A Bailey Island restaurant and its owners are facing a barrage of criticism and threats because of a now-removed bumper sticker on a co-owner’s vehicle that said, “Make Assassinations Great Again.”
The controversy erupted after a photo of the sticker taken at a local farmers market was posted on social media, where it was widely shared and condemned. A post identifying Fishnet Cafe co-owner Ray DeSilva by name on X, formerly Twitter, had received 7.1 million views as of Tuesday night.
“We’ll no longer stand idly by while radical leftists call to KILL patriots in our country,” conservative commentator Nick Sortor wrote on X, where he has 1.2 million followers. “MAKE HER FAMOUS!”
DeSilva said she applied the bumper sticker two years ago and had never received any criticism about it — even from conservative friends and colleagues — until the social media posts went viral last weekend. She said her intent had been to push back against what DeSilva, who is lesbian, perceived as an onslaught of violent rhetoric aimed at LGBTQ people and others.
“I do view the bumper sticker as coming from a place of defense,” she said in an interview. “If someone had come to me personally and said (they were) hurt by it, I would have taken it off.”
Still, DeSilva said she realized the bumper sticker might be interpreted differently after the Sept. 10 fatal shooting of conservative activist and media figure Charlie Kirk. But she said it took two weeks for her to follow through on that instinct and remove the sticker.
“I’m apologetic that I didn’t remove (it) the day Kirk died,” DeSilva said. “But overall, I feel I should be allowed to express my frustration with being part of a group that’s being constantly targeted.”
Online firestorm
DeSilva, who owns the cafe with her wife, Ashley DeSilva, said the couple first realized something was amiss this weekend, when the restaurant’s Facebook page started receiving a torrent of negative and angry comments.
The DeSilvas learned what was happening and deleted the page, but criticism of their business has since spread far and wide. Yelp, a website where the public can post restaurant reviews, flagged the cafe’s page and disabled posts after hundreds of people left one-star reviews calling out DeSilva for her use of violent rhetoric.
“What happened to your humanity?” one review reads. “Wishing death on others, glorifying murder, and turning cruelty into a punchline isn’t just tasteless — it’s dangerous. It poisons public discourse and invites harm. You may think it’s just a sticker, but messages like that have consequences. They normalize hate.”
DeSilva showed the Anchor some other messages she has received that were far less polite. “Hopefully we can celebrate Ray’s assassination one day soon,” reads one. “Maybe someone can use (the DeSilvas) as target practice,” another says. “I hope (President Donald) Trump sends you to rape camp,” reads another.
DeSilva said she has responded to the threats by deleting her social media presence, beefing up security at the restaurant and asking local sheriff’s deputies to make regular visits, which they have been doing. She said Portland police also contacted her proactively just to make sure she was OK.
On Facebook, X and other sites, some of DeSilva’s critics have called her homophobic slurs or falsely stated that she is transgender and an LGBTQ activist. DeSilva, a cisgender woman, said she hasn’t engaged in any activism in years, to the point that she feels guilty about it.
Conservative media outlets have repeated those statements, and one article even attributed quotes to DeSilva that she never gave, she said. She said the experience has made her more empathetic toward trans people, and more aware of the types of abuse they endure.
Threat or free speech?
Sortor, the commentator who originally called out DeSilva by name for her bumper sticker, said in his post that he had filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and that it had launched an investigation into DeSilva.
Sortor did not respond to an email seeking comment. A spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service said the federal agency is aware of the bumper sticker but would not disclose any further details.
“The U.S. Secret Service investigates anything perceived as a threat or potential threat to our protectees,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We are aware of the post on social media, but we do not confirm or comment on matters of protective intelligence.”
Justin Silverman, executive director of the New England First Amendment Coalition, said the bumper sticker’s message on its own is protected speech. For it to be illegal, he said, it would have to constitute a “true threat” — speech conveying a serious intent to commit unlawful violence — or be paired with additional actions indicating intent.
“Simply saying ‘Make Assassinations Great Again’ may be an awful message, but it’s protected,” Silverman said in an interview.
DeSilva said the bumper sticker has been available for sale since at least 2017 and that hundreds of people likely have them on their vehicles. She believes she was targeted more for her identity than for the sticker’s message.
But not all of the criticism aimed at DeSilva has been politically motivated. Eric Harthan, a Brunswick resident who visits Harpswell regularly, said he was disgusted and dismayed by the bumper sticker’s violent message. He contacted the Anchor to express his concern.
“It’s sick that people can feel so good about promoting violence,” Harthan said in an interview. “I’m sorry, but we don’t want those kinds of (business owners) here.”
DeSilva said she understands why the bumper sticker offended some people, but she believes many of those same people regularly ignore or dismiss equally violent rhetoric when it is aimed at marginalized groups.
“You shouldn’t match violence with violence, but only the minority group gets told that,” DeSilva said. “The violent oppressors that Trump directly encourages are never told, ‘Hey, you shouldn’t have said that.'”
Bailey Island resident Liza Rowland said she and her husband are neighbors and regular customers of the cafe “because they have absolutely incredible food.”
“And we run in the same circle because this is a tight-knit community, especially for small-business owners,” said Rowland, who owns and operates The Holbrook Store in Cundy’s Harbor.
She described DeSilva as a “smart, warm, kind person who is thoughtful and welcoming to everyone, even people she doesn’t agree with.”
“Fishnet Cafe welcomes people of all different backgrounds and ideologies, and that is the beautiful part of our community, and the beautiful part of Maine,” Rowland said. “We have a pride flag, and across the street somebody might have a MAGA flag, and we’re all going to the same restaurant, eating at the same place, and we’re all friends.”
