Weston, FL –-(Ammoland.com)- The wife of a Weston, Florida city commissioner filed a police report after a Florida man posted a meme to a Facebook group.
Peter Van Antwerpen, a resident of Weston, was upset that some in the people in the Weston government joined a lawsuit to eliminate preemption law in Florida.
Preemption is the idea that state law trumps local laws. This idea prevents counties such as Broward County from passing local gun ban laws and mandatory gun buybacks. Some residents are concerned if the courts remove the preemption clause that their county will adopt an “assault weapons ban.”
Van Antwerpen posted a meme of Charleston Heston holding up a rifle with the caption “from my cold dead hands.” The picture and quote originate from the 2000 NRA convention where Heston gave an impassioned speech about gun rights.
In the social media post by Van Antwerpen a few anti-gun politicians were named. Van Antwerpen wondered if the gun banning politicians were going to lead the confiscation effort in person. Nowhere in his post were any threats issued.
Van Antwerpen wrote:
“Enufsaid…..let them come!”
“Since you are on the lawsuit Peggy Brown, Dan Stermer and Byron Jaffe I hope you are the ones to come confiscate my weapons.”
Van Antwerpen is also a well-known philanthropist in the community. He is involved in local politics fighting against liberal corruption. The semi-retired executive is a strong believer in the second amendment and the Constitution.
Beth Jaffe, who is the wife of city commissioner Bryon Jaffe, felt that the meme was threatening her life. Ms. Jaffe contacted the district office of the Broward County Sheriff’s Department and asked for them to investigate Van Antwerpen.
Four members from the newly formed “Threat Assessment Unit” showed up banging on Van Antwerpen’s door. The deputies entered the house with full tactical gear. The police did not have any warrants.
Van Antwerpen, in a bath towel, greeted the members of the unit. The investigator’s started to question Van Antwerpen about the social media post. He is a major supporter of law enforcement, so he chose to answer their questions.
Van Antwerpen explained the meme and asked the lead investigator if the meme broke any laws. The Sheriff’s Deputy admitted that it did not break any laws. The investigator concluded that Van Antwerpen was not a danger to anyone. He gave Van Antwerpen the police report number.
“I post a comment,” Van Antwerpen told AmmoLand. “It was one of many. It wasn’t even the worst. It just had a meme attached to it.”
Van Antwerpen filed to get the police report, but it took the Broward County Sheriff’s Department three weeks to supply the police report. He did not get a reason for the delay, and AmmoLand’s calls and emails to the Broward County Sheriff’s Department were not returned.
Van Antwerpen noticed that Beth Jaffe took out the complaint against his post. Van Antwerpen’s wife and Jaffe have run-ins in the past. Jaffe and Van Antwerpen are on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Antwerpen took to Facebook to highlight what he sees as a personal vendetta against his family.
“A city commission members wife, Beth Jaffe, who has a well known antipathy for my wife, myself and my family, sent an email to the threat assessment division of Broward Sheriffs Office and over a week later BSO deputies in full tactical gear showed up at our house to interrogate us on this post,” Van Antwerpen wrote on Facebook.
Another person Jaffe named in the complaint is Janet Klomburg. Klomburg posted in the comments, “I’m with ya brother!”
Klomburg told AmmoLand that she thinks Beth Jaffe abused her power. She said that Jaffe has a history of abusing her husband’s authority and using dirty tricks against her political adversaries.
Klomburg, who is a small business owner, was looking into claims of voter suppression of conservatives in Broward county. This investigation put Klomburg in Jaffe’s crosshairs.
“What they did was ruined my business in Weston,” Klomburg told AmmoLand. “She destroyed my business. She destroyed my name. She called me a white supremacist, a bigot, and a racist. “
According to Klomburg shortly after Jaffe’s accusations, she started to receive death threats by phone. AmmoLand was able to verify that Klomburg reported death threats. The police were not able to arrest a suspect in the case.
Klomburg and Van Antwerpen both explained to AmmoLand that people in the community are afraid of Jaffe’s wrath. I reached out to several members of the community through Facebook, and all expressed similar thoughts about Jaffe, and said that they did not want to become targets.
One anonymous Democrat stated that she equates what Jaffe did to SWATTING. SWATTING is the practice of pretending to be someone else and calling in a threat in the hopes that a SWAT team responds to the target’s house.
On December 28, 2017, Andrew Finch was shot and killed by police in his home during a SWATTING incident. Prosecutors charged Tyler Raj Barriss with organizing the event he was sentenced to 20 years in prison.
AmmoLand reached out to Beth Jaffe, Bryon Jaffe, and the Broward County Sheriff’s Department. None have returned our calls or emails at the time of publishing.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.
Surprised Browards Cowards didnt “fear for their life” and shoot a man in a towel.
And people think cops won’t enforce red flag laws? Sounds like they did a B&E in full tac gear because someone used their first amendment protected rights.
So one enters my house uninvited hair dressed in gear and carrying weapons they probably wouldn’t end very good because as a law abiding citizen I’m going to assume they are criminals looking to do me in my family harm.
This is a huge danger with these ridiculous red flag laws that can have uninvited guests with weapons barging into your home.
Looks like another baby Hillary has surfaced. Aside from that little goof, this woman is dangerous and should not hold any type of power.
What the heII was I thinking, the whole damn Democratic Party needs to be ousted from politics!
We knew this was gonna’ happen. The democrat party has been transformed into the national socialist democrat party. The ruthlessness introduced by Slick’s machine and fine tuned by the last administration is just a glimpse of what’s to come. Enraged by President Trump’s transparency and waving the familiar “red flag” law, they’ll introduce a level of oppression not seen in this nation since King George III. As sure as rain, some over-eager law enforcement officer will push an accused past his flash point and we’ll see more deaths. The absence of due process deserves the red flag, not some blustery… Read more »
In this presentation, they say that one needs to be careful what one posts on facebook because it can be twisted and claimed to be a threat. However it sounds as though it took the police three weeks to determine what threat he had made. Sounds as though based simply on the word of a random woman, they sent out a tactical team to invade his home. If that is the case, one does not seem to make any statement or post anything for someone to be able to claim you are a threat – it as random as Swatting.… Read more »
Leftists are tyrants and evil AF. If they’re doing this while we’re armed, just think what they will do if they ever succeed in disarming us. Remember, first comes registration, then comes confiscation, and it ends in obliteration… democide!