LITTLE SILVER – As the primary election approached, borough business owner Ingrid Garcia said she felt a growing fear of the future.
On Friday afternoon,
while her husband Will investigated engine troubles under the hood of a Dodge
pickup truck, Ingrid sat beside her two young children behind the front desk of
Expert Detail and Auto Repair, the couple’s auto body shop situated inside
Little Silver’s Sycamore Avenue Shell Station, across from the train station.
“I don’t like to say things like this in front of my children, especially my 9-year-old son, because he really understands what’s going on. But they’re talking about boycotting us. They’re talking about ruining our livelihood. If they do that, we’ll lose it all. How would we live? Nobody thinks about those things,” Ingrid said.
A week prior, the Garcias claim they were harassed by two leaders of the Little Silver Republican Party, former council member David Gilmour and GOP chairman Stuart Van Winkle.
According to Ingrid, Gilmour entered the shop first, “screaming and yelling and demanding to know” who authorized the Garcias to place a large campaign sign for Republican mayoral candidate Rick Brandt on shop property.
Brandt was challenging sitting mayor Robert Neff, who the Monmouth County Republican Party endorsed earlier this year.
Ingrid said an hour later Van Winkle entered the shop posing a similar question to her husband in a similarly aggressive manner, prompting her to pull out her cell phone and record a video that was uploaded to YouTube with the title “Political Extortion and Harassment,” and later circulated to area media outlets by the Brandt campaign.
In a June 3 interview with The Two River Times, Van Winkle said his intent was not to make the Garcias feel uncomfortable, but rather to combat what he referred to as a “campaign sign circus” in the borough, referring to the copious lawn signage littering properties throughout Little Silver.
“If the owners felt harassed by my question to her husband, I am truly sorry for that. It was not my intent. If they feel threatened in any way, I’m sorry,” Van Winkle added. “Having said that, to keep it all in perspective, we’ve had signs go up on commercial properties around town without permission. I simply asked if they had given the Brandt campaign permission.”
In the video, Van Winkle is heard asking Ingrid, “Do you have permission to put your signs up?” adding, “We have had complaints in town about signs being put up without permission.”
Ingirid quickly phoned the Little Silver authorities for assistance and filed a police report alleging harassment against both Gilmour and Van Winkle.
“When I asked that question, I think there was a lot more going on with them in the day than I knew about it, because the degree of anger they displayed just didn’t fit,” Van Winkle said, calling the back-to-back visits by him and Gilmour a coincidence. “Looking at the situation now, I can understand their reaction.”
Will Garcia said he believes the visits were coordinated.
“It’s not right. Regardless of who we support, we shouldn’t have to answer for it like this. This is supposed to be a democracy. There’s supposed to be freedom of choice. And they’re both Republican candidates. It just makes no sense,” Garcia said.
Despite the visits, the police report, the video and Ingrid’s claims of social media harassment and additional negative feedback on consumer review sites like Yelp, the Little Silver Police Department said it will not move to issue criminal complaints.
According to a statement emailed to The Two River Times by Chief Daniel Shaffery, “the Little Silver Police Deparmtent has received and investigated the Garcias’ complaints, but those complaints do not meet the threshold for probable cause to sign criminal complaints for harassment.”
“The business owner additionally reported a negative online review of the business due to political support of a specific candidate. The review in question falls under the regulations set forth by the Congress in the Consumer Review Fairness Act, which protects people’s ability to share in any forum their honest opinions about a business’ products, services, or conduct,” Shaffery wrote.
Shaffery added that, though no criminal charges have been filed by authorities, the Garcias were referred to contact private legal counsel regarding the complaint.
“The Police Department unequivocally respects the First Amendment rights of all citizens, and asks all residents and business owners, regardless of political ideology, to respect the First Amendment rights of their neighbors,” he added.
The Garcia’s 9-year-old son Evan, who competes with his school’s debate team, said, despite the incident, he hopes to enter the politic arena someday and make a difference.
“I want to use my words to change the world and be fair to everyone. My mom and dad feel like they’re being bullied. You shouldn’t have to bully people to get your message heard. You should tell people what you think and let them decide,” he said.
Since the video was released and the backlash has come, Ingrid said others have reached out in support, including residents from neighboring towns who have come to the station for gas, stopped by the shop for work or those simply driven in to share a few kind words.
“We love making our living in this town. For the most part I believe people here are good. But some have tried to bully us for voicing an opinion. We’re not going to be bullied. I’ll do what I have to do to protect my family,” Ingrid said.
This article was first published in the June 6-13, 2019 print edition of The Two River Times.
