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| Bumper sticker evokes road rage |
| 2005-03-11 |
| They just can't get over it... Her Bush-Cheney sticker sent him into a tirade that led to a dangerous car chase through the streets of Tampa. TAMPA - Politics has always been divisive, splitting families and turning friend against friend. This week, though, a Tampa woman learned that simple Bush-Cheney bumper sticker can bring trouble, if not danger, from a total stranger. Police say Michelle Fernandez, 35, was chased for miles Tuesday by an irate 31-year-old Tampa man who cursed at her as he held up an anti-Bush sign and tried to run her off the road. His sign, about the size of a business letter, read: Never Forget Bush's Illegal Oil War Murdered Thousands in Iraq. Looks like he's read the manual. Hell, he's memorized it... "I guess this was a disgruntled Democrat," Tampa Police spokesman Joe Durkin said. "Maybe he has that sign with him so he's prepared any time he comes up against a Republican." ...or maybe he's just friggin nuts? Police arrested Nathan Alan Winkler at his home on N Cleveland Street near Hyde Park within an hour of the incident. After finding the antiwar sign in his car, they booked him into the county jail on one count of aggravated stalking, a third-degree felony punishable by up to five years in prison, Durkin said. They're suppressing dissent in Tampa! Damn Ashkkkr...wait, who's the new guy? He posted his $2,000 bond and was released early Wednesday, jail records show. This was Winkler's first arrest in Florida, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.Winkler, listed in jail records as a contractor, could not be reached Wednesday. Durkin said Winkler told police officers he got upset with Fernandez because she "gave him the finger." Fernandez told the Times Wednesday that "whatever gestures I made, I made them because I was trying to figure out why he was honking at me and pointing to his sign. At first I didn't know why he was screaming at me," she said. "Then it clicked." In her frantic nine-minute call Tuesday to a 911 dispatcher, Fernandez said it was the Bush Cheney '04 bumper sticker on her green Ford Expedition that set the other driver off. "I was just almost run off the road by a man," she told the dispatcher at 5:14 p.m. She was taking her son, 10, and daughter, 3, to a ballfield. AH-HA!!!An evil SUV! C'mon, lady. Can you blame the guy? Your evil gas guzzling SUV caused the war in Iraq! "He just ran me off because I have a Bush bumper sticker in my car. He had some type of - he drove up next to me with - he had a sign on it like hanging from his - from the passenger window, that said something about the war in Iraq. . . . I'm shaking like a leaf." Durkin said Winkler started following Fernandez at the intersection of Columbus Drive and Armenia Avenue shortly after 5 p.m. "He told our officers that he just got mad at her, so he went after her," Durkin said. As Fernandez drove south on Armenia, the other driver pulled alongside her in his black 1996 Nissan, beeping his horn and "flailing his arms," according to a police report. He held the antiwar sign up to his passenger-side window, she said, following her along busy streets in south and west Tampa and veering into her path, forcing her to swerve to avoid a collision. She pleaded with the dispatcher for help and tried to get away by running through stop signs and changing directions. "Oh, now he's following me! I'm gonna get back on Kennedy now. I don't know what to do!" she told the dispatcher, her voice rising. At one point the man pulled his car in front of Fernandez's, got out and started running toward her, Fernandez told police. At that point, I would've turned him into a hood ornament. "He just pulled over next to me, he's stopping the car, it's ridiculous, this man!" she said. "He's running after my car. Oh my goodness, he's a fanatic, he's in the middle of the street!" She drove along Arrawana Avenue and Habana Street, then back onto Kennedy Boulevard, but she couldn't shake him, Durkin said. "He's trying to hurt us. Look at this, what a moron," she said. "Look at him! . . . Idiot!" Nah. Kerry voter. Well... yeah, he's an idiot. The dispatcher told Fernandez to drive to the Tampa police office near Raymond James Stadium, but she drove instead to the ballfield where she had been headed with her children before the chase. She met with a police officer and carefully described the Nissan and its tag number, Durkin said. Officers traced the tag to Winkler, went to his home within an hour and arrested him. Janee Murphy, chairwoman of Hillsborough's Democratic Executive Committee, said bumper stickers and campaign signs attracted plenty of aggressive behavior during the election cycle, although nothing as scary as Tuesday's confrontation. "A lot of our Democrats that had Kerry stickers came across people who got very aggressive," Murphy said. "They were having their cars keyed, having cars come up very close to them. We've had situations where people curse at them, give hand gestures because of what they have on their car."But it's just sad, no matter what your political beliefs are," she said. "We don't need people fighting with each other at home when we have so much going on in the Middle East." So we know who you're blaming for this, don't we, Janee? And it ain't Mr. Winkler... Records show Winkler has been registered as a Democrat since 1996 and has lived in the Tampa Bay area for more than a decade. Calls to his home were not returned. Winkler's father, John Winkler, 59, of Safety Harbor, didn't know about the incident until a St. Petersburg Times reporter called him. He said his son, a Web designer, is "kind of a laid back guy." "That is so not like Nathan," he said. "I know that he is very anti-Bush. But I don't see him doing anything like that. He's certainly not aggressive. He's the least aggressive person I know." Fernandez, too, is a Democrat. She has been a card-carrying party member since August 1988 - a few months before George W.'s father, George Herbert Walker Bush, was elected president. Members of Fernandez's family said they don't necessarily vote along party lines. Fernandez voted for Bush in his recent re-election bid, they said. "I'm registered as a Democrat," Fernandez's mother Marie Fernandez said. "And I voted for Bush, too. Party doesn't matter." "I respect him for having his beliefs and feeling so strongly," Michelle Fernandez said Wednesday night, her nerves still frayed. "But here he is protesting the war and lost lives, and he is going to put me and my children in danger? This man has a serious problem." Hey, he's just exercising his First Amendment rights, lady. Don't try to "disenfranchise " him! |
| Posted by:tu3031 |
| #17 LOL - Hendrix was a pioneer, although SRV could do his songs lick for lick. Zeppelin is still my band - although I like everything from the Dead to the Blasters...3600 songs in my MP3 files and 700+ CDs - I like a lot, just Zep was/is my fav |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-03-11 10:26:59 PM |
| #16 Hey don't insult my Jimi Hendrix T-Shirt. I can't even keep him in the same drawer with my Lead Zepplin T-Shirts. Bruised Spreingbock. What a freeking joke to someone hard core like me. That's like claiming John Cougar Mellonhead is a rocker. I think Ballader is actually the word that describes both of them. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2005-03-11 10:20:19 PM |
| #15 was and still am, I should've said.... Plant/Page No Quarter - Unledded is a masterpiece of RnR and some world music influences. Rent the DVD if you're too cheap to buy the CD and DVD |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-03-11 9:19:46 PM |
| #14 Eric Clapton was God to a generation too. I was a Jimmy Page/Rob't Plant guy, and although not God, they kicked Bruce's ass. See: records sold |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-03-11 9:14:37 PM |
| #13 To many fans Springsteen is like GOD** (we all have different taste buds) Andrea |
| Posted by: Andrea Jackson 2005-03-11 8:45:49 PM |
| #12 So, Andrea, removing your Springsteen sticker is equivalent to burning a cross for you? This is a textbook case of lefty pop-culture conformity. |
| Posted by: Atomic Conspiracy 2005-03-11 8:23:23 PM |
| #11 I get it. The guy is anti-war (and I would assume anti-violence). So he attacks, and tries to kill someone that disagrees with him. Yeah...that's rational thinking. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2005-03-11 8:12:55 PM |
| #10 Andrea! My Ears! Take the caps lock off! |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2005-03-11 7:37:08 PM |
| #9 YES, I BELIEVE IN THE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS, HOWEVER- DON'T ENDANGER ANYONE. THIS SITUATION SHOULD NEVER HAD HAPPENED. I ONCE HAD A "HONK IF YOU LIKE BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN" BUMPER STICKER ON A CAR I OWNED AND THE TENANTS IN THE APARTMENT IN FRONT OF ME ASKED THAT I TAKE THE STICKER OFF BECAUSE THE WHOLE WORLD KNEW WHERE I LIVED AND CAR'S WERE DRIVING PAST THE DIRVEWAY HONKING LIKE CRAZY! THUS, I WAS DISTURBING THE PEACE. I HATED TO TAKE THE BUMPER STICKER OFF- I FELT LIKE I WAS BURNING THE CROSS! ANDREA JACKSON |
| Posted by: Andrea Jackson 2005-03-11 7:35:07 PM |
| #8 Ship, do you remember the carbonated beverage during that campaign called Au H2O? It tasted like, bleech, Mt. Dew. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2005-03-11 7:24:03 PM |
| #7 My Florida for Goldwater bumpersticker gets me happy nods from all sorts of people. (yes I bought the bumpersticker in '82) |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-03-11 5:14:01 PM |
| #6 Why am I not suprised to find out this guy is a web designer? Slashdot Derangement Syndrone, anyone? |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2005-03-11 4:56:36 PM |
| #5 Amen BAR! This guy needs a good ass whooping. It's the only cure for BDS. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2005-03-11 4:35:44 PM |
| #4 I'm waiting for someone to pull that crap with me; I have a surprise sitting on the floor between the seat and the door of my truck. (I might be waiting for a long time, as I don't have any political stickers on the bumper...) |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2005-03-11 4:05:37 PM |
| #3 Heh. I saw some chucklehead on Morrissey Blvd. three weeks ago sporting a "Re-Defeat Bush" sticker on his shitty little van. I rolled down my window & motioned to him to do the same. I yelled out "Re-Defeat Bush? How's that working out for ya?" and punched the gas before he could react as I flew across the intersection, the light just turning yellow. I could see the guy flipping me the bird, caught at the red light. Laughed all the way to Manch Vegas! |
| Posted by: Raj 2005-03-11 3:36:43 PM |
| #2 "He’s the least aggressive person I know." Isn't that what the parents always say? I guess you don't really know your kid, fool. He's got BDS. Bad. Not to mention stupid. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-03-11 3:23:09 PM |
| #1 "A lot of our Democrats that had Kerry stickers came across people who got very aggressive," So "Twit" Murphy, your anecdotes excuse this Pond Scum from trying to kill the woman and her kids. How Democratic of you. |
| Posted by: BigEd 2005-03-11 2:52:21 PM |