Part 3, “The Sergeant’s Intelligence Operation.”

(For earlier parts of this series, please click this link: Witch-Hunting a Blogger in Whitewater, Wisconsin.)

From the public records, in early August 2007, Police Detective Sergeant Tina Winger learns (from a University of Wisconsin-Whitewater police officer named Pieper) about FREE WHITEWATER, and alerts Chief Coan. Coan replies to Winger the same day. The exchange appears below in black font, followed by the actual PDF documents I obtained, and then my commentary in blue font.

The exchange:

From: Pieper, Samuel J [mailto:piepers@uww.edu] Sent: Wednesday, August 01, 2001 9:50 AM
To: Tina L. Winger
Subject: freewhitewater.com

Tina,

Take a look at this site if you havn’t [sic] already.

freewhitewater.com

Sam

******

From: Tina L. Winger
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 9:46 AM
To: James Coan
Subject: FW: freewhitewater.com

Chief,

I don’t know if you have ever visited this web site, but I think it is someone we want to keep an eye on. Do you know who John Adams is? Seems like an anti-government radical to me. I’m going to dig a little more to try and get more intelligence on this goof.

Tina

******

From: James Coan
Sent: Thursday, August 02, 2007 2:08 PM
To: Tina L. Winger
Subject: RE: freewhitewater.com

Tina,

Thanks for the heads-up, but I have been well aware of the website for sometime now. Although I have a few suspects, I do not know who “John Adams” is (yet). I agree with your assessment of the guy. He has been taking plenty of “shots” at me, our Department, and City Government in general (including DPW and the Fire Department).
It is certainly someone who actually writes pretty well, but who is obviously very arrogant, very liberal, and very condescending in what he writes. Please check with Ryan as I passed on to him some information that might be helpful in identifying who this might be. Thanks!

JC

The files: I have made the PDF files confirming this exchange available here — 2008-1 (2).

My comments:

1. Public employes, public time, public resources. Thursday, during the work day.

2. Sergeant Winger. Tina Winger is a police sergeant, since her promotion this spring, I believe, to detective sergeant. She is no new patrol officer — she’s a more seasoned veteran, and she, like Coan, commits public resources in our small town to tracking political speech.

3. Coan’s Pejoratives. Look at how Coan describes me, and you’ll see how he thinks. He says three things in succession: “very arrogant, very liberal, and very condescending .” They’re — all three — apparently pejoratives to him — arrogant, liberal, and condescending. I am a libertarian, and not a liberal, but you see the point, of course — liberal in Coan’s world is just another flaw, like arrogant or condescending.

If you voted for Gore, or Nader, Kerry, Clinton, or Obama (and many in our town did), you might want to ask Coan if being liberal or progressive is just another insult between the bookends of arrogant and condescending?

4. Actually Writing Pretty Well. Well, I’d say thanks, but you can see how begrudging Coan’s praise is. In fact, it suggests his surprise, to my mind. It must be hard for him to see that a critic of his leadership can write well. We can. We can tie our own shoes, and cut our own food, too!

5. An Intelligence Operation. Sergeant Winger writes Coan an ingratiating email that I am an “anti-government radical” on whom she will “get more intelligence.” I’m only radical if you think that men like Goldwater and Reagan were radical. If you think that they were, fine. They’re my heroes, and I am happy to identify with men like that.

Winger writes that she’ll get more “intelligence” on me. Where does she think that she works? We’re a small town, not a field of military operations. It’s the language of a Rambo movie. Does she talk about reconnaissance, or “recon,” too? Here’s my suggestion — less combat rhetoric, and more constitutional theory.

6. Condescending and Arrogant. Coan writes that I am condescending and arrogant. He’s entitled to his opinion. I would ask readers to consider, though, to whom I supposedly condescend, and to whom I am supposedly arrogant. In the case of Winger and Coan, if the shoe fits…

Next Up on Monday, March 3rd at 1 PM CST: Part 4, “The List of Suspects.”

Part 2, “The Police Chief Recruits a Computer Sleuth.”

(For earlier parts of this series, please click this link: Witch-Hunting a Blogger in Whitewater, Wisconsin.)

The police chief of Whitewater, Wisconsin is James R. Coan. He’s variously called Jim, James, or simply, Chief. I have been critical of certain practices of his, and he hasn’t taken that lawful and constitutionally-protected criticism so… well.

From the public records, in July 2007, Chief Coan and the City of Whitewater IT Administrator, Tim Nobling, have an email exchange about discovering my identity. The exchange appears below in black font, followed by the actual PDF documents I obtained, and then my commentary in blue font.

The exchange:

From: Tim Nobling
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 4:22 PM
To: James Coan
Subject: Free Whitewater

As far as making himself known, he is “private” as expected- His registration for his website is all private. But I did find thls-http://www.toplx.netiforumicitylwhitewater-wifTPQ1A5DST11C1BOTS
You may know some of those people you may not.

Going by the email he sent to Kevin over a month ago, He is a charter communications customer. He may actually live in Afton, WI. My guess is that he is a student/staff at UWW, as he has made an entry into Wikipedia
as well…

Tim Nobling MCP, MCSA, Security +
Information Technology Administrator
City Of Whitewater
312 W. Whitewater Street Whitewater, WI 53190
(262) 473-0580 x191

******

From: James Coan
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 4:46 PM
To: Tim Nobling
Subject: RE: Free Whitewater

Thanks Tim, it gives us something more to go on. You are earning your pay as a computer “sleuth”. Please let me know if you uncover anything else.

Jim

P.S. That “junior” police badge is in the mail!

******

From: Tim Nobling
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2007 4:46 PM
To: James Coan
Subject: RE: Free Whitewater

No problem, if you need anything else just let me know…

Tim Nobling MCP, MCSA, Security +
Information Technology Administrator
City Of Whitewater
312 W. Whitewater Street Whitewater, WI 53190
(262) 473-0580 x191

The files: I have made the PDF files confirming this exchange available here — 2008-1 (1).

My comments:

1. Public employes, public time, public resources. This exchange takes place on an ordinary work day, between public employees, using public resources, paid in a city that, however beautiful, has a poverty-rate higher than some of our neighboring towns. It would be a wrong use of resources in any event, but it’s also wrong because it’s wasteful of the salaries these two men receive.

2. Bold Promises Unfulfilled. Someone warned me, about three months ago, that the city IT worker (excuse me, ‘Administrator’) was helping the police chief learn my identity. I was stunned, but only at first. I was stunned because I had heard Nobling, more than once, address our Common Council about how important it was to comply with the law. (He also wrote me once, in an oddly unctuous email that should have made me suspicious. Nobling wrote me on August 17th, and by that time, he had already been reviewing email to see who I was.)

In fact, the City of Whitewater promises, in its website disclaimer, that “Except for authorized law enforcement investigations, no other attempts are made to identify individual users or their usage habits. Raw data logs are used for no other purposes than those identified in #3 above.”

This disclaimer describes website visits, but you see the problem — if they can ‘investigate’ someone based on lawful political speech, what else will Nobling, Coan, and others track?

I don’t know, of course, but that’s the problem. If you are injured, and want to file an anonymous complaint with the City of Whitewater, for example, how confident can you be of the (empty) promises of the City of Whitewater’s website disclaimer? That’s a real transgression, and a true broken promise.

3. Mostly Wrong! Nobling tells Coan that I may live in Afton, WI (not Whitewater) and that I may be a student or staff member of our local campus. Wrong, both times! As I had written by this time, I am a resident of Whitewater, and I have no connection to our local campus (except once, when I shopped in the campus bookstore, about three years ago!).

Nobling’s speculation makes me seem like a liar. I’m not, but then it was Nobling who spoke to our Common Council recently about the importance of the Public Records Law, and compliance, etc., while violating the spirit of our city’s website disclaimer…

I am a Charter Cable customer, though. Since Nobling seems to be so aware of that, perhaps he could do me a favor. My reception has been a bit spotty lately, and since Nobling seems to have time for tracking anonymous political speech, perhaps he could donate some of that time to ask Charter to make my picture sharper….

4. How to be Right. When the police chief asks you for information, tell him that you don’t think it’s appropriate. That’s hard, but that’s the choice a serious man will make, and sleep soundly for having done so.

5. Credentials. In his internal email, Nobling proudly includes his credentials — “MCP, MCSA, Security +” Impressive. In my experience, most in the IT field have credentials and a respect for lawful, anonymous speech as part of the American political tradition. Most.

When will these gentlemen learn:

It doesn’t matter whether a man is credentialed; it matters whether he is principled.

6. Why Such an Abrupt Beginning? The public records that I received begin in July, with a reply to Coan’s request for information. Are there more records, including memos, etc.? I don’t know, but this is an abrupt start.

7. What about Kevin? Our City Manager is Kevin Brunner. He is generally well-regarded. The record does not say if he had any role in helping with Coan’s request. I don’t know. He may not have known how his IT Administrator was spending his time; he does now.

8. The Junior Police Badge. Too funny. Too sad. It says everything you need to know about these men that they would have an exchange like that. By the way, why does Coan put “junior” in scare quotes? Does he think that Nobling might believe that there is a real junior badge somewhere? Embarrassing, all around.

Next Up on Monday, March 3rd at NOON CST: Part 3, “The Sergeant’s Intelligence Operation.”

Summary. This is the true account of a pseudonymous blogger from Whitewater, Wisconsin who became the target of public officials’ months-long witch-hunt, to learn his identity using public resources, on public time. I am that blogger. My name is John Adams, and I am the pseudonymous author of FREE WHITEWATER, a local website with commentary on life in Whitewater, Wisconsin. My website is published almost every day at www.freewhitewater.com.

Although my story may seem incredible, I have obtained the public records to confirm these events under the provisions of Wisconsin’s Public Records Law, Wis. Stats. 19.31 — 19.39. I sought these public records after fair-minded residents warned me that public officials might be working, with considerable zeal, during public time, in public facilities, on hunting through the community to determine my identity.

Who am I, by the way? That depends on whom you ask. These public officials describe me one way; I would describe myself in another. I blog about municipal affairs, and other topics, as a libertarian, and my website has sometimes been critical of certain police practices and actions, and government planning. Most of all, I have hoped for a better leadership for our police force for our city, and I know that one day we will have just that.

The real message of my site, though, is an uplifting one: the greatness of the American promise of individual liberty and the liberating power of free markets. I have been fortunate to grow up libertarian, am religious, have celebrated the joy of a citizen’s life, offered photos of beautiful spots in my town, cheered public accomplishments, offered classic American animation, and even what’s great about HP calculators!

In the end, I’m just a common man, like so many others — citizen, resident, property-owner, husband, and parent. Bloggers are from all walks of life, across the political spectrum, and are, I think, just modern-day pamphleteers.

Plan. In each subsequent post, I will reveal results of my public records request, link to the actual PDF files I obtained, and then offer comments.

When. When does Witch-Hunting a Blogger in Whitewater, Wisconsin begin? Right now.

Next Up on Monday, March 3rd at 8:07 AM CST: Part 2, “The Police Chief Recruits a Computer Sleuth.”