Exchange with Cameron Texter

Texter's e-mail:

Tom:

I am surprised with the statement about me that appeared in the newspaper under your byline.

Toni Smith, her husband Ed and I did not go out to Queen Street two years ago to confront a crowd. I corrected that information two years ago. I am sadly disappointed that you would print such hogwash.

I received numerous complaints that night from a gentleman worried about his mother's home going up in flames. He said the police refused to do anything. The police told me no problem existed.

The man needed help. The police offered no help. He asked me to come out and see for myself what was going on. I could hear through the telephone fireworks exploding just outside his mother's home.

Toni talked with me just before I left. She insisted that she and her husband Ed accompany me. Two police cars moseyed by us as we drove to the site. We tried to get their attention to check out the incident to no avail.

I pulled around Queen Street and found a riot. I pulled down the street away from the ruckus, stepped out of my car, pulled out my cell phone and dialed 911 to let the police know exactly what I saw.

Neighbors yelled that I was calling the police. They yelled at me to get out of the neighborhood as I had no right there.

I walked over to talk to the gentleman who had called me. Some guys got in my face as fireworks went off everywhere. Another guy tried to hit me with a garbage can. Another hit me in the back with a cardboard box that had held a spent firework.

Toni yelled at those who had tried to hurt me. The boy then hit her in the head with a bottle. I called police several times as fireworks kept flying on top of the houses, in neighbors windows, at passing cars and those passing by.

The police finally showed up after I made several calls. I gave the cops a hard time for allowing such a riotous atmosphere to go on. It was obvious that the ruckus had gone on for quite a while. The City had to send street sweepers down to clean up the mess.

I confronted no one. I parked down the street and merely pulled out my cell phone to tell the police that they needed to respond immediately.

I merely tried to respond to a constituent concerned about his mother's home going up in flames.

As an ex-police reporter, I have faced many such scenes in the Poconos, Pottsville, Anderson, S.C., and previously in York.

I merely tried to help as I have many times. What does the newspaper do? Twist the truth and make a mockery of my service.

Thanks.

Cameron.

My response:

To tell you the truth, I wrote that story in something of a hurry because I had to head out on more breaking news. For the background information, I relied on stories we had written around the time of the incident.

All I can say is that I didn't intend it in any pejorative sense. If you don't mind, I'll post this exchange on my blog so people can read it. If you;d also like to get it in the print edition, you might want to write a letter to the editor.

Texter's response (included with his permission):

Tom:

As I stated to Jim McClure many times in the past, I should not have to take time out of my busy schedule to write a letter to the editor, which most people won't see, to correct a mistake that I did not make.

Your response points out the problem with the newspaper coverage in that past mistakes in the description of what happened on July 4, 2007 resurface over and over and over again. If the Daily Record cared about accuracy and correcting mistakes, as it once claimed it did, then such mistakes would repeat over and over again.

Most people will view the letter as me bitching about some coverage, rather than a sincere effort by the newspaper to get the story right.

In another year or so, another reporter will see the description and repeat it again as fact.

The Daily Record should make the correction and not bury it where no one will see it.

Go ahead and use the information in your blog. I know no private communications truly exist when you speak to a reporter or anytime you use email.

By the way, can't you see how such the description in the story makes Toni and I sound? Toni Smith and I drove down to South Queen Street to confront a riotous crowd. I may be crazy at times, but I am not stupid. And I was not stupid that night to try to help a concerned person and check out what was going on.

Maybe the City would have fewer problems if more caring people became involved instead of cowering in their homes, zipping their lips or wasting time on other trivial matters like trying to get the newspaper to correct a mistake that it should have gotten right two years ago.

Cameron.