Posted on 12/07/2016 6:46:38 PM PST by nickcarraway
East Side Pies co-owner Noah Polk first heard of the conspiracy theory known as “pizzagate” around the time of the presidential election. The fake news story was started by an online community, fueled by misinterpretations of emails released by WikiLeaks, that claimed associates of Hillary Clinton were behind a child sex-trafficking ring headquartered at the Comet Ping Pong pizza restaurant in Washington, D.C. The fake story turned into a real crime scene on Sunday when a gunman walked into that Washington restaurant and fired a shot. Now, Austin police are investigating harassment and vandalism that’s been waged against the local restaurant by believers of the “pizzagate” conspiracy.
For Polk’s restaurant, the conspiracy theory first hit home when someone he’d never met left a review on East Side Pies’ Facebook page. The comment mentioned “pizzagate” and Comet Ping Pong owner James Alefantis. It was the commenter’s second post in a few days. The first had referenced pedophilia.
That day Polk was also alerted to a thread on the message board Reddit suggesting East Side Pies might also be a part of the fictional sex-trafficking ring. Once he went down that internet rabbit hole, Polk was shocked to find myriad posts falsely tying East Side Pies to the debunked conspiracy theory.
East Side Pies is continuing to suffer sporadic harassment and name-calling via social media, and one of its delivery trucks was vandalized with a scrawled epithet.
The online posts have made wild and baseless accusations about East Side Pies. They interpreted the restaurant’s logo as a symbol of the “Illuminati,” questioned the meaning of photos of pizza-eating children on East Side Pies’ Facebook account, inferred that a picture of staffers with former Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell was proof of nefarious political ties and claimed co-owner Michael Freid, an alumnus of the Culinary Institute of America, had “connections to the CIA.”
“This is absolutely insane and unfounded and ridiculous,” Polk said Tuesday of his thoughts after reading the initial posts. “The dots they are trying to connect are so ludicrous. I was not happy about it.”
Polk said he became worried about the safety of his employees, as well as his restaurant’s reputation, and he contacted Austin police and the FBI on Monday.
Austin police on Wednesday confirmed that a report for criminal mischief had been filed Tuesday involving one of the restaurant’s vehicles. A police spokesman said profane and sexual statements had been carved into the vehicle in the 5300 block of Airport Boulevard. The complete report on the incident and additional details weren’t immediately available Wednesday.
The online targeting of East Side Pies had gained steam Saturday when Owen Shroyer — who hosts a live-streaming podcast called “Engage Liberty” and makes videos for the Austin-based conspiracy-fueled website Infowars.com — hosted a 21/2-hour broadcast detailing his visits to multiple East Side Pies locations.
In the broadcast uploaded to YouTube, Shroyer said he was “weirded out and creeped out” by his visits to East Side Pies. What he saw, he says, left him “gripping my gun tighter every night.”
The “weird stuff” he encountered? Employees with large-gauge piercings and blue hair, a “weird locked-up grate in the back” of one location, disturbing rock music and band fliers with “satanic” symbols. The “coup de grace,” according to Shroyer: two children playing dominoes in the presence of an adult.
He also thought the restaurant’s logo, a pizza in the shape of an eye, with the catchphrase “We know what you want,” was a nod to the Illuminati.
While the other accusations probably don’t require much explanation from a laid-back, family-friendly, rock-and-roll pizza joint in the Live Music Capital of the World, Polk offered a quick back-story on the name and logo.
Polk, who opened the restaurant with Freid in 2006, wanted to name the restaurant East Side Pies, written as three separate words. When he told a friend, the guy immediately quipped, “ESP. We know what you want.” Thus was born a clever piece of marketing, soon to be accompanied by a logo with a circular pizza minus a slice representing an eyeball.
Polk has received about a half-dozen calls over the past several days from people using unidentifiable phone numbers requesting interviews with East Side Pies management or ownership.
The co-owners refused the requests from the suspicious callers, because, in the words of Polk, “You argue with the fool, you’re the fool yourself.”
On Sunday, a North Carolina man was arrested in Washington, D.C., after entering Comet Ping Pong with a semi-automatic weapon and firing at least one shot. Police said he later told them he was “self-investigating” conspiracy theories about child slaves there. The incident, which made national news, reaffirmed to Polk that his instinct to contact law enforcement was correct.
“Luckily nobody got hurt during the shooting, but I do believe it’s come to light now, it’s a national story, about fake news,” Polk said. “I do believe people who’ve been on the fence or thought maybe there was something to it … now most thinking people will realize that this is fake and not to get behind it or think there is any truth to it.”
Freid and Polk said the false accusations and character assassination has been “alarming, disappointing, disconcerting and scary.”
“The biggest thing: It was unfair,” Freid said. “We have too many other things to do just to keep our business going every day. It’s completely unfounded and ludicrous. It is absolutely absurd.”
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We’re sick of your traitorous crap here, capiche?
The pedophile ring is coming down no matter how many trolling expeditions you launch.
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I think it's all pretty obvious.
Comet was opened in 2006, the middle of the second Bush term.
This was clearly to support the perverted needs of W's administration, and if you look at those members who relocated back to Texas at the end of his second term I bet you'll find the connection to this Austin shop.
I'd gear up your investigators, put them on the trail (hint, Rove!), and force those bastards to prove they didn't start all of this.
Traitorous?
You so desperately want these people to be child molesters because they are progressives that you can’t see the forest for the trees.
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Not what I want.
The reality is that they are pedophiles and killers.
You really don’t fit in here.
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No. It’s clear that’s what you want.
The reality is that they aren’t pedophiles and killers.
The reality is that they are depraved, reprobate progressive lunatics, and you’re not going to agree with them or understand them.
You want them to be pedophiles because it validates your frothing at the mouth attitude. But if they aren’t, you know you have some soul searching to do.
Can I get a source to one(just one), allegation of criminal sexual misconduct by the owners of Comet Ping Pong from a victim or witness?
I will not accept loose connections, phrases taken out of context, or he said she said they said that James Alefantis said as evidence.
If these people are the murderous child molesters you so desperately believe then there should be at least one accusation of sexual wrongdoing.
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You’re insane.
The evidence is voluminous, and beyond question.
Kiss Hillary for us, OK?
Have a look at Alamogirl’s work some time, huh!
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Evidence of what?
There is evidence that they are reprobates. I find them sick, I would never collect any of the “art” that people claim they have. Nor would I condone anyone I know owning any of it. But I don’t believe any of it is evidence that they are pedophiles and killers. They are crazy amoral progressives that I won’t ever understand.
But there is no evidence of any criminal sexual misconduct with children or evidence of murder.
But according to you they are “pedophiles and killers.”
I highly doubt and would bet that if it was a conservative business you would be saying the same damn thing I am. You’re taking your political hatred for the left and trying to justify your political and social disagreements by labeling them pedophiles and killers.
This is what I disagree with. It feels and looks exactly the same to me when a progressive takes a conservative statement, principle, or belief and calls them a Nazi, a racist, a misogynist, a xenophobe, or deplorable.
You went straight to the name calling, ad-hominems, and even called me traitorous. You said I am a concern troll. I am concerned. But I’m not trolling. If I am proven to be wrong, then I’ll gladly state that I was wrong. But if nothing comes of “Pizzagate” you’ll STILL believe that they are pedophiles and/or killers.
Get it now?
Pizzagate aside, I have a question for you. Why, if you are affiliated with the US government, is child porn no big deal? For example, if a short investigation turns up 5,200 purchasers of child porn, why would the investigation be immediately shut down? Why would only 20% of a small subset of the 5,200 be further investigated? Why would so few be actually prosecuted?
Here is Anderson Cooper’s initial report. Suffice it to say, the vast bulk of the 5,200 were let off Scot-free.
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Evidence if kidnapping, and murder in Portugal.
The police wanted to take the podesta brothers in but couldn’t due to diplomatic immunity.
There is so much evidence of the whole gang’s filth it would turn even your denying stomach if you follow the links.
LOL!
Evidence of kidnapping, and murder in Portugal?
Do you even know anything about the Madelleine Mccann case?
Besides what you’ve read on 4chan and reddit?
F__ off Hillary!
You’re disgusting.
I bet you have an alibi for all of the Arkancides too.
Yea. I’d say it’s safe to say that you know nothing about the actual Madellein Mccann case.
It’s obvious you’re frothing at the mouth rabid. I suggest you see a doctor.
No, reality is that no one knows for sure, as these clues all just came to light a few weeks ago, and the investigation is just getting underway. And for starters there are some unexplained pictures, such as someone rolling around in what appears to be blood in the back of the restaurant.
I'm sure you have the perfect explanation in your mind, but I also doubt it's very convincing, but let's hear it.
And while you're at it, take a good look at what you've spent your whole day here defending.
I’m not defending anyone.
I’m saying get some actual freaking evidence.
Or what?
“He has no personal knowledge of who is guilty or innocent or what crimes have or have not been committed.”
Neither do you. But you sure do like accusing people of crimes without compelling evidence.
Or what, what? What?
You seemed to be bothered a great deal by people on the internet looking into some odd email language in the Wikileaks Podesta dump.
Why so concerned? “Get some evidence”. Or what? What are YOU going to do about it if they don’t? Are you going to cry?
Odd e-mail language?
People talking about food and their kids?
I find it odd that you think it’s odd.
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