Re: Maggio News documentaries posted to Nextdoor

Last week I posted two documentaries by Victor Maggio to Nextdoor and they have proven to be controversial. The primary reaction to this video has been according to the apparent political leanings of Maggio. Another reaction is that some may believe he is attempting to capitalize on the tragedy going on in the Black neighborhoods of Chicago.

Another aspect of the controversy was that I had been posting under an alias on Nextdoor either as "Sixth Ward blog" or "Ninth Ward". In two different forums on Nextdoor I had posted Maggio's video regarding Greater Grand Crossing which so far elicited a far stronger reaction under "Sixth Ward blog". In yet another forum I posted the video with regards to Roseland - which was posted on this blog last week - which elicited a conversation with regards to neighborhoods listed for the purposes of real estate or even property taxes interestingly enough.

Both videos were reported with the Greater Grand Crossing post being reported & deleted under the auspices of being "hurtful not helpful". The other video on Roseland so far hasn't been deleted, however, it was reported strangely enough for "promoting business & commerce the right way". Now I got to admit that second one could be a bit more valid while I don't represent a business regardless I'm not posting under my real name. Or perhaps there might be a belief that I'm promoting Maggio which isn't exactly my purpose, however, more on that later.

BTW here are Nextdoor's community guidelines.

As a matter of fact I had recently changed from my name to Ninth Ward on another Nextdoor forum. My purpose to posting recently whether actual posts or comments on posts was certainly to post more at Nextdoor though I had little intention of posting under my real name. In light of the controvery I've made the decision to step back from my activities on Nextdoor.

In posting either videos whether on this blog or on Nextdoor, there were never any nefarious or malicious intentions when sharing those vids. To me it was just another video and it wasn't done to be hateful. I did some cursory research on Maggio finding his website at Maggio News through the Roseland video. If you look at his about us page, you see he has aligned himself with conservative leaders such as the late Andrew Breitbart & Glenn Beck. He's certainly has presented himself over the course of his online presence as a conservative. Indeed at one point he notes his site was set up to cover Occupy Wall Street and other left-wing movements that have come to the Chicago area.

Now his website is geared in his own words to ask these questions: "Why is this violence happening? We set out to find out Who and what is responsible for the violent desperate culture that has been created in these inner city communities of Chicago?" He further notes his main aim in documenting the violence on Chicago's streets: "The only way society will understand WHY these tragedies are taking place in Chicago is telling the story from a centrist unbiased perspective. The reason this film must be presented to the public in such a graphic nature is so they can truly understand how desperate the situation is becoming. Only then can we start to fix the massive 40-point problem that has been created through liberal social engineering."

Those italicized quotes above are from Maggio's Inside Bloody Chicago page.

I also wanted to reach out to Maggio - while unsuccessful in finding an e-mail address for him - utilized a form on his contact page to send a message. To be transparent my only purpose was never to criticize though it was certainly to follow his series on the top 10 violent neighborhoods of Chicago. Though some have noted inaccuracies without saying what they were, one inaccuracy I had noted was using the community areas as a frame of reference. The 77 community areas aren't neighborhoods and indeed many of the community areas contain several distinct neighborhoods. It's possible he's doing this as a simplification for an audience who may not be familiar with Chicago.

Also as a general rule my personal policy is to never reject information that may have been presented with a conservative point of view or even from an outsider. And of course we're all free to disseminate the information and even question its credibility. Though from this point forward my goal is to do further research on videos such as those by Victor Maggio. Especially any video with regards to Chicago crime as it's a very passionate issue video especially for those of us who've been directly affected by it.