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COLUMBUS, Ga. — From the city manager being exposed for having deep connections to an organization holding political protests against the city, to a local news outlet being caught trying to cover it up, to the city manager himself inadvertently admitting to funding the organization, here’s all the muck that’s fit to print from the Columbus, Georgia area, along with a look at what to expect in the week ahead.
EXPOSED: CITY MANAGER ISAIAH HUGLEY TIED TO CHIEF BLACKMON’S POLITICAL PROTEST
COLUMBUS, Ga. — City manager Isaiah Hugley has extremely close ties to the organization of a political protest held this past Tuesday over the controversy surrounding police chief Freddie Blackmon.
Those ties are in fact so close that the local organization’s listed address is at Isaiah Hugley’s home. Seriously.
While the organization uses a P.O. box as its fronted mailing address, a little digging revealed that the organization has a listed business address of 4019 Steam Mill Road.
That’s Isaiah Hugley’s house.
According to our city’s code of ordinances, appointed city officers like Hugley are forbidden from engaging in activities that are “incompatible with the proper discharge of their official duties or would tend to impair their independence of judgment or action in the performance of their official duties.”
We’re pretty certain that having the organization you run out of your house organize political protests against the actions of city council is “incompatible with the proper discharge” of Hugley’s official duties.
Explore the full story to see how the organization’s shell company subsidiary business address just-so-happens to be the personal home of Isaiah Hugley.
WTVM CAUGHT IN FALSE REPORT; LIED ABOUT KEY INFO IN BLACKMON PROTEST STORY
COLUMBUS, Ga. — This story goes out to a little news network called “WTVM News LeAdEr 9.”
A story published by WTVM on March 27, 2023 ironically served to expose the network for having published a false report.
The network knowingly constructed a false narrative to suit its own political biases. By using a heavily-redacted document as ‘proof’, the network lied about information hidden by the redacted document’s blacked-out text.
The network hoped no one would ever see the unredacted version of the document’s full text as they purposefully hid the information to unethically beef-up their preferred narrative.
Luckily for WTVM, we at the Muckraker already had the full unredacted document and knew exactly what WTVM was doing the very second they started lying.
You guys are busted. Enjoy the article, and buckle up for a lesson in journalistic ethics.
Katrice Nolan, a reporter with WTVM, ran a story on Monday evening regarding the planned protest surrounding police chief Freddie Blackmon. Nolan built a one-sided narrative that gave selective and untruthful favor to Marvin Broadwater Sr., who filed the protest’s application form on behalf of the organization Omega Psi Phi. The organization is clearly listed on the form as the party holding the protest.
However, Nolan knowingly lied to help Broadwater cover up the fact that the organization was responsible for organizing the protest. Nolan did this by displaying a heavily-redacted version of the protest’s application form throughout her video report, holding it up high in the air on display for the audience as she stated several times that Broadwater had filed the form as a ‘private citizen.’
Nolan and WTVM, however, had complete knowledge that was an outright lie.
Knowing with absolute certainty that WTVM had the full unredacted form in their possession, it is absolutely undeniable that Nolan purposefully redacted that information and hid it from the public, as it would have objectively disproved her favored falsely-constructed narrative.
Additionally, Broadwater’s entire backdrop during Nolan’s video interview consisted of Omega Psi Phi’s memorabilia and iconography. Nonetheless, Nolan continued to lie on camera as she built her one-sided preferred version of her falsely-constructed narrative.
Carelessly enough, Nolan also appears to have not realized that her network had already published a partially-unredacted version of the form that clearly shows the words “Omega Psi Phi” typed on the form block labeled “Individual or organization that demonstration/festival is being conducted for or on behalf of.”
That’s a pretty convenient and dishonest thing to redact, Katrice.
Additionally, the completely-unredacted and fully-visible original version of the form had already been in wide circulation for several days. The Muckraker, for example, has had it in our possession since last week.
Nolan’s move reveals the extreme media bias taking place at WTVM on the issue surrounding police chief Freddie Blackmon — though this is only the first part of the full story.
Explore the full story for the revealing details and see how the full unredacted form reveals the full unredacted truth.
THIS ONE QUESTION CUTS THROUGH ALL THE RACIST BS AROUND CHIEF BLACKMON
COLUMBUS, Ga. — The city council meeting held on March 28, 2023 was filled with more of the same illogical race-baiting rhetoric surrounding the well-documented leadership failures of police chief Freddie Blackmon.
That rhetoric came from the same few race-baiting agitators that have been blatantly using race to manipulate the public in their own individual quests for power and personal gain.
After boasting about a ‘500 person’ protest for more than a week, this cabal of the racially-focused extremists — who are members of an organization with a listed business address at city manager Isaiah Hugley’s personal home — only managed to pull a crowd of a few dozen people.
Contrary to what these racial extremists may believe in their self-aggrandizing quest for the narcissistic manipulation of the public, they look extremely foolish and utterly ridiculous to the overwhelming majority of Columbusites — of all races, colors, creeds, and religions.
These few individuals — who have been objectively proven to have given false statements to cover their tracks and walk back their rhetoric when challenged — seem to have forgotten that people can in fact think for themselves.
To anyone with an IQ greater than that of a toaster oven, it’s fairly difficult to believe that the entire rest of the city is somehow ‘racist’ when police officers quitting the department have since gone on to work for Sheriff Greg Countryman, who also just-so-happens to be a black man.
Also, to anyone with an IQ greater than that of a toaster oven, it’s fairly difficult to believe that city council somehow isn’t following the law or procedure when that law is (1) publicly available for anyone to read, and; (2) state and federal agencies acutely monitor the legal actions taken by our city officials.
Do you genuinely believe that anyone is willing to risk their necks just to fire someone? For what? To what ends? What would that achieve? It doesn’t even make any sense.
All of this boils down to a very simple reality that these racial extremists seem to have conveniently forgotten.
Explore the full story to see the one simple question that completely dispels their entire race-baiting narrative.
ICYMI: HOW RACIAL DIVISION IS BEING PURPOSEFULLY USED TO DESTROY COLUMBUS
COLUMBUS, Ga. — “By the next two elections, there will be a black mayor and a black council.” — City Manager Isaiah Hugley, in the most racist statement a city officer could make, stated publicly at the Greater Beallwood Baptist Church, Feb. 24, 2023.
The statement made by Hugley disgustingly placed the color of people’s skin as the qualifier for who — according to him — will be in office, regardless of the constitutionally democratic elections required by our city, state, and nation.
What Hugley stated is the manifestation of coordinated political efforts to illegally pursue — let’s say that again: illegally — pursue the totalitarian selection of our city’s elected officials based on the color of their skin.
This isn’t only an illegal thing for Hugley to openly state as an appointed city officer. It is a disgustingly unethical one that violates the Code of Ethics of our City Charter.
Look around you. Look at the state of our city.
Look. At. It.
Hard.
Have you noticed the extreme increase of murder taking place throughout our city at rates more than five- and a-half times the rest of the country?
What about the extreme increase of drug overdose deaths in Muscogee County which have doubled from 2020-2022?
How about our city’s poverty level which is now twice the national average?
For the most vulnerable Columbusites, these realities are impossible to ignore.
For the less vulnerable, they are just now beginning to witness their realities first-hand as shootings, murder, and violent crime continue to spread to the most affluent parts of our city.
Have you noticed?
Have you questioned why?
Explore the full story to see how the selfish ambitions of a few racist people continue to prey upon the lifeblood of our city for their own personal gain.
This story was originally published on March 22, 2023.
CITY MANAGER HUGLEY ADMITS TO FUNDING ORG THAT HELD BLACKMON POLITICAL PROTEST
COLUMBUS, Ga. — This story is a follow-up to our previous article exposing the deeply-rooted connection between city manager Isaiah Hugley and the organizing of a political protest surrounding police chief Freddie Blackmon.
In our previous article, we revealed the findings of our investigation into the local chapter of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity: the organization that held a recent political protest during the city council meeting on March 28, 2023. That investigation revealed that Hugley was listed as an officer of one of OPP’s local shell-company subsidiaries as recently as 2016.
It also found that Hugley was a founding member of the organization, with Hugley’s own personal home address listed on the articles of incorporation. That address at 4019 Steam Mill Road was used as recently as 2020 to file the organization’s annual registration with the Georgia Secretary of State.
That organization’s parent-company just held a political protest against the government that Hugley is appointed to serve as city manager.
After the Muckraker broke our story revealing the findings of our investigation, local news outlet WTVM followed our lead and picked up the trail. Unable to ignore the contents of the state documents we exposed that revealed Hugley’s kingpin connections to OPP, a reporter from WTVM reached out to Hugley for comment.
Hugley responded by providing WTVM with a statement that attempted to deny his involvement in the protest surrounding Chief Blackmon.
Hugley’s full and unedited statement as published exclusively by WTVM reads as follows:
“Though I stand with and support Police Chief Freddie Blackmon and I am a proud financially active member of the greatest fraternity in the world, the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. - Lambda Iota Chapter, I had no involvement in the rally in any way.”
As a city officer, Hugley is expressly forbidden from doing what his own statement described. Even without the statutory law surrounding the matter, common sense would also dictate why Hugley’s affiliation is a conflict of interest.
Explore the full story to see how Hugley’s statement could land him in some seriously hot water.
APRIL 1, 2023: COLUMBUS WINS NAT’L AWARD; VOTED SAFEST & LEAST CORRUPT CITY IN COUNTRY
COLUMBUS, Ga. — Our own Fountain City was recently voted the “safest and least corrupt city in the country” by a national association aimed at highlighting public safety and constitutional governance across the U.S.
The prestigious award was bestowed by the Sloof Lirpa Association, or SLA for short. The SLA is a 706(c)(3) corporation registered at 100 E 10th Street.
After record-low crime rates were controlled by the outstanding rise in police recruitment & retention, the SLA took note.
The award cites how the outstanding leadership of the Columbus Police Department’s chief, Freddie Blackmon, facilitated unconventional tactics to combat crime throughout the city. One of those genius tactics was deploying only 11 individual officers to patrol the city’s entire 205,000 population on weekend nights.
Even though the city’s 26 police beats require a 55-officer minimum to patrol, Blackmon knew his unconventional plan would work to serve and protect the city.
The award also noted our city’s absence of political corruption, particularly how there are absolutely no city officers recently tied to political protests against the city to ensure Blackmon’s unconventional approach can continue unfettered.
Explore the full story to see how foolish it would be to ignore our city’s prestigious award.
THE WEEK AHEAD
According to the severance package offered to police chief Freddie Blackmon by the City of Columbus, Blackmon has until 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 5 to either accept or formally reject the offer.
Should Blackmon choose not to accept the offer, it will almost certainly be immediately revoked. Blackmon — like all city employees — is not entitled to any form of severance whatsoever. The offering is a mere courtesy on behalf of the city. City officials may choose to terminate any appointed city officer without cause at their sole discretion, in accordance with the City Charter.
While our city’s serial agitators may continue to claim that city council is somehow “making decisions without them,” those claims are self-evidently naive. Unlike the Sheriff, the position of Chief of Police is not an elected position, but rather an appointed one. All decisions made about the appointment of any city officer are, in fact, made without input from the public.
Our city’s serial agitators make themselves appear quite foolish as they use their falsely-constructed false narratives to manipulate the public in their own power-hungry quests for narcissistic personal gain.
We’ll be taking a look at this and more in the week ahead. Stay tuned.
A Look At Personal Safety
As violent crime continues to skyrocket even in what have previously been thought of as the “safer parts” of our city, we at the Muckraker want to encourage our readers and their loved ones to remain hyper-vigilant as they go about their daily lives.
Based on lifetimes of experience and the combined professional careers of us at the Muckraker and our associates, here are what we consider to be the most important ways Columbusites can make themselves “hard targets” to avoid becoming a crime victim:
Back Our Blue
In closing, we at the Muckraker would like to thank the outstanding men and women of the Columbus Police Department who continue to shell out for the safety and well-being of our city each and every day, despite the abhorrent temporary conditions they are currently forced to work within.
“All police officers are entitled to outstanding leadership.”
Our city cannot thank you enough for what you do for us.
If you’re out and about throughout the week and see one of our city’s brave and valiant police officers, be sure to thank them. We’d bet it would mean an awful lot to them.
Residents are strongly encouraged to express their concerns and condolences for the brave men and women of the Columbus Police Department 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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© 2023 Muscogee Muckraker. All rights reserved.
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