Harassment in Sheboygan

Cross-posted at THEB.

Mark Belling talked about this on his show today.

Apparently the powers-that-be in Screwy Sheboygan have taken it upon themselves to harass the proprietor of the Sheboygan Spirit, a public forum which allows citizens to comment on public events and officials, among other topics.

The Sheboygan Spirit had a link to the Sheboygan Police Department on the forum. Yawn. So what? Many blogs have links to public officials and services in their links section.

Apparently Mayor Juan Perez doesn’t care for this forum or its proprietor. Why? The Spirit led a recall attempt against Perez for attempting to abolish the police department, among other things. Typically, Perez played the race card and accused his political foes of targeting him because he is Hispanic.

You can read about the recall and the reasons behind it here.

Recently, the Sheboygan Spirit proprietor received a letter from the City Attorney, Stephen McLean, demanding that the link to the Police Department be removed from the forum’s home page. No reason. It isn’t illegal to post such links to any web site. Not only that, he demanded that the link to the Police Department be removed from the proprietor’s private business web site as well.

The proprietor did as the City Attorney demanded and removed the links. Not long after, she received a phone call from the Police Department stating that she was now the subject of an investigation by the Police. Apparently, this investigation of a private citizen for no apparent reason was personally ordered by the Chief of Police in Sheboygan, David E. Kirk, a crony of Mayor Perez.

So the Mayor orders his buddy, the Police Chief, to begin an unwarranted criminal investigation of a private citizen who led the recall efforts against him.

Can you say, Abuse of Power? Recall this guy? Maybe he should be impeached.

The police do not serve at the discretion of the mayor or any other elected official. They are to protect and serve the public as a whole. How many tax dollars and man hours were wasted as a result of this politically motivated stunt aimed solely to silence a critic of the mayor? I could say there were probably real crimes to be investigated and real criminals to be caught, but one of the idiot liberal judges in Sheboygan — also cronies of the mayor — would just let them go anyway.

Are we now to fear speaking out and being critical of elected officials for fear they’ll send their personal collection of brownshirts, attired in their jackboots and Nazi bucket helmets, to make sure we don’t step out of line?

If there were a real newspaper in Sheboygan, this would be front page. But the Sheboygan Press is also a lapdog for Perez and his goon squad, as well as the idiot liberal judges that allow dangerous criminals to roam the community.

By the way, here’s the link to the Sheboygan Police Department that had Perez so upset.

While you’re at it, why not let Mayor Perez know what you think of his attempts to intimidate a private citizen into silence? His e-mail is: mayor@ci.sheboygan.wi.us. Perez can be reached by snail mail at:

The Honorable Juan Perez
828 Center Avenue, 3rd Floor
Sheboygan, Wis. 53081
Phone: (920) 459-3317

Be respectful if you e-mail or write.

You can also let Chief Kirk know what you think of him being a willing participant in the harassment of a private citizen. His e-mail is: dkirk@ci.sheboygan.wi.us. Kirk can be reached by snail mail at:

David E. Kirk, Chief of Police
828 Center Avenue
Sheboygan, Wis. 53081-4499
Phone: (920) 459-3343

Once again, please be respectful if you e-mail or write.

Sheboygan's Only Effective Politican Steps Up

It's a pity my "good friend" Sadie's not blogging anymore. I'd have love to hear what the bitch (as in female dog, but hey, it works the other way too) would have to say about how her owner's boss dropped the ball on this.

Thankfully, we have Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan) to come to the rescue.

State Sen. Joe Leibham says he plans to introduce legislation to streamline Wisconsin's child enticement statutes after a judge threw out a jury conviction on a technicality.

Mitchell Pask was charged with trying to lure a girl into a Sheboygan park shelter for sex. A jury found him guilty this month. But Judge Timothy Van Akkeren threw the verdict out.

Van Akkeren says that under Wisconsin's child enticement statutes, Pask had to lure the girl into a secluded area. The shelter wasn't secluded enough to meet that burden.

Leibham, a Sheboygan Republican, says his bill will remove the secluded language from the statutes.

What's most amazing here is the silence from State Assemblyman Terry Van Akkeren (D-Sheboygan) during all this mess about the ruling. I don't know if he's too embarrassed to say anything, or he's too busy trying to protect Timmy, a relation.

Makes you wonder what the over-under is on this coming back to bite Terry in future campaigns. Probably has killed his dream of becoming the next Mayor of Sheboygan, that's for sure.

[Secret Decoder Ring on the "Insider Lingo": In case any one's forgotten..."Sadie" is Sheboygan's favorite UAW hack and former City Councilman, Bill Stephen. Stephen also served as Campaign Manager to Terry Van Akkeren's 2006 re-election bid.

Last I heard he was engaged to a legislative staffer of, you guessed it, Terry Van Akkeren!

"Sadie" is the name of her golden retriever.

Bill, care to comment for old time's sake?]

RE: Road trip

What I found so interesting in all this was the lack of any sort of relative editorial in the Sheboygan Press on this matter today.

Instead, all you have is a rather thought-out letter from of all places Concord, Nebraska, which highlights how nationally this story's gone.

The only thing close to anything regarding the event is an editorial asking for civility on the paper's online comment boards. That's fine and all, but it dismisses the reason as to why the sudden lack of civility's going on.

I don't know what's going on. Either the paper wrote all of its editorials ahead of time (something they have done in the past) and hasn't gotten around it. That however, doesn't explain today's editorial about online civility. Or, they haven't the stones to say anything at all about the decision; or they haven't the nerve to attack a Van Akkeren of Sheboygan.

Take your pick.

Road trip to dispel Judge Van Akkeren’s ruling that overturns jury guilty verdict

I took a ride to Sheboygan this weekend. I wanted to see for myself if Judge Van Akkeren's ruling that a child molester should be set free because there is no secluded areas in a park where a pervert tried to entice yet another child. You can see the video results here:

Road trip to dispel Judge Van Akkeren’s ruling that overturns jury guilty verdict

RE: What is SO Funny About Sheboygan?

About a year ago, I had the pleasure of meeting NRO's Jonah Goldberg after he spoke at Marquette University.

We spent about two minutes of the five I talked to him cracking jokes about "Sheboygan" and the way to say it.

It's funny what happens when you say the phrase, "Well, I've got to get going. Have an hour's drive to Sheboygan ahead of me."

Try it at parties with complete strangers not from Wisconsin. An amazing ice breaker I tell you.

What is SO Funny About Sheboygan?

I got a tsunami of funny place names, some of which I should have thought of myself, like Sheboyan, [sic] Walla Walla, and Azusa. Of course, Mona beat me to Ho-Ho-Kus, N.J., which always strikes me as a joke when I see it on a board at Penn Station, along with other New Jersey suburbs, like Mahwah or Perth Amboy. Then there's names that follow the rule that the "K" sound is inherently funny: Kalamazoo, Albuquerque (especially as pronounced by Bugs Bunny), Kokomo, Rancho Cucamonga, Lompoc, Kankakee, Poughkeepsie, Passaic, Tuscaloosa, Yakima, Nyack, Muskogee, Schwenksville (Pa.), and Apalachicola. As Yakov Smirnoff (who now lives and works at his own theater in Branson, Mo., of all places) said, "Every country has that one city that everyone makes fun of, even Russia. In Russia, we make fun of Cleveland." And just to round it out, how about Wausau [emphasis added], Puyallup, Yazoo City, and Chattanooga.

From: The Corner – Mark Krikorian (Re: Place Names)

There is an old joke about about Sheboygan, but I guess only Rep. Kagen can get away with telling that one.

Funny, I don't see the classic towns from Pennsylvania mentioned in his post.