Liberty (town), New York
| Liberty | |
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| Town | |
State Route 17 at Liberty
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_highlighted.svg) Location of the town of Liberty in Sullivan County, New York |
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| Coordinates: 41°48′05″N 074°44′48″W / 41.80139°N 74.74667°WCoordinates: 41°48′05″N 074°44′48″W / 41.80139°N 74.74667°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | New York |
| County | Sullivan County |
| Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) |
| • Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) |
| Website | www |
Liberty is a town in Sullivan County, New York, United States. The population was 9,885 at the 2010 census.
The Town of Liberty contains a village also named Liberty. The village is bisected by state route 52 and 55, and is crossed by New York State Route 17.
The town of Liberty was created from the Town of Lumberland in 1807 and became the fourth town in the county. The town of Callicoon was taken off, and a part of the Town of Thompson added in 1842, and a part of the Town of Rockland added in 1849. The first permanent white settlement was made by Eleazer Larabee from Stonington, CT, who came to Liberty from the Town of Neversink in 1794. Larabee constructed the first sawmill in the town, located at the outlet of Brodhead Pond (now Revonah Lake), where the initial settlement, known as the Blue Mountain Settlement, in the town was located. Subsequent settlements were in the present Village of Liberty, in Liberty Falls (now the hamlet of Ferndale), the hamlet of Parksville, the hamlet of Stevensville (now Swan Lake) and the hamlet of Robertsonville (now White Sulphur Springs). The Town of Liberty furnished 303 men for the army during the Civil War. Liberty was amongst the many towns to benefit from the boom in Sullivan County hotels during the 1950s. After many of the hotels left, the town was left without a stable economic footing, and has since suffered from lack of jobs.
Liberty made headlines in September 2015, when a federal judge ruled that town officials violated a man's First Amendment rights by arresting him for writing profanities on a speeding ticket. The New York Daily News reported that William Barboza was pulled over for speeding in Liberty in 2012 and decided to plead guilty to the ticket by mail. But he expressed his frustration with the town by scratching out "Liberty" and replaced it with "Tyranny." He also wrote "fuck your shitty town bitches" on the payment form. The payment was declined and when he went to his court appearance, he was arrested for allegedly "violating the state's former 'aggravated harassment' statute," according to the New York Civil Liberties Union. Barboza filed a federal lawsuit arguing that Liberty police and prosecutors violated his First Amendment rights. Federal Judge Cathy Seibel agreed, writing that Barboza's comments were a legitimate criticism of Liberty's government and not a threat or harassment.
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