Recently, the Houston Chronicle printed an article
entitled, "Family holes
up in bunker, evades court" in which they said, "Now, the
51-year-old Gray
apparently is holed up in his compound, which is surrounded by barbed
wire
and fortified by a bunker ringed with sandbags, dodging two felony
warrants
stemming from an altercation with state troopers. He has dared the
authorities to "come and get me" and warned them to
"bring body bags."
Because of the statements made in this article, the family members at
the
Gray "Compound" have received numerous calls from across the
country, asking
about the so-called, non-existent stand-off.
FLI recently asked some of its affiliates to help in verifying the
story.
Jimmy Ritter, of "Freedom in the Trailer Park" made a few
phone calls to mutual
friends of Joe Gray's who have spoken to Gray, and was able to speak
with
Gray, only to find out that Gray had no knowledge of the Houston
Chronicle's
Article, and that no reporters had attempted before that, to his
knowledge,
to speak with him.
FLI then made phone calls to the Sheriff's Department, which has
received
many phone calls of the same nature. We were told that even though
there
were warrants out for Mr. Gray, no plans for a stand-off was being
considered, and no action was being taken, at present, on the matter
of the
warrants.
The Houston Chronicle was not interested in getting the phone number
for the
Sheriff's Department. They kept asking if Joe Gray was going to turn
himself in, to which we replied that that was none of their business
at this
point.
We feel that the article that the Houston Chronicle put out was an
effort to
"create news" where before there was no news by encouraging
a stand-off that
had not even been considered either by the Sheriff's Department or the
Texas
Rangers, who we also spoke to.
We believe that the Houston Chronicle owes an apology to the Gray
family out
of good principle, and that the subject should be dropped until action
has
already been taken on the matter. Whether Mr. Gray or his family has
in any
way defied the law is of no consequence in this matter. This is a
matter
between the Law Enforcement Departments and Mr. Gray until any action
is
taken, and the Houston Chronicle should not be in the business of
playing
the vigilante.
This concludes our statement at Friends of Liberty, International, and
we
appreciate your support.
Thank You,
Friends of Liberty
Shonda M. Ponder, Editor-in-Chief |
