IS NKAPC TAKING IT TO THE TEA PARTY THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA?

by Michael Monks 

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The summertime battle between the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission and the NKY Tea Party/NKY Homebuilders was a bitter one. The Homebuilders hired an outside agency to come to NKY and collect signatures for the Tea Party in its effort to eliminate the planning commission. Unfortunately for the Homebuilders and the Tea Party, too many of those signatures turned out to be fraudulent and the effort will not appear on the November ballot.

Cut to November, and the NKAPC has a new project called Direction 2030, which aims to collect information from Kenton County's citizens to plan for its next twenty years. There have been videos, public meetings and social networking initiatives to help galvanize support.

Thursday afternoon, the tone took a decidedly more aggressive turn. A fake Facebook profile of someone named "Ann Crasher" appeared with this status update:

Well I decided to start a fan page called Tea Party Crashers after going to an area planning meeting for my neighborhood in Northern Kentucky. It was really upsetting because the Tea Party sent a bunch of people who dominated all the table discussions with their anti-government BS and wouldn't let us get any real work done on the plan. I went their to talk about better roads, more public transportation, walkable communities, community resources and more parks. Instead all I got to do was sit there and listen to a bunch of bullies spouting the tea party agenda. We need to do something about this. I DON'T WANT THE TEA PARTY DECIDING THE FUTURE OF MY NEIGHBORHOOD!!!

"Ann Crasher"

The update was shared on the Facebook page of Direction 2030.  A quick search for the origin of Ann Crasher's sole profile photo indicates that it is a stock image titled "perplexed". Ms. Crasher says on her profile that she lives in Covington, and that she is a Republican upset with the "extremists" that have taken over her Party. Crasher wrote through her Facebook fan page, "Tea Party Crashers":

If you're pissed off about the Tea Party's bully tactics in Northern Kentucky become a fan and voice your opinion.

Crasher and her new fan page even talk to each other in the same thread. Direction 2030 posted the following question:

At our meeting last week, 67% of the attendees indicated they felt it was NOT important to provide affordable housing to the workforce. Do you agree? 

Ann Crasher responded:

Right. There were also about 20 people from the Tea Party there totally dominating the conversation and interfering with the public forum. They wouldn't let anyone express their own view. We need to rally support and get more rational people to attend and express views from everyone who lives here and not let the Tea Party dictate our future. this is important!

And then, Tea Party Crashers chimed in with:

That's exactly right!

It appears that even though the Tea Party/Homebuilders lost its attempt to put the NKAPC on the November ballot, that they continue to send members to obstruct the organization's business. But then again, we are learning this second-hand from a clearly artificial Facebook page.


In any case, the battle between the NKAPC/Kenton Planning Commission/Direction 2030 and the NKY Tea Party/Homebuilders is not over.


FURTHER READING:
Ann Crasher @ Facebook
NKY Tea Party Crashers @ Facebook
Direction 2030 @ Facebook
And if you can stomach the ridiculousness (a local elected official actually posts here using words like "Demmunists" to describe Democrats and spells President Obama's name with a zero instead of the letter O - clever, right?), check out:
NKY Tea Party @ Facebook