On August 5, 2025, Mayor John C. Glidden, Jr. of Closter, New Jersey sent a formal condemnation letter to my entire community about: me. In that letter, he said he would not mention my name, my website, or my writings, because he did not want to "provide me with the attention I seek." He then accused me of "antisemitic expression" for placing two small magnetic swastikas on my car, and of spreading "hate speech." He said this even though the website listed on my car explained, in detail, the ancient and peaceful meaning of that symbol. That site was a blog then. Today it is a fully functional platform for open discussion.

I believe the real reason he left out my name and my company's website is simpler: naming me would have exposed him to a lawsuit for slandering me and my business. I am a quiet person. I seek no attention for myself. I have said plainly that I hate no one, that I have Jewish friends, and that I targeted no group. I simply felt someone needed to speak the truth. An elected official does not surrender his own First Amendment rights when he takes office. Mayor Glidden is free to disagree with me, loudly and in public. What he is not free to do is this: 1. Slander a citizen who has clearly and publicly stated his peaceful intent. 2. Use the power of the state — the police — to punish that citizen for protected speech. 
 You can argue about where criticism ends and slander begins, but there is no argument about the second one. Turning a police department against a resident for speech is, as I understand the law, a conspiracy to violate civil rights and the basis for a First Amendment retaliation claim.

Why I put the symbols on my car

I am a son of Indian immigrants. I am an American citizen, born here, raised here, and a resident of this country for all 41 years of my life. I am also the father of three little girls. Over my lifetime I have watched the country I love come apart. I believe it is my duty, and the duty of all Americans, to speak out when something’s wrong, so that my children and all children might inherit the America that we all remember. When I put those two magnets on my car next to my web address, I had two goals. The first was to get people to read what I had written about the ancient, peaceful meaning of the swastika. The second was to wake people up to the genocidal actions of what is currently the State of Israel, and to the related corruption inside the United States. I do not sort humanity into "Jews" and "non-Jews." I see people as people. My writing was harsh at times. It never targeted Jewish people as a whole, and it never targeted anyone in my community. People who are Jewish can be criminals, the same as anyone else, and after eight months of research into the subject, I think a reader can understand my anger. I have always held Jewish people in high regard. That was true when I worked alongside several great Jewish doctors in the Emergency Department at Westchester Medical Center, when members of the local Hasidic community frequently sought treatment there, and it stayed true even after I learned that some Jewish people view non-Jews like me as lesser — as "goyim" — when I had nothing but respect for them. But what I found in that research was a great deal to take in. Bad apples do not represent the whole tree. If I offended anyone in my community without meaning to, I am sincerely sorry.

The knock on the door

Shortly after the magnets went on my car, a Closter Police Officer came to my home. I explained what I have explained here: that to me, to many immigrants living in America, and to a great many people around the world, the swastika remains a symbol of peace and prosperity. We have a Hindu temple right here in town. I am confident you will find a swastika or two inside it. What does Mayor Glidden have to say to the people who worship there? I reminded the officer that my speech is protected by the First Amendment. He agreed. We shook hands. He left. From that moment on, I had a target on my back. The Closter Police Department — weaponized, I believe, by Mayor Glidden and likely by his donors — was looking for any opening. In Closter's Borough form of government, the mayor is the commander-in-chief and is ultimately responsible for what his police department does.

August 4, 2025: the threats

That night, anonymous people flooded my blog with death threats against me and with graphic threats of harm against my wife, my children, and my elderly mother. They threatened to burn my house down. They doxxed us — publishing our home address and my wife's place of employment across social media. My wife and I got into a heated argument about it. The next day, a man called me on the phone and told me he was going to kill me. I want to be honest about what that does to a person. It put me in a completely different headspace. It is not an ordinary day when a stranger calls to say he intends to murder you over a peaceful protest. This is supposed to be America. My wife called the police. She was frightened and overwhelmed, and above all she was scared for our girls. I understand why she called.

What happened next

Several police cars pulled up, as though a violent crime had just occurred. The officers asked whether I would be willing to get checked out by a doctor. I was in shock from a death threat I had received minutes earlier and I said yes. What they did not tell me was where they were taking me. It was a psychiatric facility called Bergen New Bridge Medical Center. In practice, a place like that runs like a minimum-security prison — for people who have committed no crime, but whom government officials have decided should be stripped of their rights. People, for instance, who exercise their Freedom of Speech under the First Amendment. While I was locked inside, Glidden issued his statement of condemnation, and the Closter Police hand delivered me a Temporary Extreme Risk Protection Order, or TERPO. That is a court order used to take away a person's firearms. They were moving against my Second Amendment rights while I sat in a locked ward illegally, unable to respond. Also while I was locked inside, someone vandalized my car by spray-painting hexagrams on it. That is an actual crime, with actual property damage. The police said they investigated, and then they closed the case without a resolution.

All I had done was speak. I hurt no one. I damaged no one's property. But death threats and vandalism go unpunished... IN AMERICA? Where is the justice in that?

Eight days

Through the entire stay I was coherent. I was never psychotic. I never threatened harm to anyone. The doctor assigned to me — a man I do not believe deserves the title, Asghar Hossain — demeaned me in front of other people. He mocked me for not finishing medical school. He referred to my wife and daughters as "the family I used to have." He also used my faith against me. I told him what I believe: that no person has the right to take the life of another, and that God, and only God, Gives life and Takes it. He turned that into a diagnosis. He called it "religious preoccupation" and said it meant I should be medicated. Dr. Hossain is clearly mentally ill and unfit to treat patients. He saw me for less than five minutes a day. Each time, he told me I would not be permitted to leave unless I took antipsychotic medication — drugs that carry real harm and that I had no symptoms to justify. I took none of it. I was eventually released, once they understood they had no legal ground to hold me. By then I had been held for eight days, illegally, without the legal procedures that are supposed to protect a person from exactly this.

Court

Soon after my release, I had to go to trial. The Closter Police Department, under Mayor Glidden, was seeking a Final Extreme Risk Protection Order, or FERPO — a permanent revocation of my Second Amendment right to own a firearm. I had committed no crime. I am not a violent man. I do not have a mental illness.

The judge who heard my case is, from what I can tell, one of the few in New Jersey who cannot be pushed. He read more than 500 pages of medical records from Bergen New Bridge. He described the facility's findings as conclusory — meaning they asserted conclusions without the evidence to support them. He found that my actions were protected by the First Amendment and denied the Closter Police Department's request.

Then they came for my family

Having lost in court, Glidden's Closter Police found another way to reach me. My family was investigated by the Division of Child Protection and Permanency, or DCP&P, New Jersey's state child welfare agency. There were several visits. Strangers went through our private lives. In the end, the agency found the allegations unfounded — no evidence of abuse, no evidence of neglect. My children are loved and well cared for, and anyone who spends ten minutes in our home can see it. Think about what that means. There are children in this state who are genuinely at risk from predators. Meanwhile a tax-funded agency is pointed at a father who wrote things a corrupt puppet mayor’s handler’s disliked, in order to send a message.

The year I spent building something

I spent the next year quietly building Is Real — a verified public square with no bots, no tracking, no censorship, and no manipulative algorithms. A place where ordinary citizens can talk about real issues, including government corruption. It is the first and only verified networking platform in America, and it includes a patent-pending caller verification system called SpeakID. Once the platform was ready in July of 2026, I started posting again. That, I am certain, ruffled feathers, and Glidden's police department was already on the case.

July 13, 2026

I passed out on my own lawn, most likely from acute dehydration. I’m not sure how President Trump does it, but Diet Coke is certainly a diuretic. In the days leading up to this, I was drinking way too much of it, and not enough water. I want to describe this plainly, because it matters. I could not move. My vision was going black. I felt the life going out of my body, and I honestly believed I was dying. With the last energy I had, I called out to God and asked Him not to let me die, because I want to be here for my babies. In an instant, life came back into me. A rush of adrenaline hit and I got to my feet screaming. That reaction is not unusual. After surviving a sudden, life-threatening event, the body's fight-or-flight system stays switched on and floods the system with stress hormones. It can leave a person shaking, heart racing, shouting. My neighbor, Retired Marine Corps Corporal John Hernandez, saw me. He noticed my lips were cracked and dry, and he offered me two bottles of water. I drank them and felt much better. Moments later, what seemed like the entire Closter Police Department arrived, along with an ambulance. Apparently a neighbor had heard the screaming, without context, and called 911. By the time they arrived I was calm, collected, and in no distress whatsoever. The officers insisted that I go to Bergen New Bridge to get checked out. I declined, which is my right. An officer then grabbed my arm, and four of them took me to the ground, handcuffed me, and imprisoned me against my will. I have written about that experience in detail here.

And then, again

After I was released from yet another illegal detention, another round of DCP&P visits began, initiated once more through the Closter Police Department — even though my children were not present during the incident that supposedly prompted it.

 At this point I assume that if I cross the street wrong, I'll be face-down on the pavement before I reach the curb. I'd call that a joke, except I have already been taken to the ground and handcuffed on my own front lawn for the crime of standing up. My four-year-old daughter now cries every time I leave the house. She is afraid her father is going to disappear again. Enough is enough.

Questions that deserve answers

Mayor Glidden: You run this borough, and you are up for reelection. What is your justification for turning the police department against a taxpaying constituent over protected speech? Bergen New Bridge: What are you doing to hold your physicians accountable for ignoring legal procedure and stripping a citizen of his rights? Governor Mikie Sherrill: What oversight or legislation are you pursuing to hold facilities like Bergen New Bridge accountable when they bypass the law to detain American citizens? Bergen County Prosecutor's Office: Your office supervises internal affairs for every municipal police department in this county. Does your office review the circumstances under which a municipal department initiates a referral to DCP&P against a household it has an active adversarial history with — particularly a second referral, following an unfounded finding, concerning an incident at which the children were not present? If no such review exists, who would conduct one?