Two grandparents were sitting in front of the Sparta Library exercising their civil rights by collecting signatures at the “Recall Petition Table” when then Mayor Spekhardt and Councilman Goldberg spotted them armed with a camcorder and charging towards them across the library parking lot.
I told my wife, not to say anything that they were looking for a confrontation.
After about an hour of banging our table and marching up and down in front of us and shoving their camcorder in our faces , shouting at us, all that was missing were the bright interrogation lights. I stood up and announced I would call the police to stop their harassing us and keeping citizens from signing our petition.
Spekhardt, in a sarcastic manner, said “he would call the police for us.”
That is when my wife had enough and I was sure she was going to tell Spekhardt what he could do with his camcorder and for Goldberg to help him put it up there.
We were saved by Phil Lid who came by and resolved the situation by walking Spekhardt and his shadow away from us.
We are not folks to be easily pushed around. We moved to Sparta about the time Spekhardt was in his diapers. His bullying manner, to older people and others, is appalling and Goldberg’s enabling action does not help.
My wife in her lifetime contributed to the creation of a rocket engine, and other engineering achievements during her career.
Last year for my 80th birthday I went to Sussex Airport and Skydived.
In June, 2008, we were at the “Recall Petition Table” in front of the Sparta Post Office when Councilman Brady stopped at our table. Brady, a law enforcement officer, in civilian clothes and without a jacket had a rather large black gun in full view at our eye level.
We kept the chatter light and my wife asked Brady to sign her petition and not to shoot us.
What could be behind these efforts to harass us?
By Harold Shane
