From the Sheboygan Press:
The City of Sheboygan is backing down from its demand that a Sheboygan resident remove a link from her business Web site to the Sheboygan Police Department, the city attorney said this morning.
Jeni Reisinger, who runs a Web site often critical of Mayor Juan Perez, was sent a cease-and-desist letter last month at the mayor’s request. But City Attorney Steve McLean said this morning the city informed Reisinger’s attorney in a letter sent Tuesday afternoon that it will no longer pursue the issue.
“There was never any intent to take any action further against her than write that letter,” McLean said. “We’re going to retract the cease-and-desist letter.”
Ooooh, a retraction!
McLean says, "There was never any intent to take any action further against her than write that letter."
Translation: Our intent was to harass and intimidate Reisinger, scare her, and leave it at that.
...New Berlin attorney Paul Bucher, who represents Reisinger, said this morning he has not yet received McLean’s retraction letter, but promised that will not be the end of his involvement.
“I’ll look at the letter and meet with our client and see where we’re headed from there. It doesn’t end the controversy — that’s for sure,” Bucher said. “The issue is whether or not … the City of Sheboygan or the government in Sheboygan used the powers of the government to intimidate, silence or infringe upon another individual’s right to express their political views.”
It's obvious that Sheboygan officials want this to go away with a simple "never mind" letter.
That would be letting them off the hook. I think Jeni and Paul Bucher should pursue the matter further.
The incident was so abusive and a clear violation of Jeni's rights.
...Asked this morning if the city had a legal basis to request the link be removed, McLean said the city “had basis to request that she remove it. We had a concern that it could viewed as an affiliation with the city or an endorsement of her business.”
So this morning, McLean is STILL claiming that the city "had basis" to tell Jeni to remove her link to the Sheboygan Police Department.
What basis? There is no legal basis. Is he talking about a personal preference?
This guy is the city attorney!
Perez said in an interview Friday that the city was concerned over Reisinger’s link because “people associate (Reisinger) with racism” due to an image posted on her site digitally altered to show Perez holding a Mexican flag with the caption “Power to Illegals?” Bucher said he has been told Reisinger did not post the picture, which was removed soon after being posted.
This is so typical of people caught abusing their position and power -- attack the victim. In this case, Perez plays the race card as well.
It's a misguided, and, I suspect, ultimately unsuccessful, effort to smear the victim.
Bucher said the controversy has been difficult for Reisinger.
“She’s frightened. She’s upset over this,” Bucher said. “I met with her yesterday, (and) she was visibility shaking.”
Of course, it's been difficult for Jeni. It must be awful for her. It's not easy to stand up to a powerful entity.
Getting a call that you're under investigation by the police would be frightening. Getting a threatening letter from the city attorney isn't an everyday occurrence for most people.
Perez and McLean really had a serious lapse in judgment when they decided to harass a private citizen and a political dissenter.
Jeni was right to seek legal counsel. She's right to pursue the matter and expose the tactics utilized by Perez and McLean to tread on the rights of citizens in Sheboygan.
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