End the Public Disclosure of Criminal and Civil Convictions in Newspapers
Photo by Clelia Jane Sheppard
I am a victim of public shaming by the Eastern Shore Post, which has misrepresented my past legal infractions, taking them out of context. My voice was silenced due to previous hospitalizations for an eating disorder, reducing me to a mere statistic in mental health discussions. This is not just about me; it's about countless others who have been marginalized and stigmatized by such practices.
Had it not been for this case, and the commerce clause due to the weapon being from Austria, my charge would not have escalated to a Federal one, causing serious harm to my life in many ways.
The publication and sharing of criminal and civil convictions in newspapers contribute significantly to the stigmatization of marginalized individuals. These publications do not merely report facts but often perpetuate a cycle of public shame that further entrenches these individuals into poverty or abusive situations. The consequences are dire - joblessness, homelessness, illness - all burdens on societal systems meant to protect us. I reached out multiple times to a supposedly unbiased paper, with journalists on staff who once messaged me on Facebook a string of insults because I went to prom with her daughter’s “ex”. I was 17 at the time, she has since gone out of her way to passive aggressively insult me with negative news coverage while hiding the positive articles from my youth, as well as poorly written headlines and subtext for the .pdfs related to anything with The Sheppards. I took it upon myself to request the Editors remove false information, no such luck-although they did remove a fake Letter to the Editor accusing my parents of being lascivious horrible people for having a billboard that featured a dancer in a unitard. “We have stringent verification processes for proving the identity of each submission for quality control”. Promptly removes post when I do in depth background check and research on a person who supposedly lived on the lower Eastern Shore, but did not exist.
According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), people with mental health conditions face an unemployment rate three times higher than those without such conditions. This statistic is exacerbated when their personal struggles are made public fodder through newspaper publications.
Instead of mental illness, why don’t we use less ableist language, like “injured” because that’s what it really is…. The phrase disability and mental illness are outdated and have negative connotations, that create a leprous effect upon the masses. Similarly, institutions of the court calling people mentally defective should no longer be permissible, it is an extremely degrading and discriminatory term. Sharing it online only further endangers at risk people, encouraging maltreatment due to perceived inability to understand or defend.
This petition seeks to end this harmful practice that contributes more harm than good. It does not mean that individuals should evade consequences for their actions; rather it advocates for a fair chance at rehabilitation without being subjected to undue public shaming.
Let's stand together against this form of systemic oppression that only serves to further marginalize those already struggling at society's fringes. Sign this petition today and help us bring about change!
These practices date back to as far as Grace Sherwood: https://salemwitchmuseum.com/2023/07/28/grace-sherwood-the-witch-of-pungo/
Subconscious ideology that stems from draconian penal systems that were meant to separate the classes, read Slave & Free by Kirk Mariner to find out more....
Relics of Indentured Servitude and Slavery
Hanging people out publicly to dry in a newspaper with over 30,000 monthly readers that goes in circulation online and at people's doorsteps is a cruel and archaic institution that needs to be questioned, eradicated and abandoned. Held accountable.
Stopped.
The hypocrites who pretend to care about their lofty ideals while slamming disadvantaged people by publicly shaming them, unnecessarily so, hampers the wounded individual's ability to have a materially successful family, seek proper health and treatment without stigma/judgement, and ultimately impacts their ability to thrive, by placing them in survival mode.
This practice, upheld by papers like The Eastern Shore Post, is indeed a vestige of a society built upon sexism and wealth based discrimination (Slave and Free, Kirk Mariner)
I was arrested the day before the final performance.
I was sold a lemon car, VIN 1HGCG56661A77096 in 2017, a 2001 Honda Accord 4D Sedan from 12507 Charles M. Lankford Jr. Memorial Highway, Machipongo VA 23405 sold by Mitchell Hafer of Clayton, Delaware.
At the time, I was a camp counselor for ESO (Eastern Shore's Own Arts Enter) for two weeks and had come up with an original play for about 15-20 students.
Despite being in a very toxic dynamic personally and experiencing deleterious side effects from medications that caused me to act irrationally, I managed to find a way to work at this job and it meant a lot to me to help these children find their voice.
Two days after purchasing this flood car, it broke down and KT Auto charged me $700 to tow it half a block. I reacted with anger, being stressed, tired, broke and poor and unable to cough up $700 in these circumstances. On my way out, I knocked over a Ducati Motorcycle, which he claimed was over $3000 in damages when it was just a scratch, if anything.
It broke my heart to know I was arrested on the spot and missed the performance because of some man's ego and greed.
This incident, which made me feel like I was being hunted down like a witch-ruined so many efforts I've made my entire life to escape this peninsula where so much abuse has happened to me on a personal level just for trying to succeed and leave. Instead of being understood, I've been further targeted. Had it not been for this charge, my possession of a weapon case would not have been escalated to a felony (see other petition: https://chng.it/cbd4HvsvCL)
On May 23, of that year in 2017, I was in a near fatal car accident after someone didn't stop at a stop sign. If I hadn't slammed on the brakes driving on Pennyville Rd in the pouring rain, I would've died. The car flipped in a ditch and I sustained severe head injuries.
A miracle that I survived, had to slam on brakes to avoid being t-boned by someone running a stop sign on a back road on a rainy day.
First head injury in almost a decade, the foremost one being from my high school days playing Co-Ed J.V. Soccer
#22
I’ve been trying to figure out, with the help of family, for many years why I haven’t felt great since that first head injury in high school that only got worse with age and additional injuries
Healing from issues, would hope that I would have privacy to do that but that doesn’t exist anymore….Exercise, the best solution of all.
Later that year, in October, I was the victim of an assault by two men who left me for dead because I confronted one of them about some very dishonest behavior. Thankfully when I woke up, my friend Faith, a licensed EMT and Personal Trainer from Michigan, coached me into calling 9-1-1 as I was vomiting cerebral spinal fluid, alone in my rental-former slave quarters in a house of Accomac.
More restful, after IV of morphine. My nose was disfigured, one nostril and side of my nose remains larger and more bulbous than the other to this day.
Droopy eye, and scratches on my face to this day. Really ugly picture, but guess what, what happened to me the night before was beyond ugly. Can’t expect a Hollywood version of assault.
Beaten, kicked to the ground. Choked and head repeatedly slammed on gravel. Then told that “she fell off a porch” by the perpetrators.
Dragged across gravel, a driveway of shells and pebbles.
In the end, I have been severely targeted by really dishonest people who would rather see me hurt and in a ditch, dead, broke, dependent on family, than ever to succeed.
I still struggle daily with a dislocated jaw and speech difficulties from the injuries I've sustained, but forced myself to heal from with good diet, exercise and discipline. In other words, applying real life action to the concept of neuroplasticity. The human brain can change and heal, although innate intelligence remains the same even with injuries.
It is of my understanding that the lack of education and respect people have for those recovering from TBIs and other emotional difficulties is why my future has been jeopardized and ruined, including my credit score being tanked from hospital bills and not having enough financial resources to secure my freedom to another country, which is what I would ultimately seek to do in order to escape the constant bullying I've endured living in the United States of Hypocrisy.
