Residents may voice their concerns for the extreme levels of racial division being used as a political tool to achieve unjust racial political ends by emailing Mayor Skip Henderson directly at SkipHenderson@columbusga.org, while cc’ing their respective city council members on the email.

COLUMBUS, Ga. — In perhaps the most embarrassing reveal of dishonesty throughout his entire tenure in office, Columbus mayor Skip Henderson has cornered himself with his own lie regarding police chief Freddie Blackmon. 

Back on March 15, just one day after Blackmon presented his woefully-inept strategic plan to the city, Henderson personally presented Blackmon with a generous severance offering that gave Blackmon the opportunity to gracefully bow out of his position.  

The severance offering itself is also indicative of just how incompetent Blackmon’s presented plan truly was.

Then, on March 16 — just one day after Henderson delivered the severance offering to Blackmon — Henderson gave an exclusive interview to WTVM in which he openly denied any possibility of Blackmon being removed. 

Henderson knowingly lied to the entire city.

Henderson’s demonstrated dishonesty raises questions about his own integrity, character, and ability to place the needs of the city above his own vanity through the proper discharge of his duties as mayor. 

THE INTERVIEW

Within the video interview with WTVM on March 16, Henderson was asked the following:

WTVM: As the public safety director, are you pleased with the job that Freddie Blackmon is doing right now?

HENDERSON: I think Freddie’s doing a good job. I think he’s got some incredibly difficult circumstances that he’s dealing with now.

WTVM: Do you think he will be terminated? Do you think he will be suspended? Do you think he will be put on leave? 

HENDERSON: No, to that, I think, I don’t think that’s — that any of those things are gonna happen.

HENDERSON’S MOTIVE

Why would Henderson continuously lie about Blackmon’s ineptitude and placate the public? What’s in it for him?

It’s two-fold.

Racial Attacks

First, Henderson’s blatant lie may have served to placate the erroneous racial tensions surrounding the issue, which have been continuously stirred by a small handful of serial agitators. 

To put it bluntly: Henderson may have sought to remain ‘pure’ in the eyes of race-based political activists so as to not be a target of their racist political attacks.

Reputation

As the director of public safety, Henderson himself made the nomination for Blackmon to be Chief of the Columbus Police Department back in November of 2020; he likely views it as a public embarrassment to admit the poor personnel choice that he made. 

THE RESULT

Henderson has continued to double-down on his nomination, attempting to ‘save face’ and spare his own reputation against the extreme levels of racial tension stirred by a small group of race-baiting political activists. 

Instead of demonstrating leadership strength by speaking up and correcting these serial agitators, Henderson ironically perpetuated their existence through appeasement and placation as he continuously tried to publicly distance himself from anything involving Blackmon’s termination.

For example: In another interview given to WTVM, Henderson also assured the public that he was “not a part of” any conversations involving Blackmon’s termination — though that is now also shown to have been a lie. 

Despite his charade, Henderson quite obviously delivered a severance package to Blackmon the very day before he sat in front of a camera and lied to the entire city about it.

To Henderson, his own perception of public appearance is obviously more vital than telling you the truth — which is ironic, given the actual negative repercussions of being caught lying to us all about. 

We wonder how Henderson’s dishonesty has negatively affected the public safety of our city through secondary and tertiary actions. 

Perhaps he should dwell on that for a while, as should the public. 

FOR SKIP: A WORD ON LEADERSHIP

When facing a dilemma of veracious proportion, it might well be wise to avoid all distortion; For when sovereigns stand tall to placate the masses, the truth often sits them back down on their asses. 

Residents may voice their concerns for the extreme levels of racial division being used as a political tool to achieve unjust racial political ends by emailing Mayor Skip Henderson directly at SkipHenderson@columbusga.org, while cc’ing their respective city council members on the email.

Facts are stubborn things — and we’ll keep publishing them, whether city officials like them or not.

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