PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2017-07-11 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Did 'Oath Keepers' Charge an Ohio Woman to Walk Across a Mall? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • On 5 July 2017, the Bowling Green Sentinel-Tribune newspaper in Ohio published a letter from a Bowling Green woman named Amanda Sharp, who described what she said was insulting, unnecessary behavior on the part of a local group, the Ohio Black Swamp Oath Keepers: The letter alluded to an event hosted by the Ohio-based Black Swamp Oath Keepers group between 23 June and 25 June 2017 catering to a local community of preppers (survivalists preparing for a coming apocalypse or other setback). While Sharp's account was circulated online. Nick Getzinger, the executive director for the Ohio Oath Keepers, posted a comment in response to the letter calling it completely and utterly false, despicable and misleading. He also sent us his own account of the encounter on 8 July 2017: Getzinger has also accused Sharp of initiating a smear campaign on Facebook against his organization using another alias, Manna Jo. He repeated the claim in his own letter to the newspaper, which was published on 10 July 2017. We could not find posts using that name that mentioned either the Oath Keepers or the Woodland Mall. Michelle Barton, the mall's manager, told us that she could not confirm the encounter but did receive one call about them trying to charge mall customers and escorting them around. She told us that she offered Sharp an apology and free movie tickets to try and mend the hard feelings. Getzinger and his wife operate a store in the mall that sells Oath Keeper gear. However, Getzinger has said that his group is not affiliated with other Oath Keeper organizations. In April 2016, just before the store opened, he specifically distanced his group from the Oath Keepers who converged on Ferguson, Missouri in 2015 amid protests against extrajudicial killings by police. He said at the time: Oath Keeper groups are typically comprised of former police and military service members. The Southern Poverty Law Center has described the group overall as anti-government extremists who came together based on a set of baseless conspiracy theories about the federal government working to destroy the liberties of Americans. Sentinel-Tribune editor Victoria Dugger told us on 11 July 2017 that her newspaper was working on its own story about the dispute. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url