To the editor:
It has been some 5 months since the original article appeared on this website, which can be found at http://www.highlandparkmonitor.com/?p=247
Unfortunately, this writer has been waiting months for the opportunity to comment on the case written about in that article, which ran in early September of 2009.
I withheld comment when first contacted by the Monitor’s editor because I was one of three witnesses to the matter in which David Antebi was charged with making a terrorist threat while waiting in line at a Pallone Town Hall Meeting. When I was contacted, I fully expected to testify at his trial & felt it would not be in the best interest of justice to “try this in the court of public opinion.”
The truth of the matter is that David Antebi did do something wrong that day. He did admit to the police that he said that “he had a bomb,” when he was arrested. In the end, Antebi pleaded guilty to a reduced charge which involved a significant fine. The facts of the matter are that he did something wrong that day.
But, worse than what he did at the Town Hall meeting; was the fact that he allowed another person to be “pilloried in public,” while trying to “Plan B” someone, saying “the butler did it.” That is shameful. It was reprehensible in that his actions allowed other people to wrongly attack that “butler.”
Not only on this website, but in the Asbury Park Press; did Antebi refuse to take responsibility. Not once, but twice did he point the finger at someone else.
That person was me. In the Asbury Park Press, Antebi says “he was egged on by anti reform people.”
Quite the opposite happened as evidence shows that Mr. Antebi was harassing me frequently & commenting that he, Antebi was a member of the Nazi Party. Quite the opposite, Antebi admitted to the police that he, himself said he had a bomb. Those are facts in his police record. It’s public knowledge and you can look that up. NO WONDER he declined to “mention exactly what he said fearing it will impact the case.”
It would have impacted the case because Mr. Antebi was not telling the truth to the Press. He was looking to try this in the court of public opinion himself and in an effort to cast blame elsewhere.
Worse yet, on this website; Mr. Antebi furthered the lies when he says he was “goaded.” In truth, it was Mr. Antebi that was doing the harassment.
On this site, he tried to set me up as the villain again, saying “I was there to agitate.”
Worse yet, Mr. Antebi lies again by saying that I was the one that said “I had a bomb.” Witnesses bear out that Mr. Antebi lied to the Press & to this publication. His own police report proves that Mr. Antebi said he had a bomb.
I was not there to agitate. I was there on my own, by myself; and not part of an organized group. I was there as a retired person, facing Medicare and sincerely concerned about a proposed $500 Billion cut to Medicare.
Instead, Mr. Antebi & his supporters tried to make me out as “part of the vast right wing conspiracy.”
Remember in the end; despite 5 months of stonewalling, Mr. Antebi plead guilty. He was guilty because the FACTS supported his guilt. No “spinning” and finger pointing would change that because there were witnesses to what he did.
I’m sorry Mr. Antebi, that you “lost your place in line” as you said. Maybe next time, you will not harrass people and say things like “you have a bomb.”
You rightfully should have been pulled out of line and arrested. However, you did not have to make it worse by wrongly point fingers at someone else who only wanted to attend a Town Hall meeting and instead ended up being harassed by David Antebi.
Finally, for those that “piled on” in the comments section, trying to “pillory me in public,” you really should know the ALL of the facts in the case before you make wild accusations. Calling me a “provocateur trained in dirty tactics” & saying “Mr. Granelli yelled fire” only illustrates that those on the left rely on Saul Alinsky’s “Rules For Radicals” and the “Politics of Personal Destruction” in order to demonize someone they really know little about.
I could have responded to the editor’s questions for this article. However, I responded that I would not “try this in the court of public opinion,” as Antebi attempted to do. But, in the end; ALL of the attacks made on me in the comments section of this website were totally wrong.
That’s a sad epithet to this episode. Just “setting the record straight.”
James Granelli
Neptune