Rhinebeck Ruckus With Elderly Man at Farmer's Market

The Rhinebeck police came to intervene when an 83-year-old got into an altercation right outside the farmer's market.

The fight, as you might have guessed, was over politics. According to The Daily Beast, a former candidate for county legislator and congressional hopeful decided to oppose a table set up by the Rhinebeck Democratic Committee. Members of the group claim that the man set up right next to them and began intercepting people at the table, causing confusion about their message.

The man in question, an RFK Jr. supporter, was allegedly spreading misinformation about vaccines and the Coronavirus. Larry Cox, who was one of the democrats set up at the market, says that the man was causing lots of confusion.

When people came up, he talked to them about, you know, vaccines are bad, and masking is bad, and all the stuff that RFK says... The problem is that, being right next to us, people were thinking that he was part of us.

The altercation escalated when an anti-Kennedy sign was placed in front of the man. That's when police were called in to intervene.

Google Maps

The man doesn't understand why there can't be a debate over who the Democratic presidential candidate will be and says he has a right to be heard. Members of the Rhinebeck Democratic Committee say they have no problem with him expressing his opinion, they just wanted him to move to a different area so as to not interfere with their approved space at the market.

This will certainly not be the last political scuffle we'll be forced to report on as we head toward an already heated election cycle. The ironic thing about all of this is that New York is pretty inconsequential when it comes to presidential elections. It's highly unlikely the Empire State will play much into the final decision, as the state is almost guaranteed to cast its electoral votes for whomever the mainstream Democratic candidate winds up being. The last time New York voted for a Republican presidential candidate was when Ronald Regan won by a very slim margin in 1984. Since then the state has grown more and more blue with Joe Biden becoming the first candidate to earn over five million votes in 2020. Instead, it's local and state politics that are the real battleground, something that most political-focused people seem to forget.

According to witnesses, the scuffle at the Rhinebeck farmer's market ended without any physical altercation. Stoppenbach is considering whether he will return to the market, telling the Daily Beast, "I’m 83 years old, so I don’t quite have the energy I did when I was a young guy running for Congress... but you never know."

Have You Been To FDR's Cousin's House in Rhinebeck, NY?

Some may only know about FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt but there were other family members who played a role in the Hudson Valley.

Thomas Suckley and his wife Catherine Murray Bowne created history in Dutchess County, NY. Their estate called "Wilderstein" was designed in the 1800's.

According to Wilderstein.org, the meaning behind the name of their estate means "wild man's stone". This was in reference to "an Indian petroglyph on the property, a reminder of the cultural heritage that preceded European settlement of the region."

By the late 1800's, the son of Thomas and Catherine (Robert Bowne Suckley) along with his wife, Elizabeth Philips Montgomery decided to add onto the estate.

This "Queen Anne style mansion" is also known for its beautiful views, lush landscape and large property. There were three generations of the Suckley family members that lived at Wilderstein.

Who was related to FDR?

Margaret Suckley was not only just a cousin of FDR but they spent quality time together. She traveled with FDR during his presidency and gifted him his black Scottish terrier dog, Fala.

Margaret also helped FDR form his library located in Hyde Park, NY.

Some would also say that she was a "confidante" to him as well. Margaret was with FDR when he passed away in Georgia. She died at the Wilderstein estate in 1991 at 100 years old.

Margaret was the last resident to live at Wilderstein.

Wilderstein is also known as "the Hudson Valley's most important example of Victorian architecture."