Not often does an arrest for misdemeanor trespassing cause a sheriff to post to the department’s Facebook page an almost 12-minute-long video chastising the suspect.
But in the internet age – where misinformation spreads quickly and lies garner millions of views – sometimes law enforcement fights fire with fire.
Last week, Henderson County Sheriff Lowell Griffin made a video after deputies arrested a 33-year-old from Connecticut for driving on a closed temporarily rebuilt road near Chimney Rock and Lake Lure.
According to the arrest warrant, dated Nov. 21, David James Phillips “willfully drove on transportation infrastructure closed on Lake Lure Hwy even when it was clearly marked, showing that it was not open to public traffic.”
Phillips turned himself in on Dec. 4 and was released on bond, Griffin said in the video. Philips’ court date is set for Jan. 2, 2025.
According to the sheriff and Phillips’ social media, he first arrived in Western North Carolina to lend a hand after Hurricane Helene.
Phillips started his now-deleted TikTok channel, where he goes by AmericaIsRising, on his drive down from his home state. In his first video, he remarks how the area had gone through two tragedies: first the storm, then the government response.
Throughout the dozens of videos he posted, Phillips proclaimed anti-government and anti-FEMA conspiracies.
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After his arrest, he posted multiple videos, including one from jail. In them, Phillips makes unfounded claims about FEMA and the government. He also called Sheriff Griffin an “uninformed idiot with a gun.”
For his part, Griffin said the road Phillips was unlawfully using is essentially now a private road, which was famously stamped by coal miners from West Virginia in the weeks after Helene. The storm left widespread devastation in Bat Cave from flooding and landslides.
Two days after Phillips turned himself in, Griffin sat at his desk and recorded the video, which has more than 900 likes and 700 shares – which pales in comparison to the millions of views Phillips’ videos accumulated.
“If he thinks that I’m speaking in error, what I’ll tell him is he can bring his little camera, and we’ll sit and we’ll have a conversation in front of the camera,” the sheriff said. “We’ll lay down what’s fact and what’s fiction. And I think the public would be very interested to see and understand what has actually taken place throughout the time period since Helene.”
Griffin’s message was simple: don’t trust everything you see online. He also said Phillips had been using TikTok fame to earn a commission for himself – something Phillips acknowledges, although he said it was less than $3,000.
Phillips has a GiveSendGo crowdfunding link in his bio to raise funds for his legal battle with the county. So far he has raised just under $2,000.
Griffin’s video was less about the crime of trespassing and served instead as a fact-check to the stream of misinformation flowing from Phillips’ TikTok account.
One of the most controversial claims was about a barricade meant to keep people off the makeshift road between Bat Cave and Chimney Rock.
Griffin explained that Phillips accompanied the group of coal miners to build the road, which essentially restored some thru-traffic access for local residents after Helene destroyed that stretch of Highway 74.
“This road was used for emergency access for a little while,” Griffin said. But the road was cut across private property, according to the sheriff, in an area where the state has no easements.
READ MORE: Bat Cave residents haul supplies by foot
The property owners became upset and reached out to the N.C. Attorney General’s office. State officials then decided to block off the road.
Phillips claimed – with no evidence – that FEMA spent almost $300,000 on a gate and armed security on the road.
“FEMA is not controlling the access to this road that the West Virginian coal miners created,” Griffin said. “[It] has absolutely nothing to do with FEMA. This all came through the state. Private property owners still have rights. These rights weren’t suspended just because Hurricane Helene came through.”
Griffin also added that the property owners allowed temporary barriers to be installed so that the roadway could still be accessed by emergency vehicles. Phillips has not responded to a request for comment or an interview with BPR.
