[TheBarnRules]

This was a note posted on Facebook by Eva Hughes - the video is simply vile, but it shows very well what the carriage folks are up against:

I am trying very hard to remain calm about a situation that I cannot control, and one which the authorities will not help with.

My husband took a family with young children for a carriage ride yesterday. Nothing unusual about that, as a large percentage of the folks who come for rides are families with children.

But these folks were from Newtown, Connecticut.

The father told my husband that they booked a few nights in NYC so that the kids could get a break from the non-stop media presence that is still there, the daily funerals and processions, and the general solemn and somber atmosphere that he thought was too much for them.

He also said that other families he knew of were also planning to come to NYC for a couple days over the weekend and through Christmas, for the same reason - the kids.

Well, if those folks come to NYC and want to treat their children to a carriage ride to brighten their day, there is a good chance they will be accosted by the miserable, vile, despicable, sick maniacs who call themselves "animal rights" people who will be protesting the carriages all weekend and into next week. These folks and their children will be greeted by lunatics waving poster-sized photos of old and rare carriage accidents, dead horses, blood and wreckage. They shout and chant into their faces things like "SHAME, SHAME, SHAME ON YOU!", and "THE BLOOD, THE BLOOD, THE BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS". They ESPECIALLY target families with small children, because they say the kids are more 'sensitive', and they have a better chance of influencing them.

This insanity goes UNCHECKED by the NYPD or the Parks Dept; they cite their First Amendment rights because they simply do not want to deal with them. We have pleaded with them for YEARS to just PUSH THEM BACK a few yards or across the street so that they cannot get into the people's faces, all to no avail.

So, families with children who have endured the unimaginable will arrive here for a respite, only to be met by demons from hell.

Just in case you think I am exaggerating, here is a video from WPIX showing what they are like: http://tinyurl.com/c2pdtsg

[betonbill]

Why won't the authorities do anything? Obviously the carriage driver knows all of the major protestors' names--file a complaint against all of them en masse. And with all of the publicity generated about Newtown and its people and especially this particular situation, a few well placed letters to the major news media just might backfire on the protestors.

Never know till you try.

[Trakehner]

These evil women really need for a parent to go after them...physically. What true POS are these proud NY sows.

Why won't they go after these women? Friends of the Mayor maybe? Good liberal fund raisers perhaps.

[Bluey]

Protesters at abortion clinics have to stay so many feet away from the entrance and customers.

Why can't you ask NYC to help you provide such kind of safety distance?
Your rights to peace ought to start and the protesters end somewhere where both of you can live with it and it sure is not on top of your horses, carriages and clients.

[Alagirl]

I was suggesting to send the video to the NYC morning shows, but oops... the video is 4 years old.

But I would certainly go that rout.
Not the news, but the feel good people after.

[goneriding24]

I had a post written out and realized it's just repeating myself from other posts. The battle-axes need something going on their lives to make themselves feel important, it seems to me. They've gone over the line when they attack the kids. I still say the carriage drivers should wear concealed cameras and try to get the protesters to state their names or something and then post all day long on youtube. Being nice doesn't cut it with whackos of any ilk. When you're fighting the big money, it's an uphill battle. Seems to me if the police won't protect, they are shirking their duty to uphold the law and keep the peace. What's with that??

[TarheelJD]

I too noticed that the video was a couple of years old, but I was in NYC in March of this year, and the protesters' behavior has not changed. In fact, from what I saw, it has escalated. The police just stand there and watch -- it seems they only get involved if anyone physically touches someone else. It really was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. I don't know how the carriage drivers can stand it. They really are under siege.

[grandprixjump]

Get a restraining order to keep them x feet away? and name the organization, so anyone from the org has to obey the order..or maybe name the president of org and associates...

I also think the police there aren't doing their jobs, by allowing them so close they are impeding business trade. It's like when people picket a store, they aren't allowed to block the doors. If they are getting too close it's also a dangerous situation for themselves and customers...

[jenm]

Regardless of how one feels about the NYC carriage industry the "note" from Eva Hughes (whoever she is) is just in bad taste. The video cited is indeed four years old, not something that was recently taken and there is NOTHING linking that behavior to any family from Newtown. As a matter of fact, her note doesn't say it happened, it says "there is a good chance" it will happen.

How is this not propoganda by the pro-carriage folks? Using a family from Newtown as an example of what might happen is in bad taste. The video posted on youtube was put together by pro-carriage people, it's not raw footage from the news:

Video editing and commentary originally done by StopLiesSeeTruth. See SLST's videos on YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/stopliesseetruth

The title of the thread and the context of the alledged note, make it seem like it did happen to a real family trying to escape the Newtown nightmare and that is just wrong.

[HungarianHippo]

It is shameful and disgusting that she would invoke Newtown to draw attention to her cause. I just posted as much on her page, let's see how long it takes for them to delete it. (ETA I am pro-carriage trade).

[lolalola]

It's not shameful, it's the truth. Her husband took a family from Newtown for a carriage ride. These kids might have to see these loons protesting. The nut who made the kids cry is at all the protests. She also got herself arrested at Clip Clop in March and then later on in the year for assaulting a carriage driver.

[HungarianHippo]

I stand by my words; she is using Newtown to get attention for her cause. And IMO that is as despicable as the protesters' behavior.

Note that you said, and her post says, that they TOOK the family out. It already happened at the time Eva wrote her post, yes? So did that particular family see those loons protesting or not?

[Coanteen]

It's not shameful, it's the truth. Her husband took a family from Newtown for a carriage ride. These kids might have to see these loons protesting. The nut who made the kids cry is at all the protests. She also got herself arrested at Clip Clop in March and then later on in the year for assaulting a carriage driver.

But they didn't; the kids from Newtown that her husband drove did NOT see/cry about the protesters.

Probably some other, non-Newtown kids did at some time. Why not use those real examples of kids getting upset? Because "Newtown" draws attention right now, for a horrid reason not at all related to horses and carriages and NYC.

It is disgusting to use the attention generated by mass murder of children in your own unrelated cause.

[Alagirl]

as sympathetic to their blight as I am, until the protesters do their usual shtick, this is not OK.

Yes. people from CT/Newtown might come to NYC. or not

But using a 4 year old video...come on, people.

[betonbill]

Guess I didn't read the first post for comprehension. However, it doesn't seem that there is anything keeping the carriage drivers for filing complaints against the protesters every single time whether there is anything concrete done at the time. The complaint will remain in the system.

However, using the Newtown people when nothing apparently happened is just as much slanting of the truth as they get from the protesters. Bad taste.

[Lynnwood]

I might be wrong but I do believe that it was in response to a post made by an anti carriage horse person who was protesting and did jeer at a family and attempt to link the drivers with what happened in Newton.

I don't think there is anything wrong with her being concerned that during the ride her husband performed his passangers implied that other families from the area were planning similar escapes. I applaud her for being concerned that these families and children above all others deserve to not have to face the disturbing images and vile behavior of the protesters.

. Here is the post / quote Just for reiteration that post / comment was made by Elizabeth Forel on an anti carriage horse page so don't be so quick to jump on Eva when it was in fact the protesters that made the first jab.

"
No Walk in the Park
4 hours ago
There are tourists - many of whom take our literature and would never take an exploitative carriage ride ... and there are the tourists from hell who will take a carriage ride, ignoring the empty garbage filled water trough - and, of course, ignoring the horse. They just want to say that they rode in a carriage in Central Park. Last week one actually tried to liken what we were doing to the tragic shooting in Connecticut. We were having none of that. I came back with "it's parents like you who raise kids to do such horrific acts." Enough said."

[Coanteen]

I might be wrong but I do believe that it was in response to a post made by an anti carriage horse person who was protesting and did jeer at a family and attempt to link the drivers with what happened in Newton.

It is wrong.

There are tourists - many of whom take our literature and would never take an exploitative carriage ride ... and there are the tourists from hell who will take a carriage ride, ignoring the empty garbage filled water trough - and, of course, ignoring the horse. They just want to say that they rode in a carriage in Central Park. Last week one actually tried to liken what we were doing to the tragic shooting in Connecticut. We were having none of that. I came back with "it's parents like you who raise kids to do such horrific acts." Enough said."

And the right response would be to do what the posters here have done - say that is it wrong to use this murder to get yourself some attention.
NOT to write up your very own child-murder-related story, with a spin sympathetic to your side of the cause.

There's such a thing as two wrongs.

[Lynnwood]

Where I think you are missing out is that it is in FACT very likely that they will be faced with such a thing. The protesters are there day in day out. Roxanne the women whom the video related too , spends just about every day following carriages around video'ing and screaming obscenities etc at anyone with ears.

I don't think its a spin its a fact.

[michaleenflynn]

Are you that obtuse that you don't know that 'my page' people read here, including me?

JFTR, it is not my page, I'm not even an admin. And the admins there don't delete posts.

I replied to you there, take a look.

[BelgianHalfDrafts]

If all the NYC carriage drivers started a legal fund to get a restraining order against Roxanne Delgado, I think the world would be a better place. Regardless of the appropriateness of bringing up Newton, the fact is, Roxanne is guilty of assault, battery, and stalking. If I were driving a carriage with a family trying to get away from the horrors they experienced, Newton or otherwise, I would be very angry to have them subjected to abuse by crazy AR protesters and Roxanne's angry, ugly personage. She literally has no life, spends her days and nights harassing drivers and trying to cause, then videotape, accidents. I have seen her in person, and she is 100% nuts.