I know that many readers do not use Twitter but I hope you will please stay with me as this long post is really about the dark forces at work trying to force me to close this blog and my twitter accounts. In due course, I will certainly consider the latter option as I am totally disgusted at the way Twitter has dealt with me (and my wife) but as this is what the trolls are seeking to achieve it is a case, at present, of NO SURRENDER!
Again, I will try and keep this so that non-twitter users can understand things. I am involved in various projects and use certain different twitter accounts to compartmentalise matters. Thus, for example, I run a personal twitter account and an account promoting the arts in the West Midlands. My account scrutinising the activities of Sandwell Council is, as ever, shown at the bottom of this post for folk to be able to engage with me concerning matters "Sandwell". Like some political Twitter accounts, such as Guido Fawkes, I write under a pseudonym - Vernon Grant - although on a VERY much more modest scale! As many people knew right from the start, my real name is Julian Saunders. For the purposes of this post, it is principally the Vernon Grant account that is relevant.
I will try not to rehearse too much of the information contained in earlier posts but a small amount of "scene-setting" is required to put matters in context. The political establishment in Sandwell and the "leader" of the Council, Labour's Darren Cooper, in particular have taken great exception to my blog and twitter account and he has often used what he alleges is his personal account "@sandwellleader" (!) to attack and deride me (and my wife). This has even included having me covertly photographed in the pub opposite Sandwell Council house and placing the result on his own account (it is not yet known whether taxpayers' money was used to obtain this shot shown below).
Trolls, are people who set up Twitter accounts for malicious purposes and my wife and I have been subjected to a number of campaigns against us to date. Ones such as the now defunct @ian_crow were more risible than threatening although undoubtedly abusive (eg referring to me as "vermin" and "a vile bag of shit".
Labour's Darren Cooper was attacking me and the blog for a considerable time. He has certain favourite themes which he repeats ad nauseum eg. that I am operating a "false" account; that when his decision to close The Public threw 60 people including my "wifey" (as he and, purely concidentally, a number of the trolls, call her) out of work she received a massive pay-off; that I am a "Ukipper" and that everything I write in my blog is false.
Let me just deal with those issues quickly:
1. Probably 100 people in and around Sandwell (if not more) knew that "Vernon Grant" was a pseudonym and exactly who I am. It was just that it took Cooper and his huge, taxpayer-funded, "communications department" several months to make the connection. As I pointed out to Cooper months ago, "Guido Fawkes" is not, er, the real name of the person writing that blog! As many folk knew exactly who I was it is difficult to say that it was/is a "fake" account!;
2. It seems strange for a Labour Council "leader" to use the derogatory term "wifey" but maybe that is now an approved term within the party. Linda was thrown out of work after 33 years working for local authorities and received the standard council redundancy package as agreed in The Public's operating agreement by, er, Darren Cooper! Not a penny more and not a penny less. (It is interesting to note that, on a number of occasions, Cooper has fired top people at SMBC and paid them way over their contractual termination payments in return for them signing "confidentiality agreements" - more on this in due course....). Incidentally, Linda left with a glowing reference;
3. I am not a "Ukipper". I talk to people of all political persuasions in Sandwell (including many discontented Labour members) but am not affiliated to any party;
4. Sandwell Council have not ONCE sought to contact me officially in respect of any inaccuracy in my blog. I did make one error sometime ago in respect of a Land Registry search which I corrected immediately. Other than that - zilch!
But things have started to get really nasty. This blog exposed a number of unusual "deals" involving Sandwell Labour Council and this was picked up by the mainstream media. The Police Regional Fraud Team have now launched an active investigation. It is commonly known that I have assisted the police investigation to the best of my abilities and intend to continue to do so (despite the campaign of intimidation). I now prefer that anyone with material evidence contact the police direct rather than me and to that end I have been publishing the Fraud Team's direct phone number on all posts. Nevertheless, I have been the recipient of a number of phone calls threatening me with extreme violence if I don't as one caller succinctly, if inelegantly, put it, "shut the f*ck-up".
Some of the other trolls have repeated Cllr Cooper's mantra with uncanny resonance - especially the current one.
I won't repeat all of my blog of 2nd December, "Labour Leader & Unite Officer Harass Arts Charity" save to mention a couple of points vital to the story. Labour's Council "leader" and one of Unite the Union's Regional Officers, Brian Rickers got it into their thick heads that I worked for a Birmingham arts charity. Cooper, who is well known for his "anti-art" views, suddenly started "following" the charity and then Unite's Rickers started tweeting to them telling a series of lies - mostly that he had a friend who works for them who worked with me (he does not and I don't work for them). In less than a month he harassed the charity 12 times and then "Councillor" Cooper himself joined in at the end of November.
I set out the facts in my blog but by then Darren Cooper had discovered on 1st December that my wife actually works for the Birmingham charity and tweeted accordingly. On the same day, Cooper started following a twitter account BEFORE it had even become operative and then the blitz of abuse and harassment started. The Charity, my wife and, of course, myself were abused and harassed in over 200 tweets in 2 or 3 days.
The troll account came to life specifically USING MY NAME ie Julian Saunders @B**** I have the screenshots but don't wish to show them here as third parties are mentioned. You will see below that, maybe with the help of a political party's or trade union's dirty tricks department, the troll(s) behind this have then done a range of tricks to bamboozle Twitter and succeeded.
I managed to persuade Twitter to take the account down after THREE days. We are told that these people in California are super-smart but they do not seem to understand that it is highly unlikely that I would set up an account in my own name to troll myself and my wife! The troll(s) has convinced them that because they have so many followers they are genuine and so Twitter have re-instated the account! How could an account that has used my name and my wife's and my photos on the profile page EVER be - or become - legitimate!
As soon as the troll account was taken down Cooper himself then sent two tweets in his own name harassing the arts charity. On 4th December he threatened me with "more" sleepless nights to come (not that I have had any!)
Now here's funny thing. When I complained to Twitter they obliged me to scan my passpost and send it to them as proof of identity. As the troll has never given any name (apart from mine) did they get the trolls ID details? Come on Twitter, tell us all.....!
And here's another funny thing. Someone has gone to considerable trouble in sending e-mails to Twitter to get the account reinstated. This could surely not have anything to do with the following cryptic quote tweeted from Darren Cooper himself could it, before the account was re-activated? (And see further below):
" 'I really do not see anything at all wrong with the postings you have brought to my attention'. Another important sentence Jules :)"
Surely that is not the wording from Twitter reinstating the account? If so, how has it found its way into Cooper's possession?
Guess who was immediately retweeting the troll - Brian Rickers of Unite the Union. Three Labour Councillors are now following the account - Bob Piper, Bob Lloyd and, of course, the psychic Darren Cooper. Rickers tweeted in his own name "The [troll a/c] has been re-born" and also tweeted to advise two other members of Unite.
Twitter allowed the troll(s) back this weekend and over the two days they sent just 18 (eighteen) tweets harassing the arts charity plus a further five linking my wife to them - mostly asking that she be dismissed from her post.
By a curious coincidence neither Cooper nor Rickers has personally harassed the charity whilst the troll account has been active......
ADDENDUM 18/12/14 - Twitter have finally taken the account down again but guess who popped up last night to continue the harassment - yes folks, it had to be one of two and it was "Cllr Darren Cooper @sandwellleader". What possible interest he can have in my wife's employment position other that to try and silence The Skidder by attacking her is for you (and the police) to decide but off he went anyway:
"Tell me when did your wife start at the Charity. Can you tell me the date please"
At the time of writing the troll account is still live (now finally taken down) as Twitter are forcing me to go through the complaints procedure all over again. Worse, there are at least two further troll accounts ready and waiting to go as soon as this one is finally closed down. The first one @jxxxxx is followed by the troll account and both accounts are the only two followers of @CashmoreDave even before that account has become active. Regular readers will recognise that name as being the same as that of a Sandwell Council employee and the husband of Labour's lying Councillor, Lucy Cashmore. I expect that Dave is actually nothing to do with any of this but that scurrilous information will be put out when the account becomes active and I will them be accused of being behind the account.
Below I am giving a guide of how to troll based on the recent experiences. This may encourage some to emulate this approach but Twitter needs to clean up its act. Clearly if you have a Twitter account you should note that our Californian friends will give you very little protection if you are attacked.
I should add here that a regular reader of The Skidder has recently had his account hacked into and had to close it. This caused immediate joy to two members of the Twitter community, Messrs Rickers and Cooper! I did not see the hacked content but it obviously referred to myself and other Sandwell Scrutineers. Cooper mocked us on Twitter and commented on the removal of the hacked account to Rickers:
"How can you tweet to yourself #twits. Bri where Mxxxx lol"
All this is also now in the hands of the police who Cooper and Rickers continue to mock - somewhat unusual as Cooper is the Chair of the West Midlands Police and Crime Panel! When the Fraud Team went into Labour's Sandwell Cooper sent the following tweet to me as a message that the local plod were treating the fraud allegations as a joke.
He believes that he is totally untouchable - presumably because of his position and the widespread local belief that one of his Labour colleagues has an exceedingly close relationship with Sandwell Police.
Cooper attacked three of us scrutineers - one of whom is very openly gay and proud of it - in respect of any police action with the hompohobic and mocking comment (again seeking the approbation of his Unite "operator"):
"They can all hold hands in the police station Bri lol".
I am not going to show the screenshots but this is a guide to how Twitter help the trolls to attack people:
1. Just change the name of the account as the trolling continues. As above the troll started tweeting using my name - Julian Saunders @Bxxxxx but then simply changed to The XXXXX @Bxxxx As above you would think the new masters of the universe would realise that I am not going to troll myself and my wife (or ex-wife as the troll started calling her)! Have Twitter EVER had a trolling account which has then become legitimate?
Thus we had tweets in MY NAME with my PHOTO on profile and an large photo of ME in the text saying, eg:
"Have you been drinking driving last year. Killed a child? (Copy sent to the charity):
"Julian Saunders (name of former employer) What fraud did he commit here".
Now unless you watch your twitter account 24 hours a day and make a report the second this sort of stuff goes up the troll has you. They can "flash" these messages and then remove the tweet. Twitter refuse to let you send them screenshots and so you are completely stuffed and you are not allowed to bring these vile and defamatory tweets to their attention. What sort of system is that?
I cannot see how Twitter can deem tweets like the above as being acceptable but if the troll simply changes the name they seem to see it as some sort of genuine expression of freedom of speech! Having supplied Twitter with a scan of my passport page when they could check the photo against the troll account you have to again ask - why would I troll myself?
2. Twitter ignore changes of profile and photographs. Here the troll kept changing the profile picture to include ones of me and of my wife but then finally settled on a lion motif. Why would a genuine twitter user steal our photos for the profile next to tweets defaming us? Twitter refuse to check back on this and again refuse to accept screenshots confirming the troll has been doing this! Even when Twitter reinstated the account they failed to read the wording of the profile which defamed my wife and contained a hashtag frequently used by the troll to her employers #lindamustgo!
Further, here is yet another illiterate attack on me screenshotted next to a picture of myself:
"his crying like bitch know, come on sue me. You'll get sued first #pisshead" and
"(copying in charity) did you and wifey enjoy that. It's not nice isn't [sic] more to come".
3. As above Twitter refuse to allow you to defend yourself by sending screenshots. A member of The Skidder team diligently screenshotted everything during waking hours but Twitter won't look at it. Fortunately it has been committed to a memory stick and handed to the Police!
4. Twitter were made aware by me in detailed e-mails of the police investigation and that I, as a blogger, have faced threats of physical violence as well as trolling. Nevertheless, they took the trolls word ahead of mine and reinstated the account. What passport scan did they receive? Why didn't they come back to me for comment before reinstating the account?
5. Twitter are only interested in the number of followers. Thus the troll(s) started following nearly a thousand people at one point in the hope (a) that they would retweet the lies and (b) that they would "follow" back. The troll then started claiming that the number of followers was proof of its legitimacy and Twitter apparently accepted this. The troll(s) was boasting of this when reinstated. As it was, there were very few local folk following and most of the followers were dotted around the world and of the late-night soiled-underpants brigade. No-doubt there are a few who get carried away but surely it is unusual for someone to start following nearly a 1,000 obviously random people in just over two days. Even a cursory glance at the followers by our American cousins should have started alarm bells ringing...
6. The process of reporting is painfully slow and the troll can run amok until finally stopped.
7. I cannot understand why twitter actually allow followers to an account before it "goes live". This allows a number of like-minded trolls to act in concert and give the troll account maximum publicity straight away.
8. The troll then tried to make the account appear a legitimate campaigning account and, by the looks of it, sent "legit" tweets to Twitter to reinstate the account. But Twitter did not apparently look back at either the original trolling nor my very detailed e-mails before reactivating the account. They are VERY easily duped!
9. Finally, just say you are not a troll although you would think the clever Californians might investigate when they read this sort of thing (note the interesting choice of a particular word):
"This a/c is not a troll please ignore vernon the vermin grant".
On a lighter note the troll kept putting a cropped photo of my ugly mug on the Profile whereas the whole picture shows that I was gazing in a totally smitten way at a beautiful young lady.....
 |
| Frankie My Dear - I DO Give a Damn! |
THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG - READ THE SKIDDER, KIDDER!
E-mail: thesandwellskidder@gmail.com Twitter: @bcrover (Vernon Grant)
Confidential phone no: 07599 983737
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.