I was beginning to have second thoughts. Maybe Simon Properties didn’t know about the Tea Party planned for their backyard July 4th. I mean, everybody makes mistakes, right? Indeed, Gwinnett Place Mall management put out a statement claiming exactly that:
Gwinnett Place Mall is not public property, but is privately owned. In order to preserve the shopping experience for all guests, it is our standing policy not to permit political protests or rallies on mall property. To clarify the timing of our decision, mall management was not notified of the event or contacted for approval on event plans until just last week.
Well for starters, the statement they make here is false. The event was not to be held on Mall property. It was located in a privately owned parking lot adjacent to the mall. Initially, it was reported by Tea Party organizers that the Mall management claimed rights due to easement agreements they had with the owner of the lot. The Tea Party organizers, just normal people like you and me, couldn’t imagine the Mall would mislead them about that.
But they were wrong. The lot owner’s attorney, Michael Sullivan, said that the easement agreement Mall management cited expired in 2004. You can hear it all discussed in a Blog Talk Radio interview he did yesterday afternoon. In fact, Atlanta Tea Party organizer Debbie Dooley told me today that the only agreement Gwinnett Place Mall had with the lot owner was a reciprocal parking agreement. And since the Tea Party had ample parking without using the Gwinnett lot, they couldn’t have made a legitimate argument about that either.
Furthermore, the Mall clearly knew. Debbie told me that they had received approval from the private lot owner in March. In April they contacted and advised the Gwinnett Industrial Development Board that they were planning the event. The Gwinnett Place Mall manager is a member of that Board.
As if this weren’t enough, Mall management had announced that they intended to close at 6pm the day of the Tea Party, but the event wasn’t scheduled to start until 7:30.
As first exposed in the American Thinker piece and expounded upon in my article, the owners of Simon Properties are huge financial supporters of all the radical leftist politicians wreaking havoc in our country today. These do not appear to be people concerned with such things as that silly old First Amendment, and like all leftists, are more than willing to trample others’ rights when it comes to getting their own way.
An item that appeared yesterday adds to the evidence that Simon Properties was politically motivated. Apparently, Simon employees spent hours and hours sifting through posts on the Radio Patriot website. They also spent a lot of time looking over this post from Pajamas Media blogger Bob Owens. Given the Mall’s misrepresentation of their legal authority and these other bits of news, it is difficult not to conclude that this was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the Tea Party.
This story was picked up today at WorldNetDaily, including a link to my Wednesday article posted at FaultlineUSA.
The organizers of the Atlanta Tea Party collected about $10,000 in donations slated to be used for exposition rentals and a fireworks show. All this had to be returned. Furthermore, this was the only fireworks show slated for this area on July 4th.
So to add insult to injury, the Gwinnett area will not get to see any 4th of July fireworks because Simon leftists decided to sabotage this patriotic rally. These are Obama supporters folks. Hope for change!
I reiterate my call to boycott Simon Properties.
Look up the mall in your area and make a commitment not to shop there. It would really help if you let both Simon management and the anchor stores know of your intentions. One commenter on my earlier post said:
I sent the letter to Simon Malls and am in the process of notifying all the stores at the Simon Mall I have shopped at for 20 years that I will no longer be spending the $3,000-$5,000 a year in their stores.Ouch! But it just goes to show you, we can have an impact.
I am going on the Andy Caldwell Show today at 6:30 eastern time to discuss the issue.
This isn’t going away.
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