Chelsia Rose MarciusOur recent posts on bodegas in the East Village that continue to sell caffeinated Four Loko struck a nerve. Many readers took time to write in and express their thoughts on our investigation, and Gothamist picked up the story and republished similar articles twice.
The action wasn’t limited to the blogosphere either: The Local’s Chelsia Rose Marcius revisited the subject after the commotion, reporting that the State Liquor Authority planned to investigate the bodegas in question.
A common label, used both in the comments section and the Gothamist posts, was “narcs” and “snitches.”
“tacony palmyra” started off the name calling:
“Well, thanks East Village Narc! I’m sure the SLA or whatever authority is going to make sure these bodegas you individually identified will be in trouble if they find any, and now we get no more old school Four Lokos. Do journalistic ethics require that you play fun police?”
“Snitches Get Stitches” agreed:
“Oh wow! I will make sure to discontinue reading your “narc” blog after reading this atrocious, overly informative, publicized article. Thanks for not taking into account some people may want to have their last resources of the old Four Loko on lock and no it is not worth investigating! Shame on you.”
Crystal wrote:
“Congrats – real investigative journalism here. Taking down local businesses over a can of booze. As if you NYU students hadn’t ruined the neighborhood enough. I realize it’s ‘illegal’ to be selling these, but how does it affect you? Stop narc’ing on people and start actually reporting.”
Others, like “LokoForFourLoko”, seemed bummed but undeterred:
“Thanks for ruining the fun for all of us! East Village original recipe RIP. I will be frequenting my Brooklyn Loko-Dens more now.”
Commenter “DP” was the only one to stick up for Ms. Marcius’s work (almost):
“Informers are the GOOD guys! Thinking of informers as the “lowest form of life” is a mafioso mentality!”
Join the conversation: What do you think about the sale of the banned version of Four Loko?
