{"id":17104,"date":"2024-06-06T12:12:41","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T16:12:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/?p=17104"},"modified":"2024-06-06T12:12:42","modified_gmt":"2024-06-06T16:12:42","slug":"unfounded-charges-bring-rancor-to-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/06\/unfounded-charges-bring-rancor-to-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Unfounded charges bring rancor to meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By BOB SHRALUKA<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WZBD.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the second time in several months, Decatur officials have reacted angrily to unfounded accusations on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first time, last year, the reaction had to do with complaints about city officials attempting to get a local resident to clean up her property \u2013 property which had brought several complaints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time it was an explosion of unsubstantiated claims resulting from an alleged incident in which a city resident shot and killed a cat, then incinerated it.
With a group of animal rights activists on hand in City Hall for Tuesday night’s meeting of Decatur City Council, Shawn Braun, a 16th<\/sup> St. resident, stepped up first and began tossing out all manner of accusations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Shawn Braun<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is no law protecting these animals,\u201d Braun said. \u201cThere is no protection for these animals. Somebody is out there killing animals.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councilman Scott Murray informed Braun that in February of 2023, Building\/Zoning Director Curt Witte had brought before council an ordinance with some changes having to do with animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One meeting was held for both sides to work out agreements on what should be done and what could be done in protecting animals. But the group did return for a second meeting, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd we all agreed not to fight over social media,\u201d Murray added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Braun said pellet guns were being used to kill animals and they should be banned. Police Chief Kevin Gerber said that under Indiana law, a pellet gun was not the same as a gun that carries bullets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And Mayor Dan Rickord pointed out cities cannot make laws to supersede federal laws: \u201cWe can’t make it illegal to not shoot a gun inside city limits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Braun said, \u201cIt seems to me you guys don’t care,\u201d temperature rose quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rickord talked about the dog he has at home, \u201cand I love my dog.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a lot of ignorance and assumption on social media,\u201d the police chief sternly said. \u201cA firestorm (over the alleged cat killing) and a lot of it comes from you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Braun charging police \u201cdidn’t do their job\u201d and arrest someone after the alleged incident, Gerber said. \u201cWe can’t just go out and arrest someone; we have to follow the law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have to play by the rules,\u201d adding that it was \u201cstring ’em up\u201d on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Braun said he didn’t do so, to which the chief replied: \u201cYou committed it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur officer (investigating the alleged incident) did his job, he did as they are supposed to do,\u201d Rickord added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Muttering something, Braun got up from the table facing council and stormed out, throwing down some papers. \u201cSir, pick up your papers, please,\u201d Rickord said \u2026 to no avail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meeting then turned to civility and agreement (read more about it here<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By BOB SHRALUKA WZBD.com For the second time in several months, Decatur officials have reacted angrily to unfounded<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":320,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[14,15,21],"class_list":["post-17104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-decatur","tag-featured","tag-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wzbd.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/photoless-header-template-news.jpg?fit=252%2C144&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wzbd.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}