📌 Pinned Down: 6 Days of Censorship

How Ocean Beach HOA Turned Thumbtacks into Weapons of Censorship

What begins with missing push pins might sound petty


Until you see the pattern:
It isn’t about posting placement — it’s about personal preference and power.

Over the past months, our community bulletin boards and sharing tables have been transformed — from open forums into tools of suppression, retaliation, and absurdity.

This isn’t about office supplies. It’s about free expression, selective enforcement, and an HOA willing to waste thousands in attorney fees to silence one member while punishing everyone else.

đŸ§Ÿ HOA Myth vs Reality 

HOA Myth:

“Civil Code §4515 only protects assembly, not flyers. Sorry, no thumbtacks for you.”

Reality Check:

So apparently, “free assembly” means we can gather in the clubhouse and sing Kumbaya — but the moment someone posts a flyer, democracy collapses.

  • If bulletin boards aren’t for community speech, why do they leave up their own notices and petunia dĂ©cor?

  • If 4515 doesn’t cover flyers, why does the statute literally say members can ‘distribute literature’?

  • Selective removal isn’t “neutral policy.” It’s censorship with a staple gun.

Translation:

The HOA isn’t protecting the law. They’re protecting their monopoly on the bulletin board — one tack at a time

Day 1: Coordinated Censorship

On August 14th, I attempted to use the new boards. I supplied my own single thumbtack on each board to make it possible, and placed a single QR code, they were removed within a day, in coordination across all buildings, including the tacks:

Day 2: Window Dressing (875 Flower Basket Stunt)

On August 15th, after posting on the boards, someone removed the flier in the 875 building, along with the tacks, and there was a flower basket nailed into the bulletin board in it’s place.

A symbol of repurposing community space into decoration instead of dialogue.

In 825: The single flier and 2 tacks were also removed

In 855: The single flier was removed, but the 2 tacks remained.

They called the cops on fliers, but a whole bouquet with nails = “permitted”? Why? Because it was Petunias.

Enforcement here looks less like rulemaking 



and more like improv theater.

Day 3: Written Taunts (Building 825 & 875)

  • Flyers placed on August 16th weren’t just removed — they were defaced with personal insults and taunts.

  • This shows animus, not random annoyance.

Also on August 16th, a board member was repeatedly power washing public sidewalks and creating safety issues by leaving water all over common areas without cleaning it or posting signage:

Pictured above - Aug 16, 7:39pm - puddles of water left in the 825 building elevator and walkways by the same board member who was washing chalk on public sidewalks.

Pictured above - What’s revealing is what they don’t erase. Apparently the website URL is a threat, but “let’s fix this” can sit for weeks.

Day 4: Ongoing Suppression

  • On August 17th, I printed small AI generated satire cartoons and posted them with double sided scotch tape, since there were still no tacks (and the ones I provided kept being stolen).

  • Notices were again defaced with more written taunts.

  • People began to notice and discuss the constant shortage of thumbtacks.

Day 5: Let there be tacks

Suddenly tacks appeared

Day 6: Unlawful Fines, Stolen Tacks, Smear Campaign, Coordinated Censorshop

Aug 19 between 10am and 4pm in the 855 building, all thumbtacks have been removed, other than the ones holding up multiple pages of defamation against one homeowner (printed on association letterhead).

All fliers have been purged across all buildings. Nearly all thumbtacks have been removed. Ongoing removals are occurring, even small slips of paper informing you of the censorship are quickly being removed.

Importantly, the board’s recent August 15th letter escalates the dispute needlessly by adding new threats of ~$5,000 additional fees (with no cure opportunity as required by AB 130) stacked on top of the existing nearly $10,000 in fees (already paid in protest).

This serves as a stark example of the tyrannical HOA causing members to fear speaking freely - false accusations, I never chalked a wall. In one case, I was fined for simply being caught on video entering the elevator with surfing gear and some fliers in my wagon. It also polices my activities outside of the property and refers to public sidewalks as “common area”:

By August 19th, the board is now circulating and posting letters in place of my fliers publicly blaming me, smearing my name, concealing the thumbtacks (again), and unlawfully billing me thousands in attorney fees for daring to point out these violations.

They accuse me of “defaming” them by falsely claiming they removed the tables because of me. Yet in the very same breath, they admit they did remove the tables “because of me.” Each new letter rewrites the last, creating a circus of contradictions:

Why This Matters

  • Civil Code §4515: Members of common-interest developments cannot have their rights to free expression unreasonably restricted.

  • Once the HOA provides bulletin boards, they cannot weaponize them to suppress speech they dislike.

  • Selective enforcement (my flyers removed while HOA notices remain untouched) is bad faith governance.

  • Retaliatory billing is not only unlawful but a direct attempt to chill protected speech.

The Bigger Picture

This isn’t just “missing tacks.” It’s:

  1. Consistency → Same behavior across multiple buildings.

  2. Targeting → Only my materials are removed/defaced, while junk piles are tolerated.

  3. Escalation → From removals → taunts → structural changes → smear campaigns (looks like election interference).

When you zoom out, the pattern is undeniable.