Germantown take down plays out on Facebook

According to WSMV, an owner of Germantown's historic Onyx house at the corner of 7th and Jefferson Street took down a Karen Y. Johnson campaign sign on her property. Ms. Johnson filed a criminal theft report. Dennis Ferrier reported that Ms. Johnson did not respond to the TV station's calls for her comments.

However, Karen Johnson did respond to the TV story on Facebook within the past hour:

The signage which I placed on the property of the Onyx Room located at address 624 Jefferson Street was permitted by Julius Herbst, the property manager and a supporter of my campaign. I was never contacted by Ms. Kathleen Wilkinson until after a report with authorities was filed because she was identified as the person who vandalized and stole my property and currently has a trespassing waiver issued against her from the co-owners of the property. After Ms. Wilkinson was contacted by the authorities who were attempting to recover the sign, she then called me. Her tone was very rude, brash and nasty, therefore, I saw no reason to continue the conversation. My focus is to run a campaign in an honorable, lawful and respectful way as I will continue to do until the election.

Should we read anything into Ms. Johnson's choice of social media over mainstream media to get her side of the story out?


UPDATE: Karen Y. Johnson also just posted the same response to the WSMV report on her blog.


LATER UPDATE: A mass e-mail from Karen Johnson was sent to the Historic Germantown membership about this incident last week.


EVEN LATER UPDATE: Karen Johnson responds to criticism about G-town mailing.


MUCH LATER UPDATE: HGN forwarded Karen Johnson's Oct. 20 message, which was posted, like other neighborhood crime reports, to the mailing list:

This is Juvenile Court Clerk candidate Karen Johnson. I had permission to place a campaign sign on the property where GermanTown Cleaners and the Onyx Room sits. CC who is painting a vacated room in the building was painting inside on Friday evening. A short dark skinned black woman with short hair knocked on the door and claimed she talked to the owners and was told she could take my sign down.

Everyone on the property was aware that I had permission to place the sign. Please be on the lookout for anyone removing my signs. Please call me directly should someone tamper or try to remove my signs.

Karen Y. Johnson