Today’s blacklisted American: Town tries to silence Trump supporter; he sues
No first amendment rights in Long Beach, New York!
The modern dark age: Because the town of Long Beach, New York has forced a Trump supporter to hide his car, festooned with pro-Trump and conservative messages, he is suing that town for $25 million for denying him is first amendment rights.
“I believe the city is trying to silence me because I’m pro-Trump,” [Michael Wasserman] told The Post. The 62-year-old entrepreneur has become known in the area for plastering his home — along with his Porsche and Jeep — with a rotating variety of political flags and stickers.
Now he has filed a $25 million federal suit — against the City of Long Beach, the chief of police, the city manager and specific police officers — after officials forced him to remove the flags on his cars.
The town claims they are a violation of an ordinance stating that “[No] sign shall be erected, affixed or maintained within the perimeter of any … public street or public property.” Wasserman parks his car on a public street outside his home.
“They’re bending and massaging the ordinance to fit the crime,” Wasserman told The Post. “This is a blatant attempt to silence me.”
The picture above shows Wasserman leaning on his car, with his home behind him, also covered with flags and political banners.
The city claims they are simply enforcing a law that forbids signage without permission on public streets. Yet, how are the signs on Wasserman’s car any different then every bumper sticker you see? They are not, and this is where Wasserman’s claim that it is pure political oppression seems confirmed.
Wasserman’s case is further reinforced by the treatment he gets generally in this blue-state New York town:
“[People] spit at me, drive by cursing me out,” he said of local residents. His Porsche, which is decorated with stickers — including one depicting Trump urinating on a CNN logo — is marred with scratches from people keying it.
But, he said, all the hate only strengthens his resolve. “If they didn’t try to cancel me, I probably wouldn’t be so prolific,” Wasserman told The Post, wearing a legally permitted gun, a $400 Kevlar bulletproof vest and a body camera because of “death notes on my car.” [emphasis mine]
The highlighted words illustrate how this persecution is not simply coming from the local government.
Ironically, not only was Wasserman a long-time Democrat until 2004, his lawyer is a self-described liberal who apparently is rightly putting the principles of free speech ahead of his political leanings. That lawyer also admits “that he has taken heat for representing Wasserman,” illustrating again how most partisan Democrats today have abandoned the ideas of due process and equal treatment before the law. Conservatives must be blacklisted, and even denied their right to legal representation. That lawyer should expect an effort to blacklist him as well should he win this case.
The left keeps ramping up the ugliness it exhibits against conservatives and any who dissent from its agenda. It has now gotten to the point where a conservative gets death threats and property vandalism for putting bumper stickers on his car, and his lawyer finds himself harassed for defending that man’s first amendment rights.
When are ordinary and decent freedom-loving Americans, of all political persuasions, going to rise up and condemn this ugliness? It needs to be condemned, and it needs to be condemned to the face of each person expressing such ugliness.
UPDATE: I decided I should give my readers a method for confronting these storm troopers directly. You can obtain the email addresses of the entire Long Beach, New York, city council at this website. You can reach the town’s city manager, whom Wasserman has named in the lawsuit, at this website. Let them know what you think of their jack-booted behavior.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
No first amendment rights in Long Beach, New York!
The modern dark age: Because the town of Long Beach, New York has forced a Trump supporter to hide his car, festooned with pro-Trump and conservative messages, he is suing that town for $25 million for denying him is first amendment rights.
“I believe the city is trying to silence me because I’m pro-Trump,” [Michael Wasserman] told The Post. The 62-year-old entrepreneur has become known in the area for plastering his home — along with his Porsche and Jeep — with a rotating variety of political flags and stickers.
Now he has filed a $25 million federal suit — against the City of Long Beach, the chief of police, the city manager and specific police officers — after officials forced him to remove the flags on his cars.
The town claims they are a violation of an ordinance stating that “[No] sign shall be erected, affixed or maintained within the perimeter of any … public street or public property.” Wasserman parks his car on a public street outside his home.
“They’re bending and massaging the ordinance to fit the crime,” Wasserman told The Post. “This is a blatant attempt to silence me.”
The picture above shows Wasserman leaning on his car, with his home behind him, also covered with flags and political banners.
The city claims they are simply enforcing a law that forbids signage without permission on public streets. Yet, how are the signs on Wasserman’s car any different then every bumper sticker you see? They are not, and this is where Wasserman’s claim that it is pure political oppression seems confirmed.
Wasserman’s case is further reinforced by the treatment he gets generally in this blue-state New York town:
“[People] spit at me, drive by cursing me out,” he said of local residents. His Porsche, which is decorated with stickers — including one depicting Trump urinating on a CNN logo — is marred with scratches from people keying it.
But, he said, all the hate only strengthens his resolve. “If they didn’t try to cancel me, I probably wouldn’t be so prolific,” Wasserman told The Post, wearing a legally permitted gun, a $400 Kevlar bulletproof vest and a body camera because of “death notes on my car.” [emphasis mine]
The highlighted words illustrate how this persecution is not simply coming from the local government.
Ironically, not only was Wasserman a long-time Democrat until 2004, his lawyer is a self-described liberal who apparently is rightly putting the principles of free speech ahead of his political leanings. That lawyer also admits “that he has taken heat for representing Wasserman,” illustrating again how most partisan Democrats today have abandoned the ideas of due process and equal treatment before the law. Conservatives must be blacklisted, and even denied their right to legal representation. That lawyer should expect an effort to blacklist him as well should he win this case.
The left keeps ramping up the ugliness it exhibits against conservatives and any who dissent from its agenda. It has now gotten to the point where a conservative gets death threats and property vandalism for putting bumper stickers on his car, and his lawyer finds himself harassed for defending that man’s first amendment rights.
When are ordinary and decent freedom-loving Americans, of all political persuasions, going to rise up and condemn this ugliness? It needs to be condemned, and it needs to be condemned to the face of each person expressing such ugliness.
UPDATE: I decided I should give my readers a method for confronting these storm troopers directly. You can obtain the email addresses of the entire Long Beach, New York, city council at this website. You can reach the town’s city manager, whom Wasserman has named in the lawsuit, at this website. Let them know what you think of their jack-booted behavior.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Well if politicians didn’t have double standards, then they wouldn’t have any standards at all.
David K
LOL What else can one do?
All that is going on in the world makes me sad for the children. They will never know what once was! They will grow up thinking they have freedoms but at the pace all of this is changing, we will not have any freedoms before long. If you have any old history books around, save them for the future generations.
Does Constitutional America have a future outside the courtroom?
It probably doesn’t if you’re a better who plays the odds, because the odds right now are against it.
The law seems to only be a convenience, like in this New York town where political speech, which is supposed to be the protected kind, is under threat if not outright legal attack by the government of the town.
The Constitution actually is supposed to protect the citizen against the vagaries of the government, which is pretty good for just being written on parchment. It would be better if it was written on rust resistant armor plate.
Liz Evans: May I add, with pure self interest and a bit of whimsy, those history books should include mine. :)
The Searchers observed: “It would be better if it was written on rust resistant armor plate.”
Well, that can happen, too.
Robert wrote: “Ironically, not only was Wasserman a long-time Democrat until 2004, his lawyer is a self-described liberal who apparently is rightly putting the principles of free speech ahead of his political leanings.”
It may seem ironic in Obama’s America, but in the 20th century the Democratic Party and liberals believed in freedom of speech. Wasserman and his liberal lawyer grew up under those conditions and continue to believe in them.
From the New York Post article:
For Democrats and liberals, diversity is just a slogan. They pretend that everyone is the same, then they demand diversity.
if the people in your town don’t have the ourage to drag leftists out of their offices then expect more to come.
“It may seem ironic in Obama’s America, but in the 20th century the Democratic Party and liberals believed in freedom of speech.”
The New Left (aka “Progressives” aka Loony Left) traces it origin to the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley in 1964-65
“He designated the Sproul Hall steps an open discussion area during certain hours of the day and permitted information tables. THIS APPLIED TO THE ENTIRE STUDENT POLITICAL SPECTRUM, not just the liberal elements that drove the Free Speech Movement”
(emphasis mine)
Oh, the irony!
I don’t quite date back to 64/65, but I remember listening to Joan Baez sing at Sproul. I don’t rmember much about what was said, but the climate was one of experimentation. There was intollerance centered on the liberal view of women’s rights. Later there was a hatred of Ronald Reagan. So, the general theme was free speech, but the activist believed in their view of the world. I think Mao’s little red book store might still be going..but I’ve not visited Berkeley for years.
“There’s so much vitriol, hate and anger from [from liberals],” he added. “Aren’t they supposed to be inclusive of everyone? They’re not.”
When self-righteous hubris leads one to see the societal conflict not as Left vs. Right, but Normal vs. The Evil Other, inclusion is no longer a requirement. Neither is respect for life and liberty a requirement any longer.
Leftists are everything they decry about conservatives.
“Twitter Targets Dave” (again)
The Rubin Report (July 30, 2021)
https://youtu.be/zx0auyNHSEg
1:54:55
“Nearly 50% of Republicans believe there will be a time soon where ‘patriotic Americans’ will ‘have to take the law into their own hands'”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9846027/Nearly-50-GOP-think-patriotic-Americans-soon-law-hands.html
Personally I don’t think it will come to that and that our side is not as impotent and disorganized as we appear. At least I hope a pillow salesman isn’t really the leader of our resistance.
Thanks for adding the local contact information.
Robert Pratt: Yeah, I should have included it to begin with, especially because I had looked it up when I was first writing the post.
I had gotten criticized in the comments on Instapundit several months ago for not naming names bluntly. I took that criticism strongly to heart, and try since to identify the guilty parties in every blacklist post. I needed to fix that lack here.
“Nearly 50% of Republicans believe there will be a time soon where ‘patriotic Americans’ will ‘have to take the law into their own hands’”
This is the unfortunate result of censorship and lack of election integrity. Hopefully, we will find balance prior to having “to take the law into our hands.” We are in the midst of a civil war waged by the entitled against the 99%. The probem is that 50% believe that their thoughts and beliefs are their own.
On a quick look through a map street view – several fixed signs (non-traffic) were readily seen in the public right of way / roadway area. If they say that’s outside the street (in the median) despite it being public property, then traveling up and down the street were several commercial vehicles with company information plastered on them. Have those companies been threatened in a similar manner yet?
My town had to make an ordinance dealing with something similar, it was a Preacher man. He had a pickup truck with a big hand with a finger pointing up with all kinds of religious sayings on it and a sign on the front with more sayings on it. He would somehow get the first on the street parking spot going into town on the main Street. I’ll admit at first it was funny in a way but I think people got tired of being told they were going to Burn in Hell ! Comparing bumper stickers to his car is really splitting hairs, something that Judges might not find entertaining. Jmho
Charles wrote, “I think people got tired of being told they were going to Burn in Hell !”
Yup, you get tired of hearing someone else’s opinion, so of course you’ve got to pass a law that prevents them from speaking. Yup, how very tolerant of you.
Sorry Bob, you’re jumping to conclusions that I personally had anything to do with passing an Ordinance about the Preacher with the truck, I read about it in the Paper.
Personally, you sound like the intolerant one about my voice on this matter.
Charles: I am glad it was not you arguing for such ordiances, though your comment sure made it sound that it was.
Either way, when used as you describpe, such things are merely a tool to silence speech some people don’t like.