A few weeks ago Bruce Willingham, publisher of the McCurtain Gazette-News in Idabel, Oklahoma, left a voice-activated recorder behind after the end of a county commissioners' meeting. He suspected the group was continuing to conduct county business after the meeting had ended.
And they were, in a manner of speaking. Here are county commissioner Mark Jennings and Sheriff Kevin Clardy discussing all the people who want Clardy's job:
Jennings: I heard 2 or 12 people were going for sheriff. I said fuck, let's get 20. They don’t have a goddamn clue what they’re getting into. Not this day and age. I’m gonna tell you something. If it was back in the day, when Alan Marshton would take a damn Black guy and whoop their ass and throw him in the cell? I’d run for fucking sheriff.
Sheriff: Yeah. Well, it’s not like that nomore.
Jennings: I know. Take them down to Mud Creek and hang them up with a damn rope. But you can’t do that anymore. They got more rights than we got.
This comes in the wake of a Gazette-News investigation of a case last year in which sheriff's deputies tased a hogtied burglary suspect and killed him.¹ Interestingly, everyone involved in this—the burglary suspect, the sheriff, the county commissioners, and the two reporters who have been a thorn in their side—are white. The mention of lynching Black folks isn't even personal. It's just completely gratuitous.
In any case, the sheriff himself thinks there are bigger issues afoot:
There is and has been an ongoing investigation into multiple, significant violation of the Oklahoma Security of Communications Act, Title 13, Chapters 176.3 and 176.4 which states that it is illegal to secretly record a conversation in which you are not involved and do not have the consent of at least one of the involved parties. There is a significant number of victims of this criminal activity and it has taken significant effort and time to identify them and corroborate evidence.
Currently, the FBI is involved and both the mayor of Idabel and the governor of Oklahoma have called for everyone involved in the recorded meeting to resign. We'll see where that goes.
¹For the record, he was hogtied by onlookers who had captured him. The deputies had nothing to do with that part.
*checks list*
Yep, Oklahoma was already on my "never live or visit here under any circumstances" list.
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Investigate, threaten, fine, what ever. Nothing will change. These are ignorant hateful mephitic folk.
It was all done by an Evil ChatBot!!!
And we've hit peak chat bot already....
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"The mention of lynching Black folks isn't even personal. It's just completely gratuitous."
As it so often is. I grew up in the South and I have worked in an industry that brought me into contact with folks such as the ones described here. I still find it baffling and shocking that hatred for black folks is so casually and irrelevantly introduced into conversations. Some folks just can't or won't let go of their bigotry.
"The mention of lynching Black folks isn't even personal. It's just completely gratuitous."
I'm pretty sure most black people hearing about this would, and should, take it personally.
From the sheriff’s statement: “. . . it is illegal to secretly record a conversation in which you are not involved and do not have the consent of at least one of the involved parties.”
This is true if they are somewhere that they have a reasonable expectation of privacy. The newspaper publisher who made the recording says he consulted his lawyers and was told it was completely legally to leave a recorder in the public meeting room after the meeting. Presumably the argument will be that they did NOT have a reasonable expectation of privacy.
Actually prosecuting for allegedly illegal recording seems like a great way to keep the story in the news for months, something I’d think the sheriff would rather avoid. But then, investigating could be just an excuse to harass the reporters they fantasized about murdering.
Since the space was known to have been recording, I would say that it's up to the speakers to determine that recording was shut off and not forgotten.
Also, you shouldn't be protected by privacy laws when discussing a crime.
Don’t forget the fun they had planned for two of the newspaper’s journalists:
Jennings tells Clardy and Manning “I know where two deep holes are dug if you ever need them,” and the sheriff responded, “I’ve got an excavator.”
Jennings also reportedly says he’s known “two or three hit men” in Louisiana, adding “they’re very quiet guys.”
Awwwww. So flattering! The journalists I’ve known would consider this a huge compliment.
Oklahoma's reputation nor breakfast conversations havn't changed much since the 1920's.
The FBI's involved? Get ready for a heapin' helping of nothin'.
Oh come now Kevin, can’t you see clearly they have made great strides, why I bet in that whole conversation they never once used “the n-word” …
This is what they mean by “Make America Great Again”.
I would have thought that a non Christian/Caucasian would be a rarity in that part of the country, but apparently Idabel is only 46% white. I guess it is a target rich environment for ass whooping and lynching.
As a bonus, the also apparently conspired to kill the newspaper publisher and his son.
in Oklahoma there is probably a large Native American population, is there a Reservation in that area?
The Choctaw have a casino and a community center IN Idabel. The town itself is basically right on the border of Texas and Arkansas. Kind of sort of between Texarkana, AR and Paris, TX.
Forget it, Jake.
It's Oklahomatown.
I found this last line the most telling - "They got more rights than we got." They are worried that as white males, they are no longer automatically at the top of the social order and may even have to, heaven forbid, actually treat others equally.