North Naples boating dispute leads to Nazi name-calling
A dispute over boaters' rights in a North Naples gated community led one resident to unfurl a Nazi flag Saturday and erect a sign likening one of his neighbors to a fascist.
John Gursoy, 53, a resident of the Quarry, hung the Nazi flag and sign from a blue and white cherry picker by the back entrance to the community, just north of Immokalee Road and Collier Boulevard.
A "handful" of residents filed complaints with the Collier County Sheriff's Office, spokeswoman Michelle Batten said. Several others criticized the display on Nextdoor, a neighborhood social network, calling it an embarrassment and a disgrace.
Gursoy said he put the display up around 8 a.m. as a "warning to the community that this is the direction we're going with the current board." It was meant to protest proposed changes to the rules regarding the use of the community's lake, and recent changes to the way existing rules are being enforced.
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In particular, he said the Quarry Community Association board recently started enforcing a ban on boats with two-stroke engines. He has a boat with a two-stroke engine, he said, and it was OK'd by previous community leaders when he moved in to the Quarry in July 2013. He said he received a letter Monday demanding he remove the boat from the water.
Gursoy said he is also upset because he's being told he can't moor his boat at another resident's dock, and because the board has proposed changes to the rules that would limit the number of personal watercrafts allowed at a dock and increase the age of boat operators to 14. Gursoy has a 13-year-old son who boats in the community.
He said he can't get an audience with board leaders to hear his complaints. That's why he put up the Nazi flag.
"This flag is symbolic of the most discriminatory, selective enforcement of rules ever in the history of mankind," he said. "That's all that kept coming to my mind. I can't get an audience with anyone. I can't speak the truth to anyone."
Gursoy is the president of Bobcat Tractor Tree & Landscape Eager Beaver Stump Grinding, according to social media profiles. He is also a youth minister at Celebration Community Beach Church, according to the church's staff page.
Peter Rietz, the man who Gursoy's sign likened to a fascist, said he is volunteering with the Quarry Community Association to revise rules for the lake, where residents boat, fish and water ski.
He said the two-stroke engine ban has been in place since Pulte Homes developed the community, and the limit on personal watercrafts is not in the current revision of the rules.
Being likened to a fascist is offensive, said Rietz, who added he is not a voting member of the community association.
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"It's very frustrating," said Rietz, a lawyer. "My wife is up in arms. Our neighbors are all up in arms. The police have been here. It's obviously in poor taste and reflects on the individual.
"It's hard to believe how someone who holds himself out as a Christian would behave in this fashion."
Batten said Gursoy's display was on private property. Deputies' attempts to identify and reach the property owner were unsuccessful, she said. Deputies did not order Gursoy to take the flag down.
"There is no crime being committed," Batten said.
Expecting a response, Gursoy said he notified law enforcement before erecting the display. When asked if he felt his dispute over boating rights was in any way equivalent to the Holocaust, Gursoy said that's why he took the flag down around 10:30 a.m., though he left the sign up until about 3:30 p.m.
"The flag was so overbearing in its historical representation that people were missing the message," he said.
Gursoy said he printed the Nazi flag at Kinkos. If he could do it over again, he said he's not sure yet if he would.
"The dust hasn't settled enough for me to figure that out."