Self-Described Garner Supporter Threatens APN Editor in Voicemail
(APN) ATLANTA — Early this morning at around 2am, a voicemail was received by APN’s News Editor–the present writer–making threatening statements in response to APN’s recent coverage of the Fulton County Commission District 6 Democratic Primary Run-off.
The caller did not leave his name, but sounded like a Black male and identified himself as a Joan Garner supporter. The call came from a private number.
“Yo Matthew. Listen you leave my good friend Joan Garner alone. You don’t touch her, you don’t write bad sh*t about her. F*ck you and Keisha Waites, you and Keisha Waites could f*ck each other for all we care,” the caller said.
“But Joan [inaudible]… she knows it well. And she’s gonna be a good commissioner,” the caller said.
“Now you leave Joan Garner alone. This come from a friend of Joan Garner’s. You leave my good friend Joan Garner alone,” the caller said.
“You and Keisha, y’all can do what the hell y’all wanna do. But Joan is gonna kick your’all ass and your ass too. As soon as we win this office, your’all ass is kicked. So we won. That’s all we need to do is win, on Tuesday,” the caller said.
“So y’all have a nice f*ckin’ life. And you and Keisha can do whatever the hell you want to. But you stop putting them damn lies on your website about Joan, or we have some problems,” the caller said.
Keisha Waites and Joan Garner are facing on in the Run-off Election which will take place Tuesday, August 10, 2010.
Atlanta Progressive News has not printed any “lies” about anyone. What APN did do was print an interview with Garner in which she declined to state positions on the privatization of Grady Hospital or funding for the Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless.
More recently, APN endorsed Keisha Waites, and printed an article concerning the endorsement of Waites by David Holder, who placed third in the Primary.
Yesterday, APN printed a subsequent article noting that Garner had made misleading statements concerning her APN interview on her Facebook page.
The Atlanta Police Department was immediately notified and a police report number has been issued concerning the threatening voicemail.
APN was not able to contact the Garner campaign as of yet to enlist their help in identifying the caller because the voicemail was received in the middle of the night and it was too late at night to do so.
APN will contact the Garner campaign in the morning to attempt to identify the caller.
This is the second time APN’s News Editor has received a threatening message as a result of exercising freedom of the press. Earlier this year, an anonymous person sent a threatening email concerning an editorial.
Developing…
(END/2010)
About the author:
Matthew Cardinale is the News Editor for The Atlanta Progressive News and is reachable at matthew@atlantaprogressivenews.com.
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