Posted on Friday, 22nd August 2008 by Patrick Dorwin
Let’s review
Remember last year when the Sheboygan mayor, city attorney and police chief all tried to intimidate a blogger because Jennifer Reisinger, a political opponent of the mayor, had the audacity to link to the Sheboygan police department website? It was called The Link Heard ‘Round Wisconsin and was covered first by bloggers and talk radio, and eventually the main stream media.
After a few days, former Waukesha Co. District Attorney Paul Bucher was retained by Reisinger and the city attorney immediately backed down, but 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.â€
Citizens for Responsible Government also leapt into action filing open records requests and still has the information they received, posted on their website.
Update: The $%@& hits the fan
The Courthouse News Service reports:
A Web developer sued the mayor, police chief and city attorney of Sheboygan, claiming she lost half her income and received death threats and vulgar and obscene letters because they had police “investigate” her for placing a link to the Sheboygan Police Department on her business Web site. The woman says Mayor Juan Perez had a vendetta against her because she designed a Web site for a recall effort against him.
Jennifer Reisinger claims she lost 53% of her annual income, and received “death threats, other threats to her personal safety, including vulgar and obscene comments and letters left at her residence, causing her (to) fear for her own personal safety … to the point that video cameras and a burglar alarm was installed at the Reisinger residence.”
Reisinger claims Mayor Perez and his henchmen retaliated against her for her involvement in a recall campaign against Perez.
Go read the rest. Good Luck & Don’t Back Down Jeni!
Posted in Home | Comments (12) |
12 Responses to “The Link Heard ‘Round Wisconsin — Update”
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August 22nd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Nonetheless, she says, Perez asked City Attorney Stephen McLean whether it was legal for her to post a link to the Police Department.
If it were illegal to post links to the Sheboygan Police Department website, how would anyone ever find their website? Then why have a website at all? Just to arrest anyone linking to it?
Boy, that is one fine brain trust you have over there at SPD.
Jeni deserves to win this. Give Perez h-e-double hockey sticks.
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Good Luck… Thank you so very much! Likely going to need it…
…& Don’t Back Down Jeni!
No worries, I won’t – that’s a promise!
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:11 am
Butt kickin’ time! Heh!
August 23rd, 2008 at 11:13 am
Good luck with this Jeni. This is going to be rough, and I think it takes a lot of courage to go through with this.
So many people would not have had the guts to do this, so I really wish you the best.
August 24th, 2008 at 9:06 am
The Journal Sentinel has picked up on the story.
August 24th, 2008 at 9:37 am
I wonder if Sheboygan realizes how utterly juvenile they are looking to the rest of the country?
August 24th, 2008 at 10:47 am
A link to a web site would seem to be a use of information already in the public domain. Even if that link involved use of a graphic that was a copyrighted, the linking web site would appear to have a god case that the link was a fair use.
In most cases, the deepest pockets win a war of attrition. I’m curious to know what the cost to the taxpayers will be in this case. And, of course, I’d still like to examine the mayor’s documents.
August 24th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
There was no image involved, it was simply a web design company based in Sheboygan, and she had links to several Sheboygan websites as a public courtesy. One of the links happened to be the Sheboygan police departments main page. The mayor, who survived a recall attempt that Jeni worked on, and he seen this as a way to lash out at this private citizen. He directed the city attorney to “order” her to remove the link and directed the police department to also investigate her… Imagine a city mayor using that sort of power against a citizen and business owner.
August 24th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
He directed the city attorney to “order†her to remove the link and directed the police department to also investigate her… Imagine a city mayor using that sort of power against a citizen and business owner.
I wonder if the mayor is on the fascist side of the political isle…
August 24th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
This is a freedom of speech case. The police department advertises their website on their cars, and other things, and it looks like Jeni was just doing a public service.
Whatever else goes on, it has to be remembered that it’s about freedom of speech.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:16 am
[...] in abuse of authority tagged Wisconsin at 7:16 am by maverick86 The Link Heard ’Round the World. More [...]
August 27th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
It’s time we take back this country and start clearing out the trash at all levels of government. If these fools cannot do, we should over through them. the time is near