Charlottesville Police Department declines to name employee who "liked" tweet encouraging me to file a FOIA request by proxy...






This is kind of unbelievable. An unknown employee controlling the Twitter account for the Charlottesville Police Department "liked" a tweet in reply to me from a Virginia resident who offered to file Freedom of Information Act requests by proxy on my behalf. The tweet was "liked" on March 15, 2019. It seems logical that Tyler Hawn would have been controlling the departments Twitter account during this timeframe. I sought comment from the Charlottesville Police Department yesterday as to who might have been controlling the account when the post was "liked". 







Predictably, the "spokesperson" for the Charlottesville Police Department was at a loss for words. 










I followed up with questions regarding the legality of the requirements made of me by city officials to verify circulation of my online magazine within the Commonwealth. According to multiple media organizations in Charlottesville, none have ever been asked by the Charlottesville government to verify circulation, which is an actual legal requirement in the Code of Virginia for newspapers only. I also asked them to confirm that other media organizations have been asked to meet the same requirements.








For some unknown reason, my questions to the "spokesperson" appear to have been categorized as a Freedom of Information Act request. I am not requesting any documents, just comment. According to the automatic reply, the city has 5 days to respond to my question. 









The most disturbing aspect of this entire thing is that someone "liked" a tweet to me which appears to signal their support for my filing FOIA requests by proxy. Yet when I attempted to do so, they were all denied. Read many of my requests for public information and the city of Charlottesville's illogical denials here. It really does seem like I am being singled out for some unknown reason. Was it something I said?






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