Sorry, Mike Tyson is NOT Fighting Cops at Guns and Hoses
This may be hard to believe, but not everything you read on Facebook is true.
The Facebook page, The Tri-State Beet, is a satire page that creates false news stories much like popular satire site, The Onion. The stories they post are not meant to be taken literally. However, in this day and age of blindly sharing something on Facebook without doing five minutes of research, blatant lies (or in this case satire) can be easily be taken as truth.
This is the same page that reported that Johnny Depp was spotted at a sushi restaurant on the east side of Evansville back in late-January.
Yesterday morning, they posted the following "story" stating that Mike Tyson was scheduled to make an appearance at Guns and Hoses IV April 9th, and would be fighting two local police officers.
Mike Tyson to Box Two Local Policeman in Exhibition at Guns and Hoses April 9th at the Ford Center March 28th, 2016...
Posted by The Tri-State Beet on Monday, March 28, 2016
A couple of things. One, the two officers he's reportedly fighting aren't named. Personally, I would think if you agreed to fight Mike Tyson, you'd want everyone to know about. Secondly, you would think if 911 Gives Hope had managed to book Tyson, they would promote it well in advance in an effort to sell more tickets (more tickets equals more donations for the charity).
I understand I'm simply speculating, so I went once step further and texted a screen grab of the post to 911 Gives Hope founding member, and Evansville Police Chief Billy Bolin, just to make sure it wasn't true. His response was an emphatic, "No!"
Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy satirical comedy, and I have no problem with The Tri-State Beet creating these kind of stories. My hope is that people will learn to understand the difference between real and fake, and not continue to blindly share things that appear shocking or controversial because it showed up on social media. However, I'm afraid I'm fighting a losing battle there.