CPD Internal Affairs Discovers Craig Joel Actually a Russian Bot
CHATTANOOGA, TN - Chattanooga Police are scratching their heads about how a Russian bot was able to be promoted all the way to a Lieutenant position. Lt. Craig Joel was determined to be a Russian bot during an Internal Affairs investigation over a sexist social media post Joel made in reference to another officer being interviewed by a local reporter.
During the investigation, Internal Affairs officers found numerous social media profiles linked to Craig Joel that trolled community members and organizations critical of the police. The links became apparent when officers noticed that the social media profiles sometimes got confused and switched back and forth between profiles during social media conversations. Officers also determined that a mediocre column in a local alternative weekly paper written under the pseudonym Alex Teach was linked to Joel. Members of the community were well aware of those connections, but shocked to learn that not only were the social media profiles and the column faked, but Joel himself was a bot.
The Internal Affairs investigation is still ongoing as officers try to determine how the bot was hired and promoted within the department and what motivation the Russians may have had for creating a bot that spread pro-police propaganda and disparaged community members critical of police in a small town in Tennessee.