The March for Our Lives in Northampton on Saturday was marred by the towing of 14 cars and the overheated reaction directed against the business that ordered the vehicles taken away. We wish that neither the towing nor the resulting vitriol had occurred.
The problem arose when some participants in the march against gun violence left their cars in a small, unmarked lot owned by Greg’s Auto Repair near Northampton High School. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people marched from the school to City Hall for a rally that was part of a national protest led by high school students. One of the student organizers, Ben Moss-Horwitz interrupted his speech to warn people that cars were being towed.
Auto repair shop owner Jeffrey Tenczar said he was unaware of the march, but was surprised to find the lot across from his business full at mid-day Saturday. Even though his business was closed, Tenczar said he needs access to his lot around-the-clock because his customers often drop off their vehicles to be serviced later, and he also rents two spaces to a taxi company.
“Full to where you couldn’t even drive in it,” was how Tenczar described the scene at his lot Saturday. “I was aware of nothing going on Saturday. I didn’t know the situation that there was a march or anything like that.”
Tenczar ordered the towing after consulting with the Northampton Police Department. The 14 vehicles were taken by Ernie’s Towing of Northampton, which charged the owners $186 to retrieve them.
It was unclear that parking was banned for anyone other than Tenczar’s customers in part because he previously had not taken action against the few people who used his property as an overflow lot for athletic events at the high school.
That was the case for Leigh Dunlap, of Florence, whose car was towed Saturday. Dunlap said she had previously parked in the lot during her daughter’s field hockey games at the high school, and assumed it was OK because there were no signs identifying it as private.
Tenczar said he had purchased “no parking” signs but didn’t put them up until Sunday. Signs reading “Parking for Greg’s Auto Repair only” with a warning about towing were visible in his lot this week.
Dunlap called the towing during the march “mean-spirited” and unnecessary, and she vowed to go to small claims court in an effort to win back the towing fee.
Others expressed their ire in social media posts aimed at driving business away from both Greg’s Auto Repair and Ernie’s Towing. Particularly troubling were the unfounded accusations that Tenczar was politically motivated in having the vehicles towed. One Facebook post suggested that both Greg’s and Ernie’s opposed “freedom of expression” and do not care about “the slaughter of school children.”
Tenczar, who reported that hate messages were left on his telephone, said his motives were not political.
This is the same kind of social media vigilantism that was directed at Dave’s Soda and Pet City stores last year after their owner, Dave Ratner, accepted an invitation to represent the National Retail Federation at a White House ceremony Oct. 12 where President Donald Trump signed on executive order on health care. Ratner believed that it would only reverse a single provision of the Affordable Care Act, allowing small businesses like his to band together and purchase group health insurance, making it more affordable for employees. Others, however, viewed the order as Trump’s first step in completely unraveling Obamacare.
Though Ratner apologized for not fully understanding the extent of Trump’s order, he was targeted with a blowback on social media, including calls for a customer boycott.
In the cases of Ratner and Tenczar, inflicting serious financial losses on a local business is a punishment disproportionate to their errors — Ratner for not doing his homework, and Tenczar for not posting the “no parking” signs before Saturday’s march.
As one Northampton couple who have done business for 30 years with Greg’s Auto Repair wrote in a letter to the Gazette: “Attempting to ruin a business owner’s reputation and business by attacking him on social media because you assume, without facts, that he doesn’t share your opinions, is reprehensible.”
We agree. Instead of vilifying a local businessman, that energy should be directed at the issue central to Saturday’s march — enacting meaningful gun-control laws.