David Lipsic

Warning: This article contains coarse language.
David Lipsic does not like West Boca News. It’s unavoidable when you publish anything that you will encounter someone who doesn’t like what you put out there.
We see this in two ways. Some people contact us politely. Others are rude. Mr. David Lipsic falls into the latter category.
Two of our arrest articles include someone he cares about. He approached us in an aggressive manner and it hasn’t gotten better. Here’s how it started back in January:

You should consider who’s pictures and what information you put on your FB Page. Their are family members, friends, and privacy issues you should seriously consider. Some people who get arrested are not hardened criminals. They might have substance abuse issues or mental health issues that should stay within their families and protect their personal privacy.
You mentioned [omitted] in this article, who in fact has a substance abuse issues. One could only hope you have the same issue in your family so you can see what it does to a family privately let alone on a FB page.
Shame on you!

Lipsic suggests there should be some standard we use to decide whose pictures and what information get published. He’s never clear but when you dig into all of his messages it becomes apparent that his standard is that his family and friends should be exempt from crime reporting.
When Lipsic’s connection appeared in a recent article, he was back for more:

I am not going to ask your newspaper to stop posting things about [omitted] again. This is now the 2nd time that I have “politely” asked you guys to remove articles about her. I also don’t understand how you guys feel her arrest and history of her arrests or other individuals drug arrests are neighborhood news. I can only wish that you get to experience the heartbreak addiction can bring to a family and then have it publicized in a newspaper article and on a Facebook page. So for the last time, please remove your article about her otherwise I will seek other means of ceasing this article from both print and social media.

This is twice now that his approach is to wish ill upon us, that we should experience the heartbreak of addiction or mental health issues in our family (as if we haven’t already). He also shows his deliberate ignorance of us by referring to “print and social media.” We have no print version. We’re online only.
But now he raised it to another level: “I will seek other means.” That, dear readers, sounds like a threat.
When we asked what he meant by other means, he responded with this:

That’s your response? A shitty small town newspaper makes that response! Fascinating. Do you sleep well at night?

David Lipsic is an Olympic Heights graduate and currently lives in New York City. And yes folks, he just referred to West Boca, the place where we all live, as “a shitty small town.” He also again refers to us as a newspaper.
It gets worse. Here come more insults:

It’s sad that a supposed criminal defense attorney and ambulance chaser that doesn’t have a successful enough practice and needs to write for the West Boca news because he isn’t good enough to be a journalist for a relevant publication either

And we see Lipsic’s journalistic standards again in the next attack:

I’m not the one pretending to be a journalist. I didn’t think your punk ass would actually want to do journalism. I know your type. Punk ass little bitch. The funny thing is you have to go thru life know what a punk ass you are.
Now take her out of your article! Because you are offending me and my family.

If it offends him and his family, it shouldn’t be published. It’s okay for the media to cover other arrestees. Just not David Lipsic’s family. It’s the little known Lipsic exception to the First Amendment.
At this point I’d had enough. I sent the following to Mr. Lipsic:

Stop sending me messages.

His response was classic for an abusive personality:

If you haven’t noticed no one cares that you are a lawyer. When she comes out of the article I will stop messaging you trust me. Until then I will do all in my power for it to come down.

We’ve been through this before with others. West Boca News does not take kindly to rudeness, name-calling and threats. We respond better to politeness.
In this case it wouldn’t have mattered. One of our standards is that people who have multiple arrests are more newsworthy. We might be willing to remove a first offender in some circumstances.
Our regular readers know that we oppose the so-called War on Drugs. Prohibition failed with alcohol and drug prohibition is no different. We have been outspoken critics of this terrible policy for roughly 15 years.
We have no problem with Mr. Lipsic’s family member. She should not have been arrested. There is a real problem with the criminal justice system in Palm Beach County and South Florida. Violent criminals are treated too lightly because the courts, prosecutors and police are too busy with cases that should not be treated as crimes.
As for David Lipsic, we can only hope he learns from this experience. But sadly we doubt he will.