A Fort Pierce, Fla., business owner has been driving officials in the coastal city insane with his weekly messages on the marquee of his Sweeties diner.
Sometimes disrespectful, often rude, and always a woke warrior’s worst enemy, the messages routinely target the police chief and the mayor.
And Sweeties, part-owned by 63-year-old Rick Reed, is on the city’s busiest corner. It is a forced passage for thousands of motorists to I-95, the area’s artery.
Last week’s sign reads: ‘What do you call a lesbian dinosaur? leakalotofp***’
While the words border on homophobia and fatshaming, some believe the words are addressed to Fort Pierce Police Chief Diane Hobley-Burney and Mayor Linda Hudson.
Reed won’t admit it, telling that it would be “an insult to lesbian dinosaurs everywhere” to associate the chief or the mayor with lesbian dinosaurs.
Rick Reed, 63, is a partner at Sweeties Diner in Fort Pierce, Fla., and has used the restaurant’s marquee to leave disrespectful messages. This week is addressed to the mayor of the city as he posted her phone number for all to see
Last week’s sign reads: ‘What do you call a lesbian dinosaur? Leakalotofp***’. The joke is believed to be aimed at the police chief and the mayor, although Reed denies this
Many motorists in the working-class coastal town who see his signs can speculate as to the identity of the target of his sarcasm, causing a stir at his restaurant without spending a penny on publicity.
However, Reed has had unmistakable, crystal-clear insults over the years for the Chief, a 27-year-old veteran lawman he calls Hobley-Bobley, and Mayor Linda Hudson.
Some of his favorite signs aimed at the Chief are:
- ‘Play now in Ft. Pierce Police Department: The Blob, with Hobley-Bobley’
- “All I want for Christmas is a new police chief”
- ‘Hobley-Bobley sat on our wall and it fell over. The end’
- “Law Enforcement Week: All LEO Get 20% Off Except Hobley-Bobley”
- Fort Pierce Police Department theme song: Send in the Clowns. BLT or Burger Fries $5.99
- ‘No Hobley-Bobley served, but we have oxtail, $9.95’
Even the mayor became the target of his mockery:
- “We support neutering and neutering in the town hall”
- ‘Mayor Hudson, since you have two faces, can you make one pretty?’
- “Town Hall is run like a greenhouse”
Many of Reed’s words at the marquee are aimed at Fort Pierce Police Commissioner Diane Hobley-Burney or Mayor Linda Hudson
Reed has gone so far as to meet them both, with a Halloween sign that read, “If the mayor and police chief lived together, they’d be broommates.”
Occasionally, Reed goes after both, with a sign that reads, “Buy a mayor, get a half-baked police chief.”
And in late October, a Halloween sign appeared that read, “If the mayor and police chief lived together, they’d be broom buddies.”
Much of the criticism of his signs, Reed says, has come from Fort Pierce City Hall.
Mayor Hudson emailed a brief comment about the Lickalotofp*** sign, one of the clues motorists may have complained. “The City of Fort Pierce is a beautiful, diverse community and welcomes the open exchange of ideas and thoughts,” she said
In one case, the sign stated that City Hall was run like a warehouse. That led to a call from the city manager, who kindly and respectfully asked him to take it down.
Ried refused.
Another time, he received a visit from the head of the Interior Police Department with the same request about the sign asking for a new boss, and escorted the officer off the diner’s premises.
Over the years, Reed says he’s never taken down a sign, not even the one addressed to no one that read, “Teamwork: One buttcheek said to the other, together we can stop this sh*t.”
“Sometimes I just try to give drivers something fun,” he says. “I don’t always mean something political by that.
“The signs are what they are. I’m not sure if they offend anyone. For me, it’s all about the First Amendment.”
Besides, he says, there’s nothing more American than a citizen putting his feet in the fire for officials.
“The signs have become something of an institution in the city,” he says. “I don’t have an advertising or advertising budget, but I do have a lot of people coming in for the signs. We have good food so they will probably become regular customers.”
City officials, meanwhile, either ignored or did not respond to requests for comment from .
Only Mayor Hudson emailed a brief comment about the Lickalotofp*** sign, one of which suggested motorists may have complained.
“The City of Fort Pierce is a beautiful, diverse community and welcomes the open exchange of ideas and thoughts,” the mayor wrote in an email to . “Following further review by city personnel and consultation with the city attorney general, it was determined that the sign in question does not violate City of Fort Pierce ordinances.”
Reed had unequivocal, crystal-clear insults for Fort Pierce Police Commissioner Diane Hobley-Burney, a 27-year-old veteran law officer he called Hobley-Bobley
A sign addressed to the police chief read, “Law Enforcement Week: All LEO Receive 20% Off Except Hobley-Bobley.”
The chief of police (center) was suspended by the Fort Pierce city manager for five days after he allegedly made comments Reed deemed “threatening.” Reed is viewed as a pest by the city’s political establishment, which scrutinizes her every move in town hall meetings and through public records
Hudson declined further comment because the city is currently engaged in a legal battle with Reed, who filed a $2.5 million lawsuit in federal court in July 2020.
He alleged that city officials, including Hobley-Burney, Hudson and others, violated his civil liberties by using police to harass him with incessant traffic stops.
The complaint says Reed alleges he was harassed by the police chief in April 2016 and she repeatedly had officers stop him and issue traffic violations or warnings.
Over the years, records show he was pulled over for a broken traffic light near his license plate, speeding and an improper stop.
Reed, a former unsuccessful mayoral candidate, opened up Sweeties a little over six years ago as a throwback to the 1950s.
The joint is named after his maternal grandmother, whose nickname was Sweetie.
On the diner’s website, Reed describes his passion as making sure “our local government employees, police officers and elected officials are accountable to the taxpayer.”
But Reed is viewed as a nuisance by the city’s political establishment, scrutinizing her every move in town hall meetings and through public records.
He was forcibly removed from meetings and received trespassing for refusing to leave City Hall.
Fort Pierce Police Department Theme Song: Send In The Clowns. BLT or Burger Fries $5.99′ read a sign
The chief of police was suspended by the Fort Pierce city manager for five days after he allegedly made comments Reed deemed “threatening.”
Reed says the boss visited him after he sided with the family of an unarmed 21-year-old black motorist with no criminal record who was shot in the back and killed by patrol officers while allegedly fleeing a traffic stop in April 2016 .
Reed sided with those who asked that the US Department of Justice step into the investigation, which he says the chief didn’t appreciate.
“She told me her son was coming for me,” Reed said. “He has a criminal record related to drugs, so I took it as a threat.”
Reed has also gotten under the skin of city officials in court.
In 2019, he filed another federal lawsuit after City Commissioner Jeremiah Johnson denied Reed access to his Twitter feed.
Seven months after Reed’s filing, the men reached an agreement that reads, “If the First Amendment means anything, it means the best response to unpopular speech on matters of public interest is more speech, not less.”
Reed was so proud of the way the settlement was read that he framed the selected portions and hung them in the diner.
So there’s little chance that Reed will cool it down with the signs any time soon.
And if some of them sound sexist or homophobic or fat-shaming, he doesn’t care. Everyone who knows him, he says, knows that he does not tolerate discrimination.
And for those who might still not like the signs, Reed had another message on his sign: “Complain to 1-800-EAT-SH*T.”