Mark Woodward, a guy apparently unclued about social media and civic decency, posted some nasty stuff on Facebook for no real reason. Surprising he’s so differently-clued about social media, since he’s CEO of a software company, but maybe it’s about keeping his neighborhood charming.

There’s a Facebook page, “Willow Glen Charm,” focusing on the allegedly charming real estate in a San Jose, California, neighborhood. It’s run by real estate agent Holly Barr. Some posters call themselves “charmers.” It’s become a community forum, with pictures of charming local flowers, updates on power outages, and questions on where to donate a sewing machine. Also exciting cell phone video of guys stealing construction materials – they fled in a stolen truck when they saw they were observed, and were apparently caught a short time later.

There’s interest in charm-enforcement. An anonymous “Charmer” posted about fruit vendors setting up displays at the intersection by their home. They found this non-charming. The Charmer said: the vendors are there up to 10 hours a day; it makes traffic worse (charmless people double-parking to buy fruit); the fruiterers leave trash; they have been seen urinating in a neighbor’s yard; their fruit is “questionable.”

“Further we now have complete strangers watching our homes, knowing what time we leave for work, what time our kids leave for school and what packages arrive from Fed Ex or UPS etc.”

A house nearby was burgled! Coincidence? Or not?

The Charmer used to be able to get police to tell the vendors to move away, but now the police say they’re too underfunded to act. The Charmer has calmed angry neighbors, “but I know that will escalate the issue which may in fact get the neighbors in trouble with the police.”

The Charmer thinks of fellow Charmers. “[H]opefully this thread may help if one day you look out your window and they have set up in front of your house.”

Mark Woodward, CEO of Invoca, is apparently a Willow Glen Charmer. He posted in solidarity, “I think that totally sucks! If that was my house, I would go out there and make their life miserable. I would do whatever it took to make them leave. If that meant destroying some of their produce, or standing out there with signs to chase everyone away, Or just making them very uncomfortable, I would do that in a heartbeat.”

Many commenters found that not so charming. More “Disgusting.” Woodward replied, “Disgusting? Seriously? Would you want that in front of your house? I wouldn’t want a farmers market in front of my house. I had a family, not from our neighborhood who was constantly digging through the recycle bins in our neighborhood illegally. I confronted them rather aggressively and they have never been back.”

A Willow Glen resident responded to the original anonymous post. “…I find your comments… very prejudiced…. I doubt the fruit vendor is watching your house, your kids and your Amazon packages all day. I’m sure his main concern is selling his fruit for the day in hopes of earning enough cash to provide meals for his family and cover his rent. His dream of a better life in a place where the streets are lined with gold didn’t quite work out so he found a hustle selling fruit. Glad he didn’t go with selling drugs or firearms or human trafficking! …I’m willing to bet you have a security camera set up on your front porch. I’d put up a whole paycheck and bet the vendor across the street doesn’t appear on it, stealing your packages. You’re probably watching him more than he’s watching you. Quite frankly, I’m over the whole ‘Willow Glen Charm’ bs….. ”

People outside “Willow Glen Charm” heard about Woodward’s remarks and began harrumphing about Silicon Valley tech CEOs “making aggressive, insensitive and tone-deaf remarks about people less fortunate than them.” Low income people. Latino people. People who haven’t been able to raise $30 million for their company.

Woodward deleted the post, and declined to apologize. A company spokesperson relayed a statement which said “There were some other incidents leading up to this that led to my emotional reaction,” and “I removed the statements because I realized bringing a nuanced conversation to a social forum where it could be taken out of context was not the best way to bring resolution to a serious, multi-faceted issue.” (You want the nuance? YOU CAN’T HANDLE THE NUANCE!)

That didn’t cool people out.

Woodward then posted an apology on Medium:

Today I am writing about a tough lesson I have learned about the power of my words.

I recently posted some comments on Facebook about my frustrations with a situation affecting my family and our neighborhood. My comments were heated, but also insensitive and offensive to some people. For that I am terribly sorry. Shortly after realizing the gravity of my words taken out of context, I removed my comments.

While my comments were understandably offensive to some, I made them in response to several incidents that have made me and my neighbors feel unsafe, including one that required me to call the police because individuals were physically threatening me at my home. In reading a post in which a neighbor wrote about fears for the privacy and safety of his family, I responded from the hip based on my own experience and concerns for the safety of my family. I did so without taking into account the larger implications and repercussions of my words. That was not in good form.

I am proud of what my team has built at our company, and I hope this mistake does not reflect negatively on them. I am humbled by this experience and will strive to lead and communicate by example, as a CEO, neighbor, and father.

That’s a bad apology. He specifies that his comments were only insensitive and offensive to some people. Because they were taken out of context. A mysterious incident would justify everything if you knew about it. Please don’t hurt my company! FAMILY HOME FAMILY SAFETY FAMILY!!! (And what’s with “not in good form”? Are we British? Bad show, that man.) I suspect he’s apologizing only for the sake of corporate image.

What about the situation that triggered this? Wow, it occurs to me that I too suffer. Fruit vendors set up from time to time on my block. People go through my recycling (good luck with that, grandmother) weekly. Double parking? Happens a lot.

I think “rather aggressive” responses and destroying people’s fruit (which the vendors would probably have to pay some Fruit Dispatcher for) are bad ideas.

I don’t think fruit vendors on the sidewalks are so awful. I don’t think it’s a cover for robbery. I do think it’s bad if anyone urinates in someone’s yard, and I’d call the police in that case.

Not that I’m a pussycat with no grudges. Woodward’s company, Invoca, “develops inbound call technology that generates phone numbers for telemarketing, then routes and tracks the calls and sales that result.”

The part that worries me is “generates phone numbers for telemarketing.” I have a bad feeling about that. Those automated hang-up calls apparently checking to see if my phone line is answered by a human? Does Invoca do those?

I don’t know. I hope not. Just saying that if I knew more, Mark Woodward’s produce might not be safe from me.