There are so many bad parts to this original story that I don't even know where to start. The problems here were false implications, half-truths and straight up lies.
Channel 6 was the first to "break" the story. The story was shown on the 11:00 o'clock news originally, as well as the above article posted on their website. For my side of the story, I'll go along with the article that was printed on their website.
In the second paragraph it states, " Brady Lewis also lost his job as a reserve officer in Edgewood, 6News' Rick Hightower reported."
This is just a straight up lie. Here's what really happened: Two days before any of this story was brought to light, I contacted my police supervisor and informed him that I was resigning from the Edgewood Police Department. This was due to personal medical issues, not anything to do with discipline. I had never been disciplined during my 5-year tenure with the Edgewood Police Department, nor was I disciplined when Channel 6 contacted the chief of police at Edgewood Police Department. In the story that aired on Channel 6, Rick Hightower reported that I was asked, "to turn in my badge," because of what was on my MySpace page. Nothing but sensationalism. Bottom line: I had already resigned. How could I have been fired?
The article goes on to mention that there were profanities on my MySpace page. First of all, I was a police officer for 5 years and I'm pretty sure there is no law against having profanities on your own MySpace page. Second of all, I think there were a total of three or four profanities on my page, and they were all contained in graphics. I did not create any of the graphics, nor did I create the text. I personally did not type any profanities on my page.
It also states that, "6News found what some might consider disturbing images on Lewis' site, including swearing and racially-charged words. There was also language that some would consider offensive toward women and minorities."
Once again, I did not create any of the images. All of the graphics on my site were taken from various MySpace accessories pages, same as millions of other MySpace pages.
Also, someone is going to find any image disturbing or offensive. Any image that someone may have taken as racist or sexist, was not how I intended it to be taken. If you were to look at my entire MySpace page, you would find that almost everything on it is completely satirical, verging on absolutely goofy. The news reporter was able to view my entire page and was surely able to tell this, but ignoring it lets him make it a story.
Then we come to, "The page featured a teddy bear wearing a swastika and discussing hate toward ethnic groups." This is the part that the media has tried to make the biggest deal out of. Here's the thing: The image (again not created by me) is actually anti-racist. If you are allowed to read the text next to the teddy bear, it reads exactly:
"You are Aryan bear!!
You hate Jewish people. And black people.
And Gypsies.
Hell, you hate anyone that isn't like you.
That's a lot of hate, man.
So what the hell is your deal exactly?
Isn't there enough pain and suffering in this world already?
Ugh, take you hate mongering and go somewhere else.
We don't want you."
However, when the story aired on Channel 6, they quickly showed this image. It was definitely long enough to see the swastika on the bear, but there was no way to read the anti-racist text. This was of course done on purpose to make it look like it was a racist image. There was also no mention by the reporter of what the text said. The printed article also made no attempt to quote the text, only stating that it is discussing hate toward ethnic groups.
The printed article then states that I was told by Chief Stanley that the page was, "no laughing matter," and that I was told to turn in my badge.
Both of these statements are untrue. Chief Stanley never told me that it was no laughing matter, and as I stated above, I was by no means asked to turn in my badge.
I also never received any messages from anyone from Channel 6 attempting to get my side of the story.
The Herald Bulletin (based in Anderson, IN) picked up the story the next day. Someone from the newspaper did attempt to contact me, however I had not yet spoken to an attorney and was not going to speak with any media until I did so.
Justin Schneider, the reporter for this story, piggybacked off of the Channel 6 story and printed several of the same falsities mentioned above. Of course not having any of the facts himself, what else was he to do?
But, in addition to the lies and implications mentioned above, The Herald Bulletin article went on to mention other aspects of my professional life. None of which have anything to do with this incident. They thought it was a good idea to mention the fact that I also own Sundaze Tanning and Spanish 4 Emergencies. In doing this, they have attached all of this negativity and these lies to my other businesses in an attempt to sabotage those as well. They even went as far as getting on my Spanish 4 Emergencies website and printing a quote from it.
Why didn't they think about the fact that I started and run a business dedicated to improving communication between emergency personnel and Spanish-speaking individuals. Does that sound like a prejudiced thing to do? I guess it does to Justin Schneider.
This story was so "hot" that it got picked up all over the place. It aired on several of the Indianapolis news channels, local radio stations, and eventually reached a global audience. You can go to Google, CNN.com, USATODAY.com or anywhere else and search my name, and you'll get several pages of hits from all kinds of websites. The story was even posted on a website dedicated to crooked police officers.
Now for the rest of my life, thanks to these truth-lacking reporters (as well as being in the internet age), this story will follow me for the rest of my life. If I ever decide to run for any type of public office, this story will come up. If my children's friends' parents ever decide to look me up before they allow their own children to come to my house, this story will come up.
And guess what...I have to put up with all of this nonsense because of some shoddy, shady journalism. Thanks a lot!
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