A response.

I received a response from the Winchester, KY mayor's office. Here it is in its entirety:

I did not release any statement on this issue. The original rumor which we
all heard locally and supposedly is incorrect was that CNN bailed out Mr.
Poole. I have not investigated this matter one way or the other.

Dodd

It comes as no surprise to me that rumors about Mr. Poole would be running rampant. Here's the latest one: he is out on bail and has skipped town. I attempted to call the Clark County jail only to get a sleepy woman with a nice, Kentucky drawl.

Sleepy woman: "Hello?"
Me: "Yes, is this the Clark County jail?"
SW: "No, it isn't."
Me: "Interesting."
SW: "What number'd you call?" I gave her the number.
SW: "Well, that's us, but we aren't the county jail."
Me: "That's odd because that's the number they have listed in the White Pages. I'm terribly sorry. Thank you."
SW: "No problem. Bye."

So, not only does the White Pages have the number for the jail listed incorrectly, but the Winchester, KY police department (who I called initially) doesn't have the correct number to their own jail! And I thought all the jokes about Kentucky were just distorted misconceptions.

So much for journalistic integrity...

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NOTE: the following post is based on correspendence that I, the author of this blog, have been having with a person living in Winchester, KY. The thoughts and opinions expressed are that of the original author and not necessarily my own. The article has been modified to protect the identity of the original author.
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The mayor of Winchester, KY has indicated that CNN paid the $5000 bail for William Poole. Outlandish isn't the half of it. As journalism ethics go, it's pretty pathetic. Of course, the original article that WLEX published was pretty lacking in balance as well -- the journalism class used it to study poor reporting. Journalism is supposed to represent all side[s] of an issue, and that article didn't. In about fifteen minutes a bunch of high school journalism students could pick out the week points and what would have balanced the article instead of setting people off on this frenzy.

The violent threats by Poole are from a family member source but not Poole. He was also following schoolbuses earlier this week (that is firsthand from people on the buses) and met his sister (one of the people that he's not supposed to go around because she was named in his writings) at the school bus stop this morning (that's from another kid at the bus stop who knows him). That same source, who knows his grandparents, says that they told her about some of Poole's issues. According to what they told her (she lives two doors down from the grandparents and is close to his grandmother) Poole is a schizophrenic who does not like to take his medication and when he is not on medication he is prone to violence, which is why he's so often in trouble. She's also the one who shared the threats against his grandparents. Poole's cousin talked to a student at GRCHS about the threats to take people out with him and the specific plans of setting three people outside to shoot people running out and take the foyer for himself.

A student was called out to his counselor's office this last week. When he came back he was shaken up. He's one of the kids that Poole tried to recruit who has talked to the police. Poole has learned that he talked to the police and has threatened him. The police called his mother to let him know and his mother called the school counselor about it. He's agreed to be interviewed anonymously for the school newspaper.
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I have written an email to Mayor Dodd Dixon of Winchester, KY asking for a confirmation that he did indeed claim that CNN bailed William Poole out of Jail.

Mayor Dodd Dixon,

I am writing to you in order to confirm reports of a recent press release concerning William Poole. The student from George Rogers Clark High School is apparently out on bail. My question is, did you in fact release a statement claiming that CNN (Cable News Network) posted the $5,000 bail amount for the release of Mr. Poole?

Let's see if the Mayor's office responds.

This...is my boomstick!

Apparently our friend William Poole isn't the only one who writes zombie stories.

Now, I won't jump to conclusions here, but there are some very eerie similarities between Jeff Weise and William Poole: both were living with their grandparents after having suffered from a broken home, both have been associated with writing zombie stories, and both have been in contact with extremist groups.

Could it be that the Winchester, KY police saved the lives of several students and teachers?

You can track my postings on this story here.

I don't get it...

I haven't confirmed this yet, and it seems like it's going to be a little difficult to do so, but apparently our favorite zombie survival story writer is out on bail. Jeffrey Russell, on behalf of an anonymous donor (I'm guessing ACLU, but I could be wrong), has bailed Mr. Poole out.

The dangers of labeling, Part 1.

Why is everyone all of the sudden "innocent"?

There are the "innocent" victims of 9/11. Terry Schiavo is "innocent". The targets of the D.C. area sniper were "innocent".

Last I checked, none of those people had been charged with a crime. Who's concerned that these people might be guilty? That's not even a question in these incidents. So why the use of the word "innocent"?

Use of the word "innocent" instantly absolves someone of any wrongdoing. If someone is innocent it can mean one of two things: this person has never done anything wrong (only certain, young children can make this claim), and this person has been accused of doing something wrong but has been absolved of guilt. So, is Terry Schiavo innocent? She is not innocent by either definition; she has neither led a perfect life nor has she been accused of committing a crime.

Labeling a person as being innocent endears that person to the public. Innocence conjures up images of children, the "innocence of youth" (i.e. better times, familiar faces, places, and smells), blonde-haired, and blue-eyed, little girls in sun dresses bounding through open meadows of daisies while giggling. There is a longing for innocence: freedom from worrying about the mortgage, freedom from fears over losing a job, freedom from the heartache the comes from broken relationships, and a return to the carefree days of yester-year.

Here is what I imagine is what "innocence" labelers want you to think, "They haven't done anything wrong. Why should they be punished?" This brings me to my next point: the building of the case against whoever is on the other side of the "innocent" victim.

There is now a conundrum. Someone has now been identified as being innocent. Wait! What's the crime? Ah. So now we have questions. People will subconsciously start asking the following questions. "If they are innocent, who's guilty? What's the crime?" Now we have a problem. If people start asking those two questions and they aren't given answers, the whole case for someone's innocence falls apart. This is where our "innocence" labelers get crafty. They have to label someone else as "guilty".