Staff laughed at me about what happened to my house and told me I should “Settle down and quit making trouble” I filed a complaint over this and it was summarily dismissed. I filed an appeal, and handed a copy of it to Frank Gray. I never heard back from him on that. I wrote a letter to the editor, attempting to explain my position on the matter. It was not published and no one at J.G. attempted to contact me to ask any questions about what I had said. After I called the editorial board to complain about this, they published my letter, or at least about half of it.
There is no doubt in my mind that a lot of people at the J.G. let a lot of things interfere with their duty to report the news. I think they put their opinions in front of the facts often, and I also think that they are afraid to seriously challenge public officials. If I felt that the Journal Gazette was a credible newspaper, I would never have started this blog!
That being said, the first local reporter to contact me about my blog was from the J.G. He and a colleague met with me for lunch and discussed the issue at length. He made it clear that he did not intend to write a story at that time. He just wanted to meet in person so he could evaluate me. I think that this is an intelligent way to handle a matter such as this. Just printing my claims as if they were facts, without checking into the matter further, would not be the best course of action for a newspaper.
But I think that what I have said so far does warrant investigation. FWPD has made it clear that they will not discuss this matter with me. If these J.G. reporters who I met with have not done a little investigation of their own by now, then they have absolutely no credibility.
The Journal Gazette certainly has some good stories at times, and I am sure that all of the writers there are not of the same thinking on all issues. But if you can’t trust a newspaper when it really matters, then it is worthless. Drug dealers tried to kill me because I asked them not to sell from my home. FWPD just laughed at me about this and continued to ignore the problem. When I tried to tell my story, the J.G. pretty much shut me out. As far as I am concerned, they are just a rag.
As an interesting note, I should mention that the Sunday edition of J.G was delivered to my home this past weekend even though I have not subscribed for several months. Maybe somebody wanted me to see that article.
I tossed the unread paper in the trash can. As far as I’m concerned, if there is something important going on, I’ll hear about it on the blogs. They cover the newspapers and the stories that the newspapers miss or refuse to cover. If it wasn’t for your post here, I would have never known about this article - thus supporting my theory.
I want to make a brief comment about the recent article in the Fort Wayne Reader. I think that Michael Summers did an excellent job here of presenting my situation. First of all, I am not saying that FWPD is corrupt and incompetent. What I am saying is that many of the things that I have experienced and observed here point to that. And the fact that no representative from that department will seriously engage me in this matter pushes the balance more in that direction. But the bottom line is that without hearing from FWPD on this, there really is no way to really understand what is going on here.
Mr. Summers asked me if I could reccomend an FWPD officer who might be willing to speak to him about this, but none came to mind. I think he really wanted to get FWPD’s perspective, but did not have the right contacts there to do so. That being said, I think he did a good job of presenting this as being my opinion, rather than as fact. Both you and Concilman Harper have posted about my blog. Neither of you have said whether or not you believe what I am saying. You’ve simply said “This is an interesting story that should be read.”
I think that my story has circulated pretty well by now. Not only have several blogs linked to it, but as I said above, you and Mitch have actaully mentioned it several times in your posts. And of course, the FWR article has had an impact. I can usually tell bymy site-meter stats when somebody has been writing about me.
I don’t think I am being presumptive when I say that most members of local media, Fort Wayne City Council, and the highest ranking members of FWPD have probably heard at least something about my blog by this point. And what is their respons? As the saying goes, the silence is deafening. There is no doubt in my mind that most members oflocal government and media simply do not want to be bothered with this kind of issue.
And that’s why I blog!!!
p.s. Thanks for the heads up on this and other important issues Jeff. I’m glad I know somebody who still reads the J.G. - LOL
Also, I’ll include the link here to the FWR story, in case anybody from the J.G. wants to learn how to write a good story.
http://www.fortwaynereader.com/home.php?issue=106
“There is no doubt in my mind that most members oflocal government and media simply do not want to be bothered with this kind of issue.”
And therein lies the lesson. Only when their “OX” is gored will any reasonable action be taken. After all, how many of them have dope dealers on their front porch?
In far to many cases the tired old political statement about “serving the public” simply means “hosing the public”!