Hair Cutter Letter asking me to Remove them from OC Blog

[Intrigue]

Ah, so I was 'pleasantly' surprised to find this in my email box:

Hey Jon - sorry to bother you...I am legal counsel with Hair Cuttery. I received several calls from customers who viewed your blog and are now worried about going to the shopping center. Moreover, they called our stylists who are now refusing to return to work. I tried to convince them it was not a threatening blog - I'm a gun owner myself.

I know you had no intention of harming our business, but if you could so kindly remove the "Hair Cuttery" and shopping mall name from the blog posts, we would greatly appreciate it.

Any cooperation you can give me would be great. If you remove it, could you please let me know so I can convey it to the field/salon leader. Please call me to discuss, if need be: 703-269-5268.

Thanks so much for your time.

Regards,
Brad Hansen
Legal Counsel - Hair Cuttery

So I spoke with gnbrotz and pa patriot, and decided I would string him along a bit:

Hello Brad,

I appreciate you taking the time to read over my blog. Please submit your request on Hair Cuttery letterhead, with your law firm information. Upon receipt, my attorney and I will review it.

If, in the mean while, Hair Cuttery chooses to exercise their property rights by asking me not to return, I will gladly oblige. I am a firm supporter of property rights, as well as gun-rights.

I also did not notice a shopping center name in the post as I skimmed over it, nor did I notice a specific location mentioned, would you please point me to where it is located?

I appreciate your cooperation, in advance.

Regards,

I was then treated to this gem from my new friend, Brad:

Jon: Thanks for the response. I will put a request in writing when I get back to the office tomorrow...in the meantime, we certainly do not intend to ask you not to return to our salons - just without the gun. While I am in favor of your legal right to bear arms openly, many of the stylists and our customers get the wrong idea. I just ask that you be sensitive to their concerns. Afterall, I'm just watching out for the good of our company.

Here is the post a customer forwarded to our stylists which started the "hysteria." Again, I think if you can just remove the name "Hair Cuttery" and the shopping center name, it would go a long way in calming our stylists' "fears."

Thanks, Jon.

Brad

And got a nice letterhead in my email the next day, which you can view here (PDF).

Kind of a crappy situation. My 'Rights' side says, tell this guy to pound sand, and leave it up as an expression of my 1st Amendment rights, as well as placing this post on the main page of my blog. However, since these folks are people who live in my community, I was considering taking the name out of the post, just to respect their wishes and not be a jerk. I think it's absolutely absurd, and don't really have anything else to say back to Brad, aside from "If your stylists are afraid of an internet guy who hasn't been to your store since March, get them psychiatric help".

I honestly do not believe their customers looked at the blog, and I don't think stylists are afraid to come to work. Brad stated he was a gun owner, and he stated that he supports open carry rights. I think he came across my blog, noticed the business he represents, and decided to make up some story to get me to take the name down.

What are your thoughts? Would you remove the link, or would you tell him to pound sand, and keep it up? I was considering dragging this out further (Changing it to H*ir C*ttery, or airHay utteryCay), but don't really feel like going out of my way to be a jerk.

[fingers80002]

We need to find a Doctor who can cure Hoplophobia.

We could make him Millions!!!!!!!!!!

[Longshot]

I would follow his wishes, and send a letter back to him stating that you have done so. As well as inform him that you will relay the message to other gun owners, and let them know that armed citizens are not welcome in his establishment.

[dman]

I would follow his wishes, and send a letter back to him stating that you have done so. As well as inform him that you will relay the message to other gun owners, and let them know that armed citizens are not welcome in his establishment.

The voice of reason,got to go with you on this one.

[Pa. Patriot]

I would follow his wishes, and send a letter back to him stating that you have done so. As well as inform him that you will relay the message to other gun owners, and let them know that armed citizens are not welcome in his establishment.

The voice of reason,got to go with you on this one.

Maybe my "reason meter" is broken, but isn't that what the original blog is for in the first place?

How, if he doesn't publish the name of the store (public info) is he supposed to tell people that they are not welcomed there, if he doesn't use their name?

[shefearsnothing]

How would any of us feel if some blog devoted to cat fanciers or model rocketry or gay marriage or The New World Order or whatever fascination some blogger has, mentioned us by name and address in a way that kind of creeped us out? If you politely asked him to not mention you, to not involve your home or business in his bantering, what sort of response would you expect from a decent person?

I have been thinking about this question since I read it...a few hours ago. I mean, I read blogs and postings all over the internet about me both "for" and "against" me in the last month and a half. Many of them mentioned personal details about myself and my family. Some of them true and some of them not. All of them included someone's personal feelings about me. Several of them did include things that could be construed as things that may creep a person out...you know, suggesting things that may be done to make me miserable etc because I am not doing what they want or living my life in accordance with the way they see "acceptable". Now, this isn't a thread about me but since you asked this question and IMO I can answer it as it applies to me very personally....sure, it would be nice if someone removed their content at my request. However, never once did I ask anyone, nor did I run up my attorney's fees asking him to request such a thing on my behalf. People have their right to freedom of speech. I may not always like what they are saying but then I am free to not listen to or read it. I have the right to go or look elsewhere. Sure, I can ask them to remove it but having the expectation that they are going to "comply" because they were "asked nicely" to hide their opinion is ridiculous. Once again, we've become a society that walks on eggshells because omg we might "offend" someone.

It's not like Jon's blog was slandering anyone or as if he was being an asshole about anything. He posted about a "non-incidental" OC experience. Why, 10 months later is someone bothering him about it? I have to wonder who might have read that and took it upon themselves to contact someone and put these ideas in their head about customers not patronizing the store anymore. I don't know about anyone else but as a rule I don't surf the internet looking for blogs to read....although Jon DOES have a link posted right here in his signature. I mean, I am sure there are people who search blogs and read them but seriously, the odds here? Anyway, he didn't post anything slanderous or offensive....I could share tons of things that were slanderous, would probably fall under defamation of character etc which were posted about me. Oh yeah, and I DID have clients reading that crap who asked me about it. Maybe I was just stupid though and should have had my attorney send out "nice" emails. Where I come from, that is what we call "nasty nice".

What sort of response would I expect? Well I try not to have expectations of people in life. This is a large error many of us make IMO. I wouldn't make the request but pretending that I would I would expect a "no".

[ThomasJ]

The voice of reason,got to go with you on this one.

A letter from an attorney, even if he did it under his own volition, is an intimidating tactic. Reasonable went out the window a long time ago.

[The Unknown 1087]

We need to find a Doctor who can cure Hoplophobia.

We could make him Millions!!!!!!!!!!

I'm no doctor....but I could try. I don't need millions, I'll take a few hundred thousand though haha.

[Ramtuff]

That is the most piss poor "lawyer letter" I've ever seen. If he actually represents the Hair Cuttery, why wasn't this letter sent on his law firm's letterhead? Why hide what firm he works for? (BTW, I found out what firm he works for via Google). It seems to me that he's doing a personal favor for someone at the Hair Cuttery. As long as the information in your blog is factual, and couldn't be considered libel in anyway, I'd tell him to go pound sand.

[Intrigue]

That is the most piss poor "lawyer letter" I've ever seen. If he actually represents the Hair Cuttery, why wasn't this letter sent on his law firm's letterhead? Why hide what firm he works for? (BTW, I found out what firm he works for via Google). It seems to me that he's doing a personal favor for someone at the Hair Cuttery. As long as the information in your blog is factual, and couldn't be considered libel in anyway, I'd tell him to go pound sand.

It appears 'Ratnerco' is a holding company that owns a few salon franchises, and that he works for them.

In any sense, the letters tell me one thing: RatnerCo does not want business from people who are carrying guns. He SAYS he wants my business, just without the gun.

No Gun = No Business.