Erica Crawley is not serious
The Franklin County Commissioner has offered us insight into how she operates when she thinks nobody is looking. And none of it is good.
I like to think I’m moderately successful in this career due to my almost reflexive ability to detect bullshit.
I wish I could cite some innate Columbo-like ability. I would probably be a lot richer if that were the case.
In truth, it’s because I spent the first half of my adult life in active alcoholism. As anyone who has loved an alcoholic can tell you, it’s never a walk through a park of roses dealing with their nonsense.
Over the years—especially those last couple—when things got grim, I honed the ability to peddle bullshit while perpetuating the cycle of my selfish behavior.
Sure, I’d bullshit the shady character sitting crooked next to me at the bar. But I also bullshitted my family. I bullshitted friends. I bullshitted girlfriends.
Most of all, I bullshitted myself.
I thank God every day that I got off that train, and those who stayed in my life despite years of trying to kill myself one double Tito’s at a time.
Three years of no alcohol, and those years of bullshitting people have boomeranged into a positive asset for my career. The saying is that you can’t bullshit a bullshitter. And I’d like to think that I’ve proven it’s harder to bullshit a recovering alcoholic.
The latest example of the phenomenon is Franklin County Commissioner Erica Crawley.
As The Rooster reported, on July 2, Crawley smoked a red light, t-boned a woman, and called City Councilman Nick Bankston instead of 911.
I've been baffled by legacy media's refusal to cover the story. Still, I try not to complain too much since their editors’ lethargy and archaic thinking are a boon for Rooster Worldwide LLC’s Business Line.
However, NBC4 finally got in the game Monday night with an article entitled, “Franklin County commissioner addresses July traffic crash.”
To their credit, they got Crawley on the record.
“I was in a motor vehicle accident on July 2,” she said. “I’m a human being, having had having a human experience just like everyone else. And I am grateful for the Columbus Police Department who came by and showed up on the scene and the EMTs, who came and made sure that everyone was safe and healthy.”
Well, it’s good to know that there’s not an extraterrestrial alien sitting on the Franklin County Board of Commissioners, though “I’m a human being” might be precisely what one would say if they were.
Yet, I can’t help but notice that, even nearly a month and a half after the crash, and after he insurance company made a cash settlement offer to the victim, there is no acceptance of responsibility.
Crawley even used the word “accident,” which insinuates that running a red light and t-boning an old woman is something that was out of her control.
During the police body camera footage, about 25 minutes, viewers can see the officers talking to both drivers and several witnesses. Both drivers claim the other was at fault for running a red light. Both drivers were asked if they needed medical attention, and both declined.
And here’s where NBC4 does a disservice to its readers.
Yes, both drivers claimed the other was at fault for running the red light. But three independent witnesses, including two in the body camera footage, affirmed that it was Crawley who smoked the red light.
And there must have been no apparent effort to contact the victim, because if there had been, NBC4 would know that the victim went to the hospital after initially declining medical attention—something any personal injury lawyer will tell you is a common phenomenon in car crashes.
Another person on scene has drawn further criticism online. Columbus City Council member Nicholas Bankston can be seen in the body camera footage already stopped next to Crawley’s vehicle when police arrive.
This is a hilarious paragraph, since I’ve learned that local television stations would cite something vague like “unconfirmed online reports” if I were to publish the videotaped confession of former President George H.W. Bush admitting that the CIA swiss-cheesed John F. Kennedy.
That psychosis leads to vague statements like one of the city’s most powerful politicians “drawing further criticism online.” From where? It’s hard to say.
Nevertheless…
“I didn’t call Councilmember Bankston at all,” Crawley said.
“Councilmember Bankston drove by and saw the accident and saw me standing there and stopped, just like I would hope any bystander would to check on a colleague, a friend, or even just somebody that you don’t know.
“I’ve done that for other people, and he did that for me, but I absolutely did not make a phone call to Councilmember Bankston.”
You’ll notice that there is no mention of trying to get Bankston on the record about the crash. Or that there was any effort to contact any of the three witnesses listed in the police report.
Because if NBC4 had, they could have asked one of them about Crawley’s incredulous statement about Bankston being a random passerby.
“First thing she did when she got out of the car was get on her fucking phone,” one witness told The Rooster when asked about Crawley’s statement on Wednesday.
“And she told me she was OK and I should go. [Bankston] drove the wrong way from High Street up Spring Street.”
And in Bankston’s defense, I guess it’s possible that he was speeding the wrong way down Spring Street and randomly observed his stranded friend mere moments after the crash.
This is Columbus, after all. He wouldn’t be the first or last motorist to speed confidently in the wrong direction on a one-way street.
However, there were three 911 calls related to the crash. None of them came from Bankston or Crawley.
And, even if we do extend him the benefit of the doubt in that regard, there’s still the unethical, if not illegal, behavior from Bankston, where he identified himself as a City Councilman to the responding officer and noted that Crawley was a “good friend.”
I’m not going to sit here and pretend that Crawley was obviously sloshed out of her mind and stumbling all over the place.
But why didn’t she call 911?
Why did she want the first responding witness to leave the scene when she didn’t know if the victim was okay? Why did she try to deny responsibility despite three independent witnesses affirming the victim’s narrative?
Why did she provide the victim with a receipt stating she was driving a BMW when, in fact, she was driving a Mercedes?
And why did her insurance company try to create ghost passengers that were with her when they were trying to pass the buck on writing a check?
It’s a simple answer.
It’s bullshit!
It’s behavior familiar to any parent (or stepparent!) who has listened to a seven-year-old child deny eating a package of cookies despite having smudged chocolate all over their fat fingers and lips.
Crawley won’t accept responsibility six weeks later because she knows that there’s no video evidence of the wreck, and that the cameras on that intersection are for monitoring traffic and not actively recording.
She can say things like, “I didn’t call Councilman Bankston” because she knows that legacy media won’t say things like, “Well, let’s see your phone log” or ask her to produce a phone bill that would prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who she called in the immediate aftermath, since we know it wasn’t 911, either.
I don’t harp on this stuff because I’ve led a perfect and noble life beyond criticism. I drove like an asshole, too.
However, I am not a public official who earned a prestigious office through the Franklin County Democratic Party’s insider appointment process. And I don’t think any constituent needs to lead an unassailable life to believe that our well-compensated leaders should be held to a higher standard.
Most of all, I’m a reformed bullshitter. And being well-versed in those dark arts, I know that if someone is going to try to bullshit their way out of taking responsibility for a crash—against the narrative of three independent witnesses—they won’t hesitate to do the same on much more serious matters.
Is that what we want from our leaders? To pay their salaries and then have their bullshit uncritically laundered through collaborators in local television?
Not that long ago, I would have gone to the bridge for Crawley in a primary against Congresswoman Joyce Beatty or backed her in an open primary.
But that would have been a mistake.
Crawley has given us enough insight into how she operates when she thinks nobody is looking, which makes it seem water has found its level with her on the County Commission.
The Rooster considers the crash an open and active investigation, with Crawley and Bankston on the hook until they face the camera.
If we have to wait until September for City Council and the Commission to be back in session, that’s fine.
As my ongoing sobriety has shown me, I’ve got nothing but time.
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I think we're all thankful for your 3 years sobriety and your Columbo-like instincts. We are being failed by legacy media on a massive scale.
I'm stealing the phrase "reformed bullshitter"