Shutting Down Free Speech: Tom Tancredo's Miami Speech In Doubt After Bomb Threat

**Update
Tancredo's trip officially cancelled:

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo has cancelled his visit to Miami on Thursday because of threats he has received, according to CBS News in Miami.

Tancredo, a Republican from Littleton, was scheduled to make a speech, entitled "Renewing America: The Need for Assimilation", to the Key Biscayne Rotary Club in Miami.

But the restaurant where Tancredo was to speak said today it didn't want him to appear on Thursday. The restaurant said some of the staff objected to working the party.

More--a threat or cold feet?:

U.S. Rep. Tom Tancredo on Tuesday canceled his much hyped visit to the city he recently likened to a Third World Country, following reports of an alleged threat made against the restaurant where he was scheduled to speak, according to a statement from his office.

Miami police Det. Willy Moreno said the department was looking into the report but declined to give details.

"We're not calling it a threat," Moreno said.

Tancredo, who advocates for more restrictive immigration laws, was scheduled to address the Miami Rotary Club in a speech entitled: "Renewing America: The Need for Assimilation" at the Rusty Pelican restaurant in Key Biscayne. It was not immediately clear who canceled the speech.

Messages left for officials at the offices Rotary Club and for Tancredo's spokesman were not immediately returned Tuesday.

"I hope to some day return to Miami when it has been able to extricate itself from the clutches of the radical multiculturalists," Tancredo said in a statement.

Randy Palmer, general manager of the Rusty Pelican, denied the cancellation was related to the alleged threat.

Palmer said the restaurant had decided earlier in the day to ask Tancredo not to come because his presence -- and the likelihood of protesters and media that would accompany him -- would disrupt other holiday parties.

"We thought it was in everyone's best interest if he didn't speak at the restaurant," Palmer said. "All the vehicles would make it difficult for clients, and we have a completely packed restaurant, one small entrance way. If you add in 30 TV stations and such, it would have been way overbearing for us."

Boo-hoo. Don't want publicity? Don't book public events.

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The threat to bomb the restaurant hosting Tom Tancredo's speech was made to occur after the event, and targeted the restaurant itself as blackmail:

Rep. Tom Tancredo's planned appearance in Miami on Thursday has been thrown into doubt because of a bomb threat and complaints from workers at the restaurant where his immigration talk was supposed to be held, a local television station reported today.
. . .
After a public spat with Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Tancredo was invited to speak at Thursday's local Rotary Club meeting, which had been scheduled to be held at the Rusty Pelican restaurant on Key Biscayne.

But CBS 4 television in Miami said that the restaurant balked at Tancredo's appearance following an alleged bomb threat and complaints from restaurant workers.

A restaurant employee, who declined to be identified, said she believed the regular Rotary meeting was going forward but "without the speaker."

Tancredo spokesman Carlos Espinosa, who was about to board a Miami-bound plane, said in an e-mail message that the restaurant was cancelling the event "due to threats on the place, not during the event, but afterwards."

They were considering going forward with Thursday's event, although at an alternate location, he said.

CBS 4 quoted Espinosa as saying the threat proved Tancredo's point.

"What is more 'third world country' than threatening to bomb the place," Espinosa said.

Most bomb threats are hoaxes, but in this day and age, precautions must be taken for not only the targeted speaker but for those in attendance and those who simply work at the venue.

So much for free speech and "diversity", eh Miami?

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