First of all, my “Confederate boat” is actually a 1/96th scale RC model of the Confederate Ironclad ram ‘Palmetto State’ which I built to accompany (and do battle with) the Union ships ‘Monadnock’ (complete) and ‘Monitor’ (currently under construction).
Since there are no suitable public ponds in my town, I bring the Monadnock and now that she is complete, the Palmetto State, to a pond in the public park of a neighboring town where several other model boat builders also run their creations.
In short, I have a lawyer who lives at the other side of the pond attempting to use the legal system to harass me while I attempt to run my boat on the lake and want to know how to stop him…
The details go like this…
While at the pond, I am regularly approached by people, children especially, who have questions about the models and have no problem answering their questions.
Two boys began asking me questions about both vessels and I attempted to answer all their questions to their satisfaction. Apparently, the boys initially believed that the ‘Palmetto State’ was a Puerto Rican ship due to the fact that, like the prototype, it only flies the Confederate naval jack (which closely resembles the flag of Puerto Rico) and NOT the Stars and Bars. I corrected them on this fact and it didn’t seem to bother them in the least.
About an hour latter, they returned with their father and began begging him to buy them one of these models, pointing out that the “Puerto Rican one” was their favorite.
I pointed out to the father that these boats only came as kits, that the kits required a lot of time and modeling expertise to construct, these kits are expensive (starting at $500 without running gear), and that, if his kids are interested in model boating that they start out with one of many more reasonable models and work up from there. I also corrected his son in pointing out that Palmetto State was a Confederate ship and the Monadnock was a Union vessel.
Upon learning that one of the vessels was Confederate, the father proceeded to begin a diatribe in which he called me a racist and told me that I was responsible for lynching.
When he (thankfully) ran out of oxygen and had to stop, I told him that both models were historically accurate and pointed out that these was not a single Confederate battle flag to be found on either model.
He seemed to ignore this and told me that he was a lawyer, member of the ACLU and that he was going to “shut me down” before storming off to his house on the other side of the pond.
Half an hour latter, two squad cars arrived and the police told me that I’d have to leave. When I asked why, they told me that I had been bothering someone in the community. I told them I had done nothing of the such and they went back to the lawyers house, talked with him for a while and then came back, claiming that I needed a “permit” to display the Confederate flag in public. I then pointed out that I had no Confederate flag and they once again walked back to the lawyer’s house.
In the mean time, I had expended my batteries, packed up my models and left.
The next week, I returned to the park on Sunday, as I always do, this time with a model of a US WWII era destroyer, the USS Abbot and, once again the police arrived looking for some non-existent Confederate flag. Not finding one, they returned to the lawyers house and I could see him looking at me with binoculars.
Finally, last week, he again had the cops pay me a visit, this time claiming that the lawyer thinks the pond is a goose sanctuary and that he wants them to keep me out until he can determine if this is true. With this, I asked the cops for their names, badge numbers and the names of their supervisors and they quickly scurried away.
I sincerely feel that this amounts to harassment and I want it to stop and to be able to use a public park in peace.
Is there anything I can do to stop this lawyer from filing these frivolous complaints (such as calling the bar and alerting them to his dishonorable conduct and abuse of the law)???
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