Collectables store announces on Facebook page that they no longer sell to law enforcement officers
ROSENDALE NY May 4 2021— A week ago Friday, Elizabeth Bloom was suddenly inspired to post this statement on her personal Facebook page:
“Soiled Doves will be closed to police officers as it is against our religion to sell to murderers.”
Soiled Doves is the antiques and collectibles store Bloom runs on Main Street in the Town of Rosendale. And just like that, Bloom found herself in the middle of one of the hottest debates raging across America.
The antique store Soiled Doves in Rosendale. Elizabeth Bloom, owner of the store, has declared that Antifa is her religion and has said that she will not let any police enter her shop.
The George Floyd case and other high-profile shootings and killings of unarmed Black people seems to have just about everybody talking about police reform, whether they’re for it or against it.
Bloom doesn’t remember exactly what news development prompted her to create that post, but she said she later amended it to also include firefighters and military personnel. A week later, the original post is still getting responses, almost all of them opposed.
“You’re a joke and so is your raggedy store,” goes one of the tamer comments, from Rich Geterdone.
The controversy has spread beyond Rosendale and Bloom’s Facebook page. On a Facebook page called Eastern Dutchess County Fire and Rescue, the word is being spread: Don’t patronize Soiled Doves.
Bloom said she didn’t always feel this way about police.
“I used to have great respect for law enforcement,” she said.
She also said she’s not worried that getting involved in controversy will hurt her profits.
“I’m not in this for the money,” she said. “Everything I make here, I give to Doctors Without Borders, or to (a) Haiti (charity). I’m very comfortable from my former career.'”
An “Antifa” sign hangs on the wall at Soiled Doves in Rosendale. Elizabeth Bloom, owner of the antiques store, has declared that Antifa is her religion and has said that she will not let any police enter her shop.
Several of Bloom’s fellow merchants along Main Street declined to comment about the controversial post, although they all seemed to be aware of it. The one man who did comment refused to give his name. He said Bloom is not a typical Rosendale resident and that she had gone overboard with this.
Attempts to get a community leader to react to Bloom’s post were also unsuccessful. Town Supervisor Jeanne Walsh and Police Chief Scott Schaffrick did not return calls seeking comment.
Bloom is anticipating she might get some kind of a response from the town. The outspoken shopkeeper has drawn their attention before.
Last year, Bloom said the building inspector’s office objected when she put down a Black Lives Matter sign that adhered to the sidewalk in front of her shop. She was told it was a tripping hazard.
“I said it’s only a tripping hazard to a bigot,” was her response to that.
Bloom concedes that, since police officers, firefighters and even some military people do not wear their uniforms when they are off-duty, it’s possible one might slip past her and buy something in her store. But most of them, she believes, will say something that gives them away.
And most of them, she adds, won’t understand or appreciate what she sells anyway and won’t come to her store in the first place.
While Bloom was glad to see the guilty verdicts that will send former Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin to prison for the murder of George Floyd, she does not agree with those who say that has made possible a new era of real police reform. She is expecting to see no real change.
“Every cop can justify every one of their murders,” she said. “How many more cops killed Black people before there were all these cameras everywhere?”
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