The facts behind Carmencita Pile's post regarding the Plainfield NJ Community Connect Facebook page

Sgt. Joe Friday (played by Jack Webb) in the 1950s TV show
Dragnet, had a constant catchphrase: "Just the facts, m'am."

This morning (June 4), Carmencita Pile, a city employee, an officer of the Plainfield Democratic City Committee and a former administrator of the Plainfield NJ Community Connect (PNJCC) Facebook page posted on her CTPile Facebook page (see here) a false and libelous account of how and why she was removed as an administrator of the PNJCC FB page.

Let's set out the facts, or as the 1950s cop/hero of the Dragnet TV show, Sgt. Joe Friday always said, "Just the facts, m'am":

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE PNJCC FB PAGE

The PNJCC Facebook page (see here) debuted on October 6, 2011 as a project of the New Democrats for Plainfield political club. It was intended to become a place to gather together community news and events. Its partisan political sponsorship was made perfectly clear as you can see from my Plainfield Today post announcing the FB page (see here).

In addition, the page had the endorsement of New Dems chair (and then councilman) Adrian Mapp.

Once Mapp became mayor and shuttered the New Dems organization, the FB page continued, with several administrators -- including myself, Rebecca Williams and Carmencita Pile.

Over the years, there have been thousands of posts and photographs of community and political events, including partisan positions on election campaigns.

On May 24 of this year, Carmencita posted a campaign video of Diane Toliver's to the PNJCC Facebook page.

Since the page supports the Regular Democratic Organization of Union County line (what you see as Column B on the sample ballot you received in the mail), that post was taken down as inappropriate for this FB page.

Carmencita then reposted the video to the PNJCC Facebook page and it was taken down again, this over the Memorial Day weekend.

Carmencita then engaged me in a text conversation (which I have archived), complaining about the video being taken down.

I explained to her that it was inappropriate and that the FB page was supporting the RDO candidates ONLY and that she could not post that video to the FB page.

When she posted the Toliver video yet again, Carmencita was removed as a page administrator on Friday, June 1.

WHAT CARMENCITA ALLEGES (AND THE REAL FACTS)

"HER" PAGE?

Carmencita alleges that the PNJCC Facebook page is "hers". As you can see from the above brief history, it is NOT her personal page and never was; she was simply one of three persons with administrative privileges to post to the page.

STOLEN/HIJACKED/HACKED?

Carmencita uses various words in connection with her removal as administrator. However, the FB page was neither "stolen", "hijacked" nor "hacked". Her administrator privileges were simply revoked, meaning that she can no longer access the page's features or post to it.

STOLEN PASSWORD?

Carmencita alleges she entrusted her password to others, who then hijacked the FB page. This is a complete fabrication. There are NO passwords to this FB page. Or any other FB page as far as I know. One gets access to being able to post as a privilege granted by one of the page's administrators. There are no passwords and access is in no way controlled by Facebook (which a password would imply).

CARMENCITA HARASSED?

Carmencita alleges she was harassed to delete the Toliver campaign video, which she says she refused to do. She was not harassed, she was told the video was inappropriate since the FB page was supporting the regular Democratic line. The video was removed (several times) by myself as a page administrator. As said above, the entire text conversation between Carmencita and me has been archived and can be shown to prove exactly what was said.

CARMENCITA BRINGS ASHLEY DAVIS INTO IT

Carmencita brings up First Ward candidate Ashley Davis, asserting Davis "harassed ... and bullied [her] into removing the video". This is simply untrue. Ashley Davis has had no contact with Carmencita over anything to do with this matter.

Carmencita also alleges Davis, along with myself and Rebecca Williams "decided to HIJACK the FB page", again completely untrue.

I certainly hope that fair-minded readers will not let Carmencita influence them against candidate Ashley Davis, who is completely innocent of any connection to this matter.

CARMENCITA'S PHOTOGRAPHY

Lastly, Carmencita asserts "all of my photography is on this page." And further, "my Facebook friends look forward to looking up photos of themselves (emphasis added -- DD)."

Here Carmencita is treading on very thin ice. It is true that she has posted probably thousands of photos to this FB page over the years. However, when looked at closely, they are a mix of community and political activities.

This is where it gets messy. If the photographs were taken with city equipment and on city time, they are not Carmencita's personal property but are property of the City of Plainfield and should not have been posted by her to any site except the City's without prior written permission.

Posting that content to a partisan political FB page such as PNJCC could constitute misconduct, and at the very least would tend to embarrass Mayor Adrian O. Mapp's administration.

Carmenctia should understand that each photo taken is coded with the camera's ID and the time and date when the picture was taken. This information can be retrieved quite simply by anyone with the proper tools. Questions about when these photos were taken and whether it was on City time could be a public relations nightmare for the Mapp administration. Does Carmencita really want to go there?

It is sad that things have come to such a pass. I have been working with Carmencita Pile for nearly ten years, and she has always been an energetic presence in the New Democratic campaigns, and then the Plainfield Democratic organzation (of which she is now an officer) and its campaigns over these many years.

However, she cannot be allowed to write libelous things about myself, Rebecca Williams or Ashley Davis without a public response. That is the first step.

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 -- Dan Damon [ follow ]

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