Thin-skinned city fathers and humorless chief of police in Whitewater, Wisconsin on vendetta to shut down FreeWhitewater website and the (so far) invisible muckraker who posts on it.
The LaCrosse Tribune reports:
It's a mystery that has gripped Whitewater city government since July: Who is John Adams, the anonymous blogger at www.freewhitewater.com?
The Web site, Free Whitewater, was launched last spring and takes aim at the "narrow-minded" leaders of the community of 14,000 about 45 miles southeast of Madison.
Its targets range from the aesthetics of Whitewater's main streets to a controversial roundup of suspected illegal immigrants at the Star Packaging plant.
"Adams" charges in his blog that Whitewater is run by "a small, obstinate, and poorly educated local elite" who are hostile toward the 10,000 students at UW-Whitewater and the region's growing Mexican-American population.
He is critical of the School District and other local officials, calling a former municipal judge who was convicted of lewd behavior last year a "vulgar laughingstock"...
According to Whitewater Police Department e-mails obtained by Adams under the state's open records law, the town's chief of police involved at least two detectives, the city's director of public works, its information technology officer and the city clerk -- all working on city time and using taxpayer-funded resources -- to find the identity of a man described as a "suspect" but who had not committed a crime.
In Whitewater, the effort to discover Adams' identity included examining his e-mails and Web site registration, running a license plate check on a man suspected of being Adams (he wasn't), and suggesting city officials conduct surveillance at the dedication of a restored historic landmark on the chance he might be there.
"I think it is someone we want to keep an eye on ...," Whitewater Police Detective Tina Winger wrote in an e-mail to Coan. "Seems like an anti-government radical to me."
The investigation culminated in a Jan. 4 visit from Coan and Whitewater Police Lt. Tim Gray to the home of Scott, whom Coan said afterward he was "99.9 percent convinced" was the blogger.
In fact, said Adams, who revealed his identity to the Wisconsin State Journal on condition of anonymity, the chief was "100 percent wrong."
Whitewater City Manager Kevin Brunner said he sees nothing wrong with city employees' attempts to expose Adams. He said the efforts took very little time and were aimed at seeking a dialogue with the blogger to address his complaints about the city.
"I think it was a very legitimate use of their time," Brunner said. "I think the impetus was to try to engage in some civil discourse with that person."
But Brunner, who is Whitewater's highest-ranking official, said he couldn't explain why the officials referred to the blogger in e-mails variously as a "suspect," "No. 1 suspect" or "person of interest."
The LaCrosse Tribune reports:
It's a mystery that has gripped Whitewater city government since July: Who is John Adams, the anonymous blogger at www.freewhitewater.com?
The Web site, Free Whitewater, was launched last spring and takes aim at the "narrow-minded" leaders of the community of 14,000 about 45 miles southeast of Madison.
Its targets range from the aesthetics of Whitewater's main streets to a controversial roundup of suspected illegal immigrants at the Star Packaging plant.
"Adams" charges in his blog that Whitewater is run by "a small, obstinate, and poorly educated local elite" who are hostile toward the 10,000 students at UW-Whitewater and the region's growing Mexican-American population.
He is critical of the School District and other local officials, calling a former municipal judge who was convicted of lewd behavior last year a "vulgar laughingstock"...
According to Whitewater Police Department e-mails obtained by Adams under the state's open records law, the town's chief of police involved at least two detectives, the city's director of public works, its information technology officer and the city clerk -- all working on city time and using taxpayer-funded resources -- to find the identity of a man described as a "suspect" but who had not committed a crime.
In Whitewater, the effort to discover Adams' identity included examining his e-mails and Web site registration, running a license plate check on a man suspected of being Adams (he wasn't), and suggesting city officials conduct surveillance at the dedication of a restored historic landmark on the chance he might be there.
"I think it is someone we want to keep an eye on ...," Whitewater Police Detective Tina Winger wrote in an e-mail to Coan. "Seems like an anti-government radical to me."
The investigation culminated in a Jan. 4 visit from Coan and Whitewater Police Lt. Tim Gray to the home of Scott, whom Coan said afterward he was "99.9 percent convinced" was the blogger.
In fact, said Adams, who revealed his identity to the Wisconsin State Journal on condition of anonymity, the chief was "100 percent wrong."
Whitewater City Manager Kevin Brunner said he sees nothing wrong with city employees' attempts to expose Adams. He said the efforts took very little time and were aimed at seeking a dialogue with the blogger to address his complaints about the city.
"I think it was a very legitimate use of their time," Brunner said. "I think the impetus was to try to engage in some civil discourse with that person."
But Brunner, who is Whitewater's highest-ranking official, said he couldn't explain why the officials referred to the blogger in e-mails variously as a "suspect," "No. 1 suspect" or "person of interest."
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