Vinnie Restiano Tells Phil Amicone: “Return the stolen newspaper boxes. Reimburse the City out of your Campaign Account.”

Upon learning of the un-Constitutional seizure under the orders of Mayor Phil Amicone of 56 Westchester Guardian Newspaper distribution boxes, that had been in place for more than a year throughout the City of Yonkers, Republican Mayoral candidate Vincenza Restiano called upon Amicone to do the right thing. The following is a press release put out last week:

Press Release

YONKERS-Republican Mayoral candidate Vincenza Restiano called on Mayor Phil Amicone to accept responsibility for the removal and the by city workers of 56 Guardian news racks and to immediately return them to the owner. She also demanded that the Mayor foot the cost of litigation over this matter out of his Campaign Account.

“Removal of the news racks violated the First Amendment rights of every Yonkers citizen,” said Restiano. “And the owner and publisher of The Westchester Guardian is rightly livid about the the of the newspaper’s boxes. Clearly, someone ordered DPW employees to remove news racks that contained copies of The Westchester Guardian. And it is equally clear that it was done because Mayor Amicone did not like the editorial content of the newspaper, since news racks containing other publications were not confisscated.”

The owner of The Westchester Guardian has sued the City for $40 million and Amicone’s spokesperson defended the the of the Guardian’s boxes by claiming that it wasn’t a newspaper.

“The Mayor’s campaign should pay for the return of stolen property and for the time that it took the city employees to confiscate the news boxes,” continued Restiano. “ The Mayor should also reimburse the
city for the cost of the litigation, since it is now clear that the reason the boxes were removed is because the Mayor did not like what was being said about him.”