They Want to Throw Me in Jail Over Sheetz

Livonia — My reporting on the epic battle over a potential Sheetz Gas Station at Eight Mile and Newburgh Road has resulted in a call for my imprisonment.

Nice knowing everyone. I’ll hopefully see you in five to seven years. I’m not joking, as absurd at this may sound.

Reporting for Michigan Enjoyer over the last year, I confirmed and revealed a shadowy actor behind a coterie of locals propped up as useful idiots to fight against Sheetz’s expansion into Livonia

The bozo lawyer who represented the useful idiot residents in their losing bid to halt Sheetz is Livonia-based attorney Cindy Rhodes Victor, whose fee was paid by the Dearborn-based Middle Eastern and North African Chamber of Commerce (MENA).

“Follow the money” is the oft-recited quote in hard-boiled film noir, and that’s no different in sleepy suburban Livonia.

MENA, according to its mission statement, supports, promotes, and advocates on behalf of ethnic-owned businesses in Metro Detroit. Within the confines of Livonia, and with MENA seemingly most concerned about a potential Sheetz gas station, a straight line can be drawn to the current gas station owners of the city, most of whom are of Arab descent—with the lone exception of a Speedway already long established.

I reported on all of this: coverage of both trials, the association with MENA, the documents proving who was funding the litigation, and Cindy Rhodes Victor’s poor handling of the suits. For that, she thinks I should be punished.

With the lane now cleared for Sheetz’s arrival in Livonia, the Arab-owned gas stations have to spruce up their stores to compete—a trend aptly named The Sheetz Effect. It’s apparently time for vendetta against the only journalist in town.

That revenge has come in the form of a petition in Wayne County Circuit Court seeking fines and prison time for speaking my voice on social media to report the facts of these cases. That was in addition to my reporting in The Enjoyer and The Local Podcast, hosted by Scott Bahr and myself, that defanged MENA’s efforts to protect the gas station owners’ current market share.

According to the petition, I illegally documented and shared images of public hearings and reported on the connections to MENA and the real motives behind the suits.

That’s an odd accusation. I reported the facts, and the results of a judge’s ruling. No more, no less. I didn’t even have to drive downtown to the hearings. They were livestreamed for the public on YouTube.

Exposing the deceitful and cynical behavior behind these lawsuits is only half the reason for this lawfare against me. They’re embarrassed and angry that I’ve shined a spotlight on them. They’re absolute fools. Two-bit hustlers trying to stifle competition rather than compete. Viewing capitalism as zero-sum, they sought to protect market share by manipulating low-information residents of a certain age with NIMBY tendencies, and it worked for a while.

For MENA, Cindy Victor, and the gas station owners, it was easier to push a coterie of old timers into screaming chaos in front of the city council meetings for two years than throw on some paint and clean up a few gas stations.

The evidence of their incompetence is laid bare by their attempt to silence me. In what world does an attorney file this kind of petition seeking to gag a journalist and not expect the next story to be about them?

That also highlights their ill-prepared tactic. I’m the journalist who stared down the Livonia City Council less than a year ago after a member of that body from the last term threatened me with a lawsuit, and warned the room: “The next time that happens I’m doing the story on you.”

To MENA, Cindy Victor Rhodes, and Livonia’s gas station owners: You have my full and undivided attention. I hope you’re enjoying this as much as I am.