FEMA Camps, New York Prisons, and the Almighty Dollar

Nate Granzow, author of The Scorpion’s Nest, Hekura, and Cogar’s Revolt, asked for my take on this interesting conspiracy theory from July of 2014 in the state of New York.  The conspiracy and its accompanying video can be found at the link below.

New York’s Very Own FEMA Camp

At the core of this conspiracy is a confrontation between a news crew and prison officials as the news crew was filming footage for a story about Grant’s Cottage, a tourist attraction that sits on the same property as Mount McGregor Prison.  The news crew was detained, harassed, and threatened with arrest if they did not cease and desist with their activities.  Later, the corrections officers attempted to have the State Police confiscate the film footage that had been obtained by the news crew.  After a long series of phone calls, and I’m sure assurances and threats, the news crew was allowed to leave with their film footage.

As a result of the story being covered by WNYT-TV, the channel for whom the news crews worked, many questions surfaced.  You see, Mount McGregor Prison was closed.  It was empty.  All of its prisoners had been moved to other locations and most of the corrections officers had been relocated to work in other facilities.  So, why were these guards still on the premises and collecting a paycheck?  Why was the facility still being guarded?  Adding to the conspiracy was the fact that a movie film crew was on site at the prison on the same day filming scenes for a future movie.  (We don’t know which movie because the State would no divulge that information.)

Every angle of conspiracy immediately hit the internet, from the housing of illegal aliens to maintaining the site for future use as  a FEMA concentration camp.  The truth is much more mundane.  The New York State corrections officer union, the NYSCOPBA, has been fighting the closures of prisons in New York in a hard fought campaign against New York Governor Cuomo’s plans to reduce budgets.  The prison closures were part of a consolidation plan designed to save money.  Unions, which seem to exist only to protect jobs, whether those jobs are needed or not, wants to keep the prisons open so all of their diligent dues-payers will still have incomes from which they can give more money to the union.  The union claims it is an officer safety and quality of prison issue and the state’s budget plans can go to hell.  That’s right, who cares if the state runs out of money?  The prison officials should be deciding those issues, not politicians and economists.

When the media began running stories about how personnel were still working at the now-closed prison, the corrections union became hostile toward the media, seeing them as an enemy on the side of the Governor’s office.  We wouldn’t want the public to be informed of the actual issues, after all.  That would be silly.

The news crew claimed to be filming a story about how Grant’s Cottage, which sits on the same property, would remain open after the prison was officially closed.  We don’t know whether that is true but we can assume that, if you were really doing a story on Grant’s Cottage, you would be filming at Grant’s Cottage, not right outside the wall of the controversial prison facility.

Additionally, it actually does require a permit to film on the property.  Obviously they allow people to film there because the movie crew was doing just that.  Obviously the movie crew acquired the appropriate permits to do so and I’m sure there is a process of paying fees for said permits.  In other words, you can film on the property so long as money changes hands first.  Now, may people will say that this rule should not pertain to the media and its news cameramen.  But, when you are the State, you get to make the rules.  Apparently, in New York, or at least on Mt. McGregor, they want the rules to apply to everyone.

When you add all of these factors together – a hostile DOC presence, the enemy media who has been opposing the union, and the lack of money changing hands – you get angry interactions caught on film and put on display for all to see.  The hostile prison officials most likely thought they were running off a news crew trying to catch prison guards at work in a closed facility for propaganda purposes.  They may have been correct.  We will never know.  What we do know is that Mt, McGregor did officially close and there are no “enemies of the state” being housed there by the goons of the new world order, that scary organization called FEMA.

Simple research into the controversy surrounding the prison’s closure would have alleviated all of these internet conspiracy theories but what fun would that be?  It’s much better just to make up stories about something than to simply figure out the truth.

Because the truth shall set you free.  Conspiracy theorists don’t want you to be free.  They just want you to keep giving them your money so they can continue creating boogeymen with which to frighten you.  Then they can vow to protect you from them by exposing the lies of said boogeymen.  And only they have the answers.  Yep.  Sheeple, to use their own term, are what keeps conspiracy theorists in business.

Think for yourself.  It’s liberating.  And cheaper.