The Love Warriors
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Things are just peachy-keen in Loudoun County…
The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office launched an investigation Wednesday into “potential threats” made in a Facebook group against parents and residents who spoke out at school board meetings. 7News was the first to report on the Facebook group known as the "Loudoun Love Warriors."
"The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) has opened an investigation into potential threats made within the 'Loudoun Love Warriors' Facebook group, following a citizen complaint today," the sheriff's department said in a statement. "A previous investigation of the group and comments made about Mark Winn, a resident of Leesburg, Va., determined that no criminal act had occurred.
The social media group includes people who appear to be associated with Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj, County Supervisor Juli Briskman, School Board Chair Ian Serotkin, school board member Brenda Sheridan, school board member Atoosa Reaser, school board member Erika Ogedegbe, school board candidate Anne Donohue, sheriff candidate Craig Buckley, and Chair Phyllis Randall. None of these elected officials personally made any threats.
Now, one of Virginia’s top elected leaders is calling out Loudoun County officials who appear to be associated with members of the Facebook group. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears is asking Loudoun County elected officials to disavow the violent threats made in the group.
“My reaction to the what are they calling themselves ‘the Love Warriors Group’ --- there's nothing but hate in that group,” Earle-Sears told 7News. “From what I'm understanding, if the reports are true, and I don't react to it as lieutenant governor, I react to it as a normal, sane human being, when you hear what this group is trying to do, they're trying to destroy lives. They're going to make sure you definitely have loss of employment, you will possibly lose your life because they're talking about [disassemble] you, and they're also possibly going to shoot you. Now remember, this is the kind of group that says they're against guns, except I guess when they're the ones with the guns. So, folks, we've got to get a grip. We're destroying America from the inside. This is what our enemies do to us. This is not we what we do to ourselves.”
Earle-Sears is calling on elected officials to speak up.
“I would say to the elected officials -- the Commonwealth's Attorney Buta Biberaj, I would say to Phyllis Randall, the Chairman, I would say to Atoosa Reaser -- I would say to all of them, there's a whole group of you, you need to come out today, find a microphone and ensure that everybody knows that you disavow this kind of activity,” said Earle-Sears.
“I would say that here we have parents, once again, who are wanting to have their elected officials represent them and listen to them,” Earle-Sears added. “And it's not happening. In fact, they're being hunted down by their very own staffers. So come on out. Make a difference. Say that you don't support this, say that this is not what the Democratic Party represents, please.”
Loudoun County Supervisor Candidate Puja Khanna, who is running in the Dulles district, appears to have been a member of the “Loudoun Love Warriors” group when the threats happened, and it also appears school board member Ogedegbe was a member of the group before the threats took place inside the group chat.
“I unsubscribed from the group after the election and as such don't have any knowledge of any current conversations,” Ogedegbe told 7News in an email after 7News requested an interview with Ogedegbe.
According to documents from a whistleblower, one of Biberaj’s staffers allegedly said in the group that they wanted to contact Winn’s employer and ruin his livelihood, after Winn spoke at a school board meeting in December 2022.
Comments included:
“Mark Winn. I’m gonna find his employer.”
“And holding that company accountable until he is fired.”
“Lets make him unemployable by love or by force.”
“Wish I had footage of every person who clapped for him and give them the same ousting that Winn is about to.”
“I want to contact his employer to do just that. Ruin his livelihood.”
“Say goodbye to your job f***** [middle finger emoji].”
“I want every single person who clapped for that ousted en masse and their livelihoods ruined:).”
“It shocked me,” Winn said when he learned of the specific messages in a 7News interview. This was all while Winn's wife was battling Stage 4 cancer.Winn said he never imagined being threatened for his school board speech in which he quoted a verse from the Bible.
But Winn wasn't the only target of the group.
“So, this speech that this gentleman gave incited a lot of emotions,” Heather Gottlieb told 7News in an interview. Gottlieb is a member of the "Loudoun Love Warriors" Facebook group.
“I think there were definitely some things said in that chat that probably shouldn’t have been said. I don’t think that they, you know, that anything was ever going to be acted upon,” said Gottlieb.
“I’m actually one of the people who has sent emails to people’s employers,” added Gottlieb.
After her email to Scott Mineo’s employer, he was let go.
Gottlieb is defending what she did.
“We are standing up for those in our community that are bullied, students, teachers. I mean we’ve been doing this for a couple of years,” said Gottlieb.
“If someone contacted your employer and made allegations and got you fired. Are you OK with that?” 7News Reporter Nick Minock asked Gottlieb.
“If somebody wanted to show my employer what I post online that would be fine,” said Gottlieb.
“You think the consequences should be someone gets fired from their job?” Minock asked Gottlieb.
“Sometimes yeah,” said Gottlieb.
Mineo spoke to 7News Tuesday.
“They went after my job,” said Scott Mineo, a Loudoun County parent. “That happened in early February. They referred me to the FBI, IRS, and DHS all because they don’t like my opinion.”
“They're probably going to sit back and celebrate the fact that I'm unemployed,” said Mineo. “I'm having a hard time finding a job. And who knows what's next with the IRS and the FBI? I don't know. But they've done more than just put me out of a job. It's impacting my family, my kids.”
Gottlieb said the Loudoun Love Warriors Facebook group originated with “grassroots” activists, who protested the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
“And that’s how people ended up in the chat,” said Gottlieb. “That chat kind of turned into doing more political activism. People joined that chat. People love to chat. So we kind of just turned it into this political activism chat where we talked about the different things we could do, different events that were coming up. And we talked about the school board. We talked about [the] board of supervisors, so lots of political things going on in there.”
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@jon-nyc said in The Love Warriors:
Jesus.
Don’t say that where they can hear you. They will reach out to your foundation to try and have you removed.
Our schoolboard rep was mentioned in the article (Atoosa Reaser) and she is not running for reelection this year. She is instead running for the House of Delegates. Her hand-picked successor is also in this group.
By the way, remember that what kind of got everything moving 2 years ago was the discovery of a different FaceBook group with many of the same members doing the same thing.
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There is still nobody running against Reaser’s replacement in our district. I am starting to get more concerned and frustrated.
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DO EEEEET!
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Waiting for Ax to tell you again that this is not affecting you personally.
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The issue here isn't clear to me.
Do the 'Loudoun Love Warriors' support the critical race theory?
And they have been making death threats against people who don't like critical race theory?
Or do the 'Loudoun Love Warriors' support boys in the girls room?
Or both?
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@Copper said in The Love Warriors:
The issue here isn't clear to me.
Do the 'Loudoun Love Warriors' support the critical race theory?
And they have been making death threats against people who don't like critical race theory?
Or do the 'Loudoun Love Warriors' support boys in the girls room?
Or both?
They believe race is binary and gametes aren’t.
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I don’t know that I made the list…
The church we visited did, though. It’s a huge mega church. They are opening a private school and the Loudoun Love Warriors finds that threatening.
They also apparently threatened the Sheriff as well as Youngkin. The Commonwealth’s Attorney, Buta Biberaj, had announced she won’t prosecute misdemeanors (some of her staff is in the group)… This is going to get interesting.
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@LuFins-Dad said in The Love Warriors:
The Commonwealth’s Attorney, Buta Biberaj, had announced she won’t prosecute misdemeanors (some of her staff is in the group)…
There are so many casual leftists who chose their side because they've absorbed from the culture around them that it's the most acceptable choice. They are probably unaware that the boots on the ground, for their side, where they're affecting everybody and anything they can, are actively deciding to stop prosecuting crime.
I suppose, to the extent they can think their way through the consequences of that, they are in denial of those consequences. But most of them probably can't think through it anyway.
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@LuFins-Dad said in The Love Warriors:
I don’t know that I made the list…
The church we visited did, though. It’s a huge mega church. They are opening a private school and the Loudoun Love Warriors finds that threatening.
They also apparently threatened the Sheriff as well as Youngkin. The Commonwealth’s Attorney, Buta Biberaj, had announced she won’t prosecute misdemeanors (some of her staff is in the group)… This is going to get interesting.
Louisiana has one of the strongest governor's offices in the U.S. Threatening the governor is akin to threatening POTUS...The response will be immediate, swift and decisive.
Criticize? Fine. Curse? Have at it. Recall? Absolutely. Campaign against? Encouraged.
Threaten? Lawdy, no.
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Before she was a Love Warrior… https://wjla.com/news/local/loudoun-love-warriors-facebook-group-targeted-small-business-virginia-jason-angela-bursey-parallel-wine-whiskey-bar-bistro-covid-19-struggles-drunk-wives-matter-george-floyd-racism-heather-gottlieb
This Heather Gottlieb is quite a character. She’s an admitted racist…
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@Jolly Social contagion.
And I think the reason why it's so easily spread is that it's a fast-track to relevance.
Ugly? Feel put upon? Haven't learned how competency and soft skills help you overcome your particular obstacles and find a rewarding place in society?
No problem, you don't have to do any of that. Attaching yourself to these particular groups lets you bypass both competency and getting along. All you have to do is embrace dark triad behaviors and claim your social justice credentials. You can be up and running in a matter of hours.