North Tonawanda police chief says Facebook page inquiry is being ‘politicized’
NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. (WIVB) — North Tonawanda Police Chief Keith Glass defended the city’s mayor for requesting an investigation of a spoof Facebook page, which resulted in two uniformed officers questioning a resident while he was at work.
Glass also stood up for the two police officers, describing the incident as “standard investigative policework.”
On Monday, Glass published a letter on Facebook that said the resident, Jacob Quinn, voluntarily answered questions and showed officers his Facebook accounts had no connection to the parody page.
“While most of the posts were nonsensical, a few had the potential to cause alarm or confusion among residents,” Glass said in a published letter on Facebook, without elaborating on specific posts.
Quinn denied involvement in the spoof page, which focused on lampooning the city’s mayor, Austin Tylec.
This incident is not the first time Quinn and Tylec have had disagreements.
In 2019, Quinn circulated a photograph that depicted Tylec as Adolph Hitler, which Tylec said was fake.
Quinn accused Tylec of abuse of power, and said the city should have had Facebook verify the mayor’s page to alert viewers that it is official.
“Detectives reached out to the Niagara County District Attorney’s office to consult with them on the complaint, which they often do,” Glass said in his statement. “The district attorney’s office advised that further investigation into the case was warranted.”
However, the spoof page has since disappeared from Facebook, and Glass said the case is closed.
Neither Niagara District Attorney Brian Seaman, Tylec, Glass nor Facebook returned messages and calls from News 4.
/// Previous coverage of this story
Glass’s letter states the “routine case” is being politicized and “tried in the court of social media.”
“At no time did detectives give preferential treatment to the mayor or investigate the complaint any differently than any other case,” Glass said in the statement.
On Saturday, the Common Council requested a formal investigation, which triggered Tylec to publish a letter on Facebook, accusing his colleagues of launching political attacks with false allegations.
“For the past few years, a fake Facebook page posing as ‘Mayor Austin Tylec’ has been spreading harmful misinformation, such as fabricated criminal cases, fake events, and misleading comments that appeared to be from me,” Tylec said in his published letter. “While some residents identified the page as fraudulent, many others did not, leading to significant confusion and concern in the community.”
Tylec said he filed the complaint with police after numerous unsuccessful attempts to get Facebook to remove the spoof page.
At last week’s council meeting, Tylec apologized to Quinn about officers questioning him at work.
The incident has sparked debate on whether the mayor’s request for police to investigate the page was a misuse of city resources.
Local defense attorney Rodney O. Personius told News 4 he didn’t see a legal issue with police following up on the mayor’s complaint if the subject volunteered to answer questions without being detained. However, police would need reasonable suspicion that a crime was being committed or about to be committed to detain someone, he said.
But First Amendment attorney Joseph Finnerty said the mayor’s request certainly raises constitutional concerns.
First, Finnerty said the page included a disclaimer that the content “may or may not reflect views of Austin Tylec” and had obvious signs of being a parody.
Second, Finnerty said the posts he viewed appeared to be forms of protected speech.
“We have a hallowed tradition of making fun of public officials, not only based on the substance of their policy decisions, but also on their mannerisms,” Finnerty said. “If you are in a state or city where you have to worry about a knock on the door based on what you say, then our most precious freedoms go up in chilly thin air.”
Tylec, expected to announce his reelection campaign Monday, said the community is “fed up with these kinds of attacks and the misleading tactics aimed at creating division.”
“People are tired of seeing political games played at the expense of truth and progress,” Tylec said.
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Dan Telvock is an award-winning investigative producer and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2018. See more of his work here and follow him on Twitter.
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