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.”
Well, you are in a vast minority in your assumption it seems.
No.
I’m pretty sure that I’m not.
I’m pretty sure that I’m in the majority.
It’s why even WWW.ABOVETOPSECRET.COM have banned the discussion. Reddit has. The most controversial and kookiest websites are banning this ridiculous discussion. That should tell you something.
Since the Comet Pizza hoax hasn't been debunked there is no reason to believe that ESP isn't involved with them too........
From Washington to Texas, My God, how deep does this ring go????? /s
The discussion continues. What are YOU going to do about that, cry?
You're going to have a hard time convincing anyone of that, after your manic display today. Based on the length of your marathon posting session, one could easily guess you're a paid to post troll.
So after spending your whole day here, how many do you think you have convinced this case is already over, before it has even really begun? Looks like zero, to me. Of course, you're not about to stop trying, for any reason, are you. It's just so important that it all stop, huh.
Yep the discussion continues, and no I’m not going to cry. I’m going to laugh at you.
Just like the rest of the loony tunes conspiracy theories.
-Flat Earth.
-9/11.
-Area 51.
I can go on and on and on.
If you want I can give you compelling “evidence” on all of them. Because I am manipulating that evidence to prove what I want to be true, or what I want you to believe. Just like they do with “global warming”, and just like posters on reddit and 4chan do with pizzagate. Which you take at face value as truthful.
Total bullshit from you, as usual. I have never said any particular person is guilty of any particular crime, or asserting anything like that.
It is obvious to any rational person that something weird has gone on in connection with these people. What? I do not know. Who exactly? Don’t know.
You need to get the eff off of FR.
It’s probably a team of trolls.
If you want evidence, ask the NYPD or the FBI.
But you don’t want evidence, you want to shut up people. That’s what your task is.
Well I'm sure you consider that a YUGE victory, since censorship is clearly your goal. But I'd rather not see it discussed at that site either, as the matter is too serious for what their readership can handle. This story will keep moving up the chain of consciousness in the country, and anything being labeled "fake news" is actually being looked into more than it would have been otherwise, whether the media understands that yet or not.
The only thing I take as truth is that this topic upsets you and you want it to go away.
I’m not upset in the least by what people on the internet want to investigate. I like freedom.
My gosh. Manic display, marathon posting session.
I’m responding to you and your inquisition. Which have on multiple occasions insulted me, called me disgusting, called me a troll, a paid shill, a traitor, Hillary Clinton, etc.
But you’re all completely missing my point. If what you believed about this “pizzagate” nonsense were true; that there is some kind of global elite cabal of politicians that sexually abuse children whenever they can, then there would be victims and witnesses to alleged behavior coming out to accuse in droves.
IMO it’s because you want this to be so badly true. So you dismiss any intelligent discussion about its validity with personal attacks. You’re doing exactly what SJW’s and progressives do when they call US Nazi’s, racists, islamophobes, xenophobes, white supremacists, misogynists, heartless, hateful bigots.
I also think you can’t look at what you think is evidence objectively partly because of how vile the subject matter is. But majorly because the subjects are persons you already have a low opinion of, so the allegations of pizzagate must be true!
In other words: If Comet Ping Pong and associates were conservatives, you would dismiss the “evidence.”
I don’t want evidence?!
I’ve been asking for legitimate sources for evidence of “pizzagate” for days! But I don’t really get any, or I get a link to a wikipedia page about how homosexuals used the word chickenhawk in the 1980s to describe disgusting actions.
4chan, and reddit are NOT LEGIT SOURCES FOR INFORMATION!
I haven’t seen the image, but someone said Cosmic Pizza has a painting of a man playing ping pong with a child, ejaculating on the table.
Bookmark
If that were true, any Joe Schmoe can go into Comet Ping Pong and take pictures or videos of all these images and post them online. This isn’t some “private club”, it’s a for profit business open to the public. Which would be THE WORST PLACE for the owners to post photographs like that.
But when Joe Schmoe does go into Comet Ping Pong and takes video of the wall at his booth he says “look at all these weird drawings” but it’s just regular concrete form patterning. There aren’t any images on the walls of Joe Schmoes booth.
Ummm. Pizzagate isn’t some kind of “Well we think something weird is going on here”, it’s a specific accusation of high level politicians, Comet Ping Pong owners, and other restaurant owners, patrons and acquaintances being involved in sex trafficking, abusing children, and other highly vile and disgusting accusations. Even accusing John and Tony Podesta of kidnapping and killing a little girl in Portugal.
So don’t tell me “you don’t know”, “who exactly”, “what exactly.”
These are very specific and highly vile accusations that are based on conjecture, assumption and hearsay from reddit and 4chan members.
Where did you read the police wanted to bring the Podestas in?
Boy, you’re really drawn to Pizzagate. Why?
Wow. You’re hilarious.
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