Antisocial media fuels Northern Prison divide

By Sharon Webb

COMMENTS POSTED on two Facebook sites, the Northern Regional Prison Information Page and The Examiner, indicate the depth of the rift among Westbury residents on the prison proposal and the delight taken by people in both the north and south of the State in ridiculing others’ views.

One of the lighter issues canvassed in a competition on the NRP Information Page is alternative meanings of the antiprison acronym WRAP.

Westbury resident Grace Rock, who posts media stories about the prison on the site, ran the competition offering a winner prize and listing some suggestions: We Rage Against Progress, We Really Are Painful, We Rarely Act Positive.

Anna Hayward of Launceston won with her entry, Westbury Residents Against Progress – but not before entries descended in smutty name-calling such as We R Arse Pains was posted by Grace Rock.

A more serious issue was triggered by a letter by Ms Rock printed in The Examiner. Also printed on the NRP Information Page, the letter accuses prison objectors of treating children cruelly.

The Gazette cannot repeat the accusation as it is defamatory. Ms Rock says objecting to the prison is ‘white collar criminal behaviour’, before, inexplicably, her letter strays onto the subject of organ donation.

The letter was one prompt for WRAP president Linda Poulton to announce she was leaving leave the site, to the jeers of prison supporters.

☹ Robert Anderson: Isnt she precious? So sad to see you leave sweetie! Gets a bit of heat in the kitchen and does the bolt. 😲 Karen Williams Baker: Lol oh lookie someone who feels she has to make an exit speech...don’t let the door hit you on the way out, go spread your bs elsewhere... 😫 Meg Youd: Just built it already so many cry babies 😝 Kerrie Austin: Taken her bat and ball and going home.

WRAP’s failed public meeting petition with repeated signatures and missing signature addresses was also denigrated.

😄 Nadine Anthony: They’re clutching at straws and deceitfully falsifying petitions? I’m giggling alright 😈 Kerrie Austin: I’d love to ring every person on the petition and see if they actually provided their details 😱 Grace Rock: As much as i support recycling, the recycling of signatures is an illegal activity

Ms Rock continues, ‘that type of activity boarders a crime called scam and / or identity theft. I don’t know why you were not taken to court for that.’

WRAP president Linda Poulton replied that the remark ‘crosses a significant line. In essence you have asserted that I, as a legal practitioner, have engaged in quasi criminal conduct.

‘I require that this post be removed immediately.

‘This comment joins many others defamatory posts on this page. This is something that everyone who posts and the page administrator need to be mindful of. I am leaving this page because it is populated by intolerable and unsubstantiated content.’

Writers on the NRP and Examiner Facebook pages also ridiculed wildlife arguments.

😄 Nadine Anthony: Endangered species? Maybe the Wedgies are....but I have the grey AND white Goshawks here, along with the owls? Just ask my chooks..... 😉 Em Jay: Don’t forget to add half a dozen spotted frogs and a previously unknown bird that lays rainbow eggs 😵 Roly Rolstar, Claremont: When this fails, it’ll be time for the sacred aboriginal stories that, even though untold until now, will demand the halt to any kind of development

On both sites, abuse and name-calling is rife among commenters as far away as Hobart.

😆 Shane Andrews: winging Westbury woswers wouldn’t be happy if it was at Port Davey. I was thinking Macquaire Island might be more suitable

Which received the following reply from a Hobart resident.

😝Vanessa Sabiurroff: they just eradicated all the vermin on Macquarie. Don’t send down more

😡 Lesley Anne Loone:This mainland, pot stirring cow at Westbury just needs to shut the hell up!! Lets face it Westbury is no quaint little country hamlet, they have their fair share of junkies and thieves and police intervention, certainly not the quiet pristine place these idiots are making it out to be!! And before all you keyboard warriors start yes I have seen it first hand!!

Karen Williams Baker calls WRAP members ‘some clowns at westbury’ and ‘despicable people’; Rhonda Floyd labels them ‘bloody ostriches’ and Kathleen Cooper ‘small minded people’.

Mystifyingly, the Westbury resident Andrea Coopman Badcock blamed WRAP members for making her look ‘ridiculous and petty’ in her workplace.

Please note that all spelling and punctuation mistakes in this story are copied directly from the Facebook pages. All comments were made by adults.