Rus Thompson Threatened For Anti-Bridge Toll Protests
by Matt at Apr 18th, 2009
I am no stranger to getting threatening emails and calls because of my political views. I’ve had my car and other property vandalized, and was once physically assaulted. It’s price you pay for putting yourself and your political views (especially when they are conservative) in the public eye. Sometimes, it is easy to just dismiss an email or a call as just some kook who hates to have their views contradicted. Other times, like what happened with Rus Thompson, it is something more serious.
Early on, the anonymous e-mails from Rus Thompson’s harshest critic went from angry to downright threatening.
The sender let Thompson know that he knew where he lived.
“Fire on Tracey Lane,” said an e-mail in February 2008.
Thompson received this one in June: “WHERE OH WHERE IS JOHN RUS THOMPSON? LITTLE JOHNNY’S SLEEPING IN THE GRAVEYARD . . . ”
The sender seemed to hate Thompson for his campaign to rid the Grand Island bridges of their Thruway tolls.
This week, the Erie County Sheriff’s Office charged David L. Zelonis, 52, of Grand Island with a misdemeanor charge of aggravated harassment.
He’s a Thruway toll collector at the Grand Island bridge.
“He said we were overpaid. And he said we shouldn’t be there,” Zelonis explained to The Buffalo News.
Thompson, a tax protester who has been arranging his next anti-tax demonstration for May 9 in Niagara Square, said he’s relieved.
“For almost two years now I have been getting these threatening e-mails,” he said Friday. “When I got the ‘Fire on Tracey Lane,’ it was my family that said this is going too far .”
Luckily, Zelonis got careless, used an authentic email, which was traced back to him.
I don’t understand this need by some to use differences in opinion as justification for threatening another person. We should be able to debate ideas without worrying about being threatened over a position that someone disagrees with you on. The fact that it happens at all is pretty sad, and it is certainly more common than people probably realize.
I lived in Niagara Falls 3 yrs ago and remember almost everyone complaining about how we had to cross grand island and pay a toll to get to the other side just to get to work. The road that was built was supposed to be paid for by the tolls, but after the road was paid for by tolls, NY decided to keep tolling anyways for revenue, hardly fair to tax payers, and especially in such an economically stressed area.
This really figures that it was a toll troll doing this.
Those toll booths are just the tip of the iceburg with the corruptive politicians that enslave the greater Niagara region.
Niagara Falls has soo many possibilities, but alas, all you need to do is go there and look across the river to view the Canadian side for a few pointers in the right direction. Like night and day, thats all I can say.
Anytime you seem to critisize the aethstitics of Niagara to a democrat there, they seem to want to rip your eyes out.
Do Dems like a pig sty or something?
Rus is a guy who fights for things he believes in. He’s a passionate guy, but a better man and friend you will not find anywhere.
Unfortunately, the world is as filled with crazy people as it is filled with the good ones. I’m just glad the guy was caught.
Zelonis is an idiot. Yeah I can understand he was afraid that if Rus is successful he’ll lose his cushy job, but to threaten someone in the way he did over it is stupid and I hope he gets jail time. 15-30 days with some kind of road side work detail should be good.