Concord Mills Mall: Simon Malls Attack Conservative Vendor

The Free Market Warrior is a business renting space in the Concord Mills Mall in Concord, N.C. Their lease will not renewed when it expires on July 31, 2009. Conservatism at Concord Mills Mall is racist according to at least one mall-goer. Loren Spivack is the proprietor of The Free Market Warrior. His bumper stickers and posters display messages saying: "Work Harder. Obama needs the money," "Al Qaeda's favorite days: 9/11/01 and 11/04/08," and "Impeach Obama," and "my parents chose life." Jennifer Ibanez is a recent UNCC grad and she wrote a letter to the Charlotte Observer:

Free Market Warrior,” a kiosk located adjacent to Bass Pro Shops, specializes in memorabilia embellished with pro-confederacy statements as well as those opposing both the government and President Obama. In addition, these products support ideas such as racisms, sexism, and even slavery. While freedom of speech is a Constitutional right it’s difficult not to believe that something just isn’t quite right here.

One shopper found the items sold at The Free Market Warrior "racist." The management of the kiosk cubbies told a local TV news channel that the items sold are not "neutral" enough.

Mr. Spivack says he is the only conservative vendor in the Mall, while "plenty of people are selling things with a liberal perspective, with a pro-Obama perspective." Spivack says he is careful not to sell things that personally attack a politician, and wants a fair exchange of ideas. “The material that I sell is about politics and ideas,” he told Newschannel 36. “It’s all legitimate criticism.”

The very liberal Simon Malls forced an Atlanta Tea Party to cancel a parking lot Independence Day Tea Party. Mel Simon is a high-profile Democrat donor. Spivac pointed to other stores in the Mall that sell Liberal ideology, much of it crude and offensive:

If the issue is about causing offense, he told us, the mall should police other stores. Spivack sent Newschannel 36 pictures of several t-shirts and banners from novelty stores at the mall that were so crude we’ve chosen not to share them.

We know what is sold in Malls all over the country. I couldn't shop at my local Simon Mall, Woodland Hills in Tulsa, OK without seeing the most vile messages about former President G.W. Bush - for 8 years! Spivac has lost this battle with the loss of his lease. I hope he can afford to sue, or that someone will come forward and provide counsel so that he can defend his First Amendment rights, and in doing so, protect ours at the same time. Read the entire article and view the video here.