Production has resumed on “Pawn Shop,” the Daily Wire’s pro-ICE film, after officials in Livingston, Montana, reinstated its permits Monday night following a meeting with city officials.
The restart comes after the Livingston City Commission temporarily shut down filming during a Special City Commission meeting on Saturday. Ben Shapiro has now condemned that decision, arguing that the production was targeted because of its political content.
“Let us be clear: there’s only one reason the city commissioners ruled they were going to stop our production on the street: politics, pure and simple, and they pretty much admitted it,” Shapiro said.
The political commentator characterized the shutdown as “content discrimination” and “a violation of the First Amendment.”
Shapiro challenges commissioner’s remarks
During his response, Shapiro cited comments from commissioner Cindy Daniels about the effect of the production on Livingston.
“I’m not willing to sacrifice the resources of the safety, the security of the mental health of our community. Absolutely not,” Daniels said in the remarks quoted by Shapiro. “This wasn’t a Hallmark film. This wasn’t, you know, Christmastime in Livingston, and it wasn’t a romantic story.”
Shapiro pushed back on the idea that the nature of the film’s story should influence whether it could continue working in the city.
“Well, I mean, I wasn’t aware that we had to fulfill your idea of what the story required,” he said. “In fact, I’m fairly certain the First Amendment says precisely the opposite of that.”
He continued: “So they’re saying a Hallmark romance would have been totally fine. But a Daily Wire film about enforcement of immigration law loses that. That is content discrimination openly performed and a violation of the First Amendment.”
Why filming was temporarily suspended
The shutdown followed complaints from Livingston residents about the production’s impact on the Livingston food bank and what they described as improper warnings concerning hazardous stunts.
At the end of Saturday’s special meeting, the commission approved “a motion to immediately temporarily suspend Bonfire Pawn Shop LLC’s permit while seeking legal opinion from the city attorney in a timely manner to amend, suspend, or revoke the permit to come back to the commission not after 5 p.m. on Oct. 5th.”
That suspension did not remain in place. After the subsequent meeting with city officials Monday night, the permits were reinstated and filming resumed.
Inside “Pawn Shop”
Directed by Michael Polish, “Pawn Shop” features an ensemble cast that includes Myles Clohessy, Danny Trejo, Harvey Keitel, Henry Thomas, CJ Salvador, Noel Guglielmi, Paris Bravo, Joseph Lucero, Eddie Spears, Simon Rhee and Forrie J. Smith.
The film’s official logline centers on a young ICE officer attempting to carry out an arrest after his partner is killed during a Minneapolis riot.
“When a Minneapolis riot forces a young ICE officer to complete a high-stakes arrest alone after his partner is killed, he is hunted through the streets by a furious mob intent on freeing the prisoner and punishing anyone who still upholds the law,” the logline reads.
The officer eventually takes refuge in a neighborhood pawn shop alongside “a hard-edged Hispanic veteran” and the veteran’s progressive college-age grandson. According to the synopsis, the characters face a choice “between the rule of law and the chaos that wants to burn it all down in a modern siege of honor and defiance.”
With its permits restored, “Pawn Shop” is once again filming in Livingston following the temporary interruption. Shapiro’s response, however, has turned the local permitting dispute into a broader public challenge over whether the project was treated differently because of its subject matter.