Support the Litigation: Roslyn La Liberte vs. Joy Reid

Imagine that you politely spoke at a town meeting for the allotted two minutes to support law enforcement and to express your concern over violent crime committed by undocumented immigrants and then, within a few days became the face of racism nationwide. Your life changed in hours, receiving thousands of hate messages, emails, phone calls, death threats, and unidentified angry people in front of your home.

This happened to me.

My name is Roslyn La Liberte and this is what happened when MSNBC and NBC

Universal on-air personality Joy Reid, who was neither at the town meeting nor spoke to anyone who was, decided to use me to provoke her social media audience by branding me not only as anti-immigrant, but as anti-Black. Not only was my reputation threatened but my small business of 35 years was irreparably damaged.

This all started when I attended a town meeting in Simi Valley, California addressing California’s sanctuary law. As a first generation daughter of two immigrants, I was motivated to speak, especially on behalf of Angel Moms and Dads whom I had met while attending city meetings in the past. These parents wore shirts with images of their deceased children and grandchildren who were killed by persons living in their cities that had come to this country illegally. To further educate myself, I attended

more meetings and spoke with the Simi Valley law enforcement. I decided to speak for two minutes, joining hundreds of other people at the town meeting, where my photograph was taken.

Joy Reid did not know anything about me and, with absolutely no fact checking,

published images of me on her social media accounts, accompanied by fictitious racist language which she falsely attributed to me. Her posts met the eyes of her 1.24 million Twitter followers, 206,430 Facebook followers, and 96,600 Instagram

followers. Her followers then proceeded to repost causing her internet reach to spread further. This was devastating and could have happened to anyone, one click and your private information for thousands to use as a weapon.

I am now in the 6th year of litigation with Reid. I have spent over a quarter of

a million dollars, money for which my husband and I worked very hard.

Joy Reid has her litigation funded by MSNBC and NBC Universal.

Their resources are limitless. They have spared no expense to defend Joy Reid’s indefensible behavior.

Even with our best efforts, it will almost be impossible to continue with our strong case against Joy Reid. Therefore, with a humble heart, I am reaching out to each and every one of you for help during this trying time. Our fight, combining your generosity and support, can make a tangible difference in our ability to pursue justice and accountability for those involved.

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