When police in West Virginia’s Monongalia County arrested 20-year-old Wesley Jackson for his alleged involvement in the destruction of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) deployed by the company Flock Safety, they likely never could have imagined the outpouring of support he would receive from the online community.
In the days after Jackson’s arrest, a post by local news station WDTV gathered over 29,000 comments. As the Washington Post observed, those comments were overwhelmingly positive, with community members and strangers alike singing Jackson’s praises, and concocting a seemingly endless variety of alibis.
To take the community’s word — or words — for it, Jackson couldn’t have been the perpetrator, as he was simultaneously replacing the roof on a homeless shelter, dispensing dogs treats, canoeing, saving puppies from burning buildings, sweeping a parking lot, and rescuing cats from trees at the time the alleged offenses were committed.
“He was actually kissing the homies goodnight at the time of the incident,” one absurdist commenter protested. “Couldn’t have been him.”
