Online conspiracy theorists arrested at Sutherland Springs Church

Conspiracy theories often run amok online during the aftermath of mass shootings, especially shootings that occur across the United States.

We’ve written about the “usual” conspiracies before, from false flags to crisis actors. Such conspiracy nuts wouldn’t win any awards on innovation; the theories stay very much the same. That mass shootings are staged and never happened. Those that died never existed and those who survived are professionally trained “crisis actors” hired to play roles.

Most of the time, such theorists thankfully limit their specious prattling to the confines of their online bubbles, often on the comments of delusional YouTube videos, or on conspiracy-themed forums. And it’s from there they spout out their paranoid babble, separated from the rest of the world and – more importantly – anyone unfortunate enough to be caught up in such shootings.

Sadly, however, sometimes online conspiracy theories spill over into the real world. For example, the time someone took a gun to a Washington based pizzeria because of bizarre online claims it was the secret HQ of an online paedophilia ring involving Hillary Clinton and John Podesta.

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And this is what has happened again this week after two conspiracy theorists were arrested at the church in Sutherland Springs where 26 worshippers were shot and killed by a mass shooter towards the end of 2017. Just like all mass shootings across the United States, the Sutherland Springs shooting was met with a number of online conspiracy theories claiming the shooting never happened and that those who died never really existed.

Robert Ussery, 54 and Jodie Mann, 56 (pictured above) were both arrested for harassment and related charges by police officers after sustained and continued harassment of many of the survivors of the shooting. That harassment accumulated in the pair arriving at the church and confronting Pastor Frank Pomeroy, who lost his 14 year old daughter in the shooting. During the confrontation, Mann defaced a memorial poster for the 26 who died, and Ussery proceeded to both scream and threaten Pastor Pomeroy. According to the Pomeroy’s wife, Ussery threaten to hang Pomeroy and urinate on his body.

Ussery and Mann are known online as “Side Thorn Journalist” and “Conspiracy Granny” respectively, and both believe the shooting never happened and was a staged event by the Department of Homeland Security. Both were arrested by police at the church and were later released on bond.

Ussery owns a website and refers to himself as a journalist who “investigates” such mass shootings – investigations that seems to mostly consist of harassing and intimidating survivors of mass shootings, either online, by phone or in person.

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According to reports, Ussery has reportedly offered $100,000 to anyone who can provide proof that the deaths at Sutherland Springs were real, and was faced with a number of Internet users claiming the rewards after providing him with the documents that he requested in his challenge, though unsurprisingly no reward money has been paid out.

Naturally, both Ussery and Mann have also claimed that other events such as the recent Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting, the Boston Marathon bombing and the Las Vegas Concert massacre were all staged events as well, and have produced extensive online content claiming to prove just that.

The arrests go to show that while conspiracy theorists may have the right to be keyboard warriors, gibbering amongst themselves inside their respective echo bubbles, they do not have the right to harass or intimidate anyone else because of their paranoid delusions – either online or offline – and doing so will very rightly result in them finding themselves behind bars.