The small town of Brookside, Alabama has found itself in the national spotlight after reports showed that police in the town were scouring through social media posts to harass and threaten their critics. In some documented instances, the cops actually threatened to arrest people who were critical of them online. Some individuals reported being stopped by police repeatedly while driving, as they were specifically targeted due to their posts. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins explains what happened.
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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.
The sleepy little town of Brookside, Alabama would probably like to stay exactly that. You know, typical old school American small town, you’ve got your little police force, people go about their daily lives not worried about the hustle and bustle of the city. But unfortunately this week, the town of Brookside was actually thrust into the national spotlight when a massive investigation revealed that police officers in Brookside had been scanning through people’s social media posts and harassing anyone who criticized the police force. Here’s what we know about these disturbingly corrupt police officers in Brookside, Alabama. First and foremost, what they would do is they would look for people complaining about getting tickets. When they found these people, according to this investigation and according to the people it happened to, they would then relentlessly aren’t harassing them, either sending them message on Facebook, telling them to remove the post or they would repeatedly pull them over.
And when they pulled them over, they would confront them about their Facebook post. As one guy said, detective Johnson had called me and asked I come to Brookside police department to talk to them. After I told him that I would not, he reported that they have two warrants for my arrest. He stated that I issued threats, incited a riot and slandered the Brookside police department in my Facebook post. He reported that his police chief was mad. Another one who got pulled over said that this is what the officer told him. The chief’s pretty upset about that post you put on Facebook. Anymore backlash like that towards his police department and it’ll be far worse than a ticket. This is about as deep of corruption of police officers as you can get. They’re literally trying to silence people for calling them out and of course, actually that first quote I, I read, I, I kind of got that wrong who that came from.
That was from a woman who posted on Facebook that there was a, a speed trap. Like, hey, everybody watch out, you know, cop hiding behind this tree over here on this street. So they called her at her home, said, you gotta come down here. We got two warrants for you. You’re inciting a riot by warning people about a speed trap we have set up. Firings have already happened. The investigation is ongoing. But this is truly disturbing behavior folks. And if you think this is likely just limited to this sleepy little town in Alabama, you are kidding yourselves. I have to imagine this is probably far more widespread than any of us know about. But at least this one has been exposed and I encourage all good investigative journalists or anybody that has had this happen to them, any kind of encounters with the police where they mention your Facebook post, reach out to a reporter, reach out to somebody, the local news, whoever it is. Expose this because again, I can promise you, this isn’t just happening in this small town in Alabama.
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