Dear Editor:
The City Council settled with Mr. Ruggiero, the Vape Van owner. But why was the Council involved at all? The HPD already investigates the alleged crime of Mr. Ruggiero. If Mr. Ruggiero’s rude language allegedly violated a Hoboken ordinance, then his business license should be revoked. Never mind that the US Supreme Court in a long line of cases has consistently ruled that even rude speech “that seems deeply offensive to most people is protected speech”. Chief justice Roberts explained why: “Insulting and even outrageous speech must be tolerated, in order to provide adequate breathing space to the freedoms protected by the First Amendment. (Snyder v. Phelps).
City ordinances, prohibiting such speech, violate the First Amendment. This reminds me how a few years ago the Hoboken municipal prosecutor asked the judge to punish me with prison time because I had refused to plead guilty of a violation of a Hoboken ordinance. In the absence of any charges, accusations and even suspicions by the police that I had committed any crime or any violation, during a custodial interrogation, I had asserted my Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable searches and refused to answer questions about my country of origin.
Then the police charged me with “refusing to provide pedigree information” and explained that they needed to know my country of origin because I spoke with an accent.
The Hoboken Reporter then had published a story about the case and thus saved me from going to prison.
After being exposed in the media, the Hoboken prosecutor quickly dismissed the fake charge.
These are not isolated cases. During my 2-year long ordeal with the Hoboken prosecutor, I had to appear every month and spend countless hours in the Hoboken courtroom waiting for my case to come up. I witnessed how Hoboken residents were shaken down, bullied and intimidated to settle. The only reason such unconstitutional ordinances are still on the books, is because the City of Hoboken always bullies and intimidates the defendants to settle and if the defendants refuse to settle, as in my case, dismisses the charges. Thus the unconstitutional ordinances evade judicial scrutiny.
We have nothing to fear from the rudeness of Mr. Ruggiero. He could not send Mr. Gutierrez back to his country. Only the government could do that. Mr. Ruggiero could not send me to prison. Only the government could do that. We, the immigrants, did not come here for protection against offensive speech. We came here for the opportunities and for the freedom. Freedom from oppressive and intrusive government, Freedom to speak without fear of prosecution, Freedom from the “Big Brother” watching us and monitoring every word we say and how we say it.
Big Sister Zimmer, some of us speak with accents. Others speak with rudeness. Neither is a crime. Leave us alone. Fix the potholes; this is what we elected you for.
Sincerely,
Vesselin Dittrich
