Livingston restored the permits for the Daily Wire film “Pawn Shop” on Monday night, allowing production to resume after the city had shut it down over the weekend. The reversal came after a Special City Commission meeting on Saturday had moved to suspend Bonfire Pawn Shop LLC’s permit while officials sought a legal opinion from the city attorney.
The shutdown mattered immediately because it stopped a live production with a recognizable cast, including Danny Trejo, while the city weighed whether the permit should be amended, suspended, or revoked. Michael Polish directs the film, and the cast also includes Myles Clohessy, Harvey Keitel, Henry Thomas, CJ Salvador, Noel Guglielmi, Paris Bravo, Joseph Lucero, Eddie Spears, Simon Rhee and Forrie J. Smith.
Ben Shapiro called the decision “content discrimination” and “a violation of the First Amendment,” arguing that the city stopped the production for political reasons. He said one commissioner, Cindy Daniels, had said she was “not willing to sacrifice the resources of the safety, the security of the mental health of our community,” a line that captured the city’s case for stepping in. Livingston residents had raised complaints about the production’s impact on the local food bank and about improper warnings tied to hazardous stunts, which gave the commission a public-safety argument separate from the film’s subject matter.
That split is now the center of the dispute. On one side is a production that was halted and then cleared to move again within days; on the other is a city that tied its action to safety, security and mental health concerns while asking for legal guidance before deciding whether the permit could be changed or canceled. “Pawn Shop” is described as an ICE story set off by a Minneapolis riot, and its official logline says a young ICE officer must complete a high-stakes arrest after his partner is killed. The next step is the city attorney’s opinion, which will shape whether Livingston leaves the permit in place or takes another action on it.
