Local Facebook group supports violence against neighbors
Updated: September 16, 2024 at 3:49 pm ET.
Social media today can be a place to make friendly connections and to help others with finding a new local hangout. However, when social media turns ugly, the real-world consequences can be life changing.
North Augusta resident, Luna Godsey, recently found this out the hard way.
“I was scrolling through a popular group on Facebook called North Augusta 20/20 and saw this post where someone was complaining about someone knocking on their door at 9:00 pm. A few people started to comment on the posting that if someone came to their door, they would be met with violence,” Godsey said.
Godsey felt that she could not sit by and say nothing.
“I felt obligated to speak up. Especially since so many news stories about young people of color knocking on a neighbors’ door because their ball went in their backyard only to end up being shot at or killed.”
Case in point, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot in the head by 84-year-old Andrew Lester in Kansas City, Missouri on April 13, 2023, for knocking on his door thinking it was a friend’s house where he was supposed to pick up his siblings. Lester was an upstanding member of his community and a retired airplane mechanic.
In April 2018, 14-year-old Brennan Walker missed his school bus and knocked on a neighbor’s door when he got turned around in the unfamiliar neighborhood nearby. Jeffery Zeigler, 53 and a retired firefighter, shot at him after his wife claimed that by knocking on the door, Walker was trying to break into the house. Thankfully, security cameras showed that Walker did nothing wrong, and that Zeigler’s story of the events was incorrect.
Godsey says that the administrators of North Augusta 20/20 messaged them about the postings and demanded that they make their parent and pastor, Bishop Greer Godsey, stop posting about the violent comments and the harassment she suffered after her post.
“They claim that my parent is hurting good people for calling out the lack of moderation. However, every one of the cases were people who shot their neighbor for knocking on their door were ‘good people’ too.”
We have reached out to the employers of the administrators of the group, Meybohm Real Estate, the Episcopal Day School, and Furman Sleep Lab for their comments, but at the time of this post, they have yet to respond. The Episcopal Day School removed the comments by Bishop Godsey in an attempt to cover up for their Dean of Students work as an admin in this group.
Mrs. Godsey was removed from the Facebook group in retaliation for blowing the whistle on this violent and abusive behavior by members of this group. Meanwhile, the person responsible for the abuse and harassment has been allowed to continue attacking Godsey publicly.
The Episcopal Diocese of Georgia and their Bishop Frank Logue as well as the Episcopal Day School have yet to comment. However, Bishop Godsey informs us that they have chosen to remove any tags or postings about the Dean of Students at EDS rather than address the issue of her support of violence and abuse.