Blackmail? Has It Really Come To This?!

The "new" Ward 8?

In typical tomfoolery fashion the story as reported in today's City Paper is petty, juvenile, and most importantly, counterproductive to the progress we are trying to make in Ward 8. "We" have officially lowered the bar to a new low in the eyes of folks who love to judge our community.

Because I don't want to give any more added airplay to the shenanigans of today's allegations regarding Ward 8 Council candidates Jacque Patterson and Darrell Gaston, I am going to skip that part.  You can go HERE to read the full City Paper article by Alan Suderman.

That said, I did want to highlight one point of today's story that I found most disconcerting, both as a DC resident, a voter, and a person with a shred of integrity.

Excerpt from today's article:

But that's not all. Patterson alleges that Team Gaston tried to scare him out of the race with an email last month threatening to expose the forged-signature brouhaha. "Run if you Dare!" the email says. "Trust me, is this worth it to your family, your children, to disgrace them for committing a crime. Is it worth going to jail over. in case you play dumb, i have called an hand writer expert. ... We can make this go away." 

Gaston says he's never heard of the email and says he's going public with the forged signature because Patterson is a board member of the DC Housing Finance Agency and ought to know better. Gaston says the fact that Patterson is running for council has nothing to do with tomorrow's presser.

And here is the email Jacque claims was sent to him from blackprestigemagazine@gmail.com (if anyone knows who's email this is please let me know).

Jacque, 

Running for Ward 8 City Council is a big step, today we found out that you may be considering a run for city council. Run if you Dare! Remember when you forge Darrell Gaston signature for DC Scholars, running will have me expose the truth. Ppl in Ward 8 dont like you nor do they trust you. They know you are sneaky and not trustworthy. I may not like Darrell but the next CM needs to be ethically correct, and you are not ethically correct. 

If case you dont remember, we will FIOA Darrell Gaston cell phone records to show that you owed up to forging the signature and telling him he should not sue DC Scholars but rather be mad and sue you. Trust me, is this worth it to your family, your children, to disgrace them for committing a crime. Is it worth going to jail over. in case you play dumb, i have called an hand writer expert. 

As a resdient of Oxon Creek Townhomes you did nothing when you were anc, you got greed from the the arc town construction. 

Do you want your co workers, your friends, your supporters know that you forge ppl signatures. Really! We can make this go away.*

*emphasis added by Advoc8te



Have we really come to this? Blackmailing people not to participate in the political process?

What is this? Dynasty? Anacostia?

Whomever sent that email to Jacque should be ashamed of themselves and should seek professional help, immediately. And this is not an endorsement for Jacque but just a 'come to Jesus' moment for whomever thought that sending such an email was appropriate.

It was wrong.
It was tacky.
It was an embarrassment to the good people of Ward 8.

For shame.

Thank goodness I have been inquiring about the leaders of tomorrow because the "leaders" of today are giving cause for pause.

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