The Ori Feibush/Point Breeze Situation Just Got Incredibly Stupid

We've talked to both parties about allegations of faked Facebook messages.

By Andrew Thompson· 8/23/2013, 2:23 p.m.

The latest in the case of Ori Feibush vs. The World is an accusation that OCF Realty’s Feibush fabricated violent, threatening, and grammatically poor text messages under the name of OCF critic Gary Broderick in a play to undermine him. After interviewing both parties and inspecting Feibush’s phone, we hold that the Point Breeze situation has become incredibly stupid.

The incident is super-confusing even by the standards of OCF drama, so sit back, relax and enjoy the oncoming tension headache:

Yesterday, the Point Breeze Organizing Committee, one of an ever-expanding mosaic of community groups in Point Breeze, issued a public “cease and desist” letter and video to Feibush. It’s a somewhat satirical take on Feibush’s own cease and desist letter that he sent to PBOC member Haley Dervinis after she protested a prospective OCF development in the neighborhood as the project was headed to the Zoning Board of Adjustments.

The PBOC, as per its letter and video, wants Feibush to “cease and desist” from allegedly manufacturing text messages that, according to Broderick, Feibush showed to resident Shaun Miller via Facebook. This is the same Broderick who engaged in a small tete-á-tete with Feibush over Broderick’s own OCF-built house and sparred with Feibush briefly in the comments section of City Paper’s website.

The messages, which Broderick shared with The Philly Post, begin with, Broderick allegedly saying, “I hope you know where you are, shit can get real dark in Philly especially for a HATED man like yourself…And unlike your kind out [sic] people South Philly natives (Italian, African, and Irish) ,don’t believe in calling the law we get our own justice. #SPNAG.”

“Thank you. You know nothing about me and yet are so hateful. what is SPNAG?” Feibush allegedly replied.

“South Philadelphia Natives Against Gentrification,” Broderick replied, possibly.

The messages go on for some time with more poorly worded anger. (See the images at the bottom of the post.)

I asked Feibush if he had indeed had this conversation with Broderick. “I had a conversation with…well, I can’t say him, but someone named Gary,” he said in one of what turned out to be a series of maddeningly equivocal statements.

Here’s where it gets so granular that I’m pretty sure only Point Breeze residents and Jan Ransom are still paying attention: The messages Broderick sent to The Philly Post were — to anyone familiar with Facebook’s messaging system — clearly copied and pasted from another message chain. Feibush showed me the original messages on his iPhone, but rather than being “from,” say, Broderick, the sender is a pictureless “Facebook User” — ostensibly a deleted account. Feibush did not provide copies of the messages to The Philly Post. “I don’t want to be the person who sends you the conversation,” he said.

Broderick says that Miller showed screen shots of his exchange to Dervinis, and Dervinis showed them to Broderick, and then the PBOC wrote its at-large grievance.

“I feel like I’m fighting with a little child and anything I put in that domain will be counterproductive,” Feibush said. “It’s a child having a temper tantrum with himself.”

Broderick, for his part, says, “There’s no one as interested as [Feibush is] to put out a text message conversation of me to make me look like a savage.”

Feibush says that after he received the messages, he called the 17th Police District. “They asked me if I wanted to put in a police report,” he says. “And I said I thought it would just elevate things more but that I wanted them to have a conversation with him, which I believe they did.” Spokespersons from 17th District and the press office said they couldn’t confirm or deny this.

Is it possible Feibush created a fake Facebook account and enacted a fictitious conversation with a critic with just the right amount of bad typing and meandering to make it look authentic, which he then sent to a friend who showed it to a friend of his opponent all in order to do… something?

Probably not. Maybe. Whatever.

Below are screen captures of the messages that Broderick says Feibush sent to Miller.