Powell Gammill
IPFS Letters to the Editor • Activism
Do we still have Freedom of Speech in Mohave County?
• LetterAn
open letter to:
Supervisor Buster D. Johnson,
Supervisor
Gary Watson,
Supervisor Tom Sockwell, and
County Attorney Matt
Smith
My name is Gianluca Zanna. I am an American
Citizen, and a Mohave County resident. I have tried many times to
contact you at your respective supervisor\'s offices through email and
by phone, but as of today I have not received a response from any one
of you.
I was told by Matt Smith’s personal assistant that
he would contact me, but again, no response.
Now I am trying
to get your attention with this open letter, in hopes of finally
getting an answer.
The
question is: “What Law, if any, limits and/or regulates the Freedom
of Speech of an American citizen on County Property?”
The
reason I am asking for your input on this issue is due to a violation
of Civil Rights that happened to myself and another Mohave County
resident, American Citizen, and United States Marine Corps Veteran,
Mr. Dean Jacobs on November 13, 2009, at the Mohave
County Building.
Before the Sen. McCain town hall meeting
we were exercising our First Amendment Right to give out fliers
about Sen. McCain’s voting records.
I was politely
giving fliers to people who wanted to know more about the voting
records of Sen. McCain, when I was told by the County guards and
by Supervisor Buster Johnson personally, in front
of Sheriff Sheahan and two of his deputies and
many other witnesses, that I was not allowed to
hand out fliers in
the County Building because of a "law".
Sen.
McCain’s campaign staff was allowed to hand out fliers, and to
exercise their First Amendment Rights on County property before his
town hall meeting, and yet Mr. Dean Jacobs and I were not given the
same Constitutionally Guaranteed Rights to do the same.
At
the time I did not want to argue because I did not want to
be "escorted" out of the building and miss Sen. McCain’s
speech, so I complied with Supervisor Johnson’s non-specified
“law” and was forced to stop giving out fliers immediately.
After this event I did some additional research about
this non-specified "law" that Supervisor Johnson was
referring to and it appears that he was referring to the ARS 11-410
(please correct me if I am wrong).
ARS
11-410 prohibits to the use of county resources or employees to
influence elections:
A. A county shall not use its personnel,
equipment, materials,
buildings or other resources for the purpose
of influencing the
outcomes of elections. Notwithstanding this
section, a county may
distribute informational reports on a
proposed bond election as
provided in section 35-454. Nothing in
this section precludes a
county from reporting on official actions
of the county
board of supervisors.
B. Employees of a county
shall not use the authority of their positions to influence the vote
or political activities of any subordinate
employee.
Nothing contained in this section shall be construed as
denying the civil
and political liberties of any employee as
guaranteed by the United States and Arizona Constitutions.
If
this is the law Supervisor Johnson was referring to, I don\'t
understand how and why Mr. Jacobs and I were denied our First
Amendment Right to hand out fliers on County property.
Perhaps
Supervisor Johnson does not understand that ARS 11-410 was
legislated for the "County and its employees".... and was
not intended for the purpose
in denying to the
Arizona residents their First Amendment Rights.
So far
the only response I have received was from the Mohave
County Attorney\'s Office assistant, via by email, on Friday,
December 18, 2009. Apparently the County Attorney does not believe
that I am worth contacting directly regarding this matter.
The
following is the answer I was given in the email: "It
has long been our position and policy that County property is an
appropriate place to conduct county business unmolested by
political activities and
opinions. It is not meant to be a
forum for constitutionally
protected free speech as there are
other convenient places where
those rights can be exercised
without disrupting the rights of
others."
My
observation: I see, Sen. McCain, and his employees, can exercise
their First Amendment Rights on County property, but we Citizens are
not allowed the same privilege under “County Policy and Position”
to do the same.
I was not aware that the County Policy and
Position can override the 1st
and 14th Amendments of the United
States Constitution, that
respectively protect Freedom of Speech
and Equal Protection under the laws.
Also let me remind you
the Arizona Constitution, which you all took an oath to protect and
defend when you took office:
Article
II
Section 5. Right of petition and of assembly
Section 6.
Freedom of speech and press
Section 13. Equal privileges and
immunities
Bottom Line: All I am asking is to
show us the
LAW that forbids or limits freedom of speech on County
property,
especially during a public town hall meeting.
At the very
least the Citizens and Tax payers, that you are supposed to represent
and serve, We The People deserve an answer, not to be ignored like
slaves. After all, you are supposed to work for us, and protect us,
according to Article 2, Section 2 of the Arizona Constitution:
“All
political power is inherent in the people, and governments
derive
their just powers from the consent of the governed, and are
established to
protect and maintain individual rights.”
I
am proud to live in Arizona and in Mohave County, and I will
not
accept that in our County the US Constitution and the
Bill of Rights
is just a "concept" which does not apply
to us.
I will not accept following a law that is not shown to
me.
I will not accept living under the “color of law”.
I
will not accept being ignored when it comes to a just and
lawful answer.
I did not decide to leave communist Italy
and to become an American Citizen, to then resign myself to living
under another tyrannical government.
Waiting
for an answer.
Respectfully
Gianluca Zanna
PS
watch the video of the infamous townhall meeting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gOxD39_--g
All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent.Thomas Jefferson
2 Comments in Response to Do we still have Freedom of Speech in Mohave County?
County Attorney Matt Smith phone: 928-753-0719
County Board of Supervisor Tom Sockwell 928-758-0713
County Board of Supervisor Buster Johnson 928-453-0724
County Board of Supervisor Gary Watson 928-753-0722
The fact that they were not threatening you with arrest -- initially -- indicates they were aware they could not block you distributing your literature inside the public building at a public event in which your targeted protest, your representative Senator John McCain's own campaign people were handing out literature. In fact their literature is arguably less protected by both the U.S. and the Arizona CONstitutions than yours.
But arrest you they would. They would come up with the charges later. In fact, the county prosecutor would have heaped more charges on you a couple of months later if you dared fight the charges (or filed suit). Of course the initial arrest would have been for Disorderly Conduct - Fighting, as every low life judge sworn to protect your Rights accepts that as the 'contempt of cop' charge for refusing to immediately obey and genuflect to the commands of the executive armed authoritay.
You can also expect charges of interfering with a public event, interfering with the running of a public building, trespass, distributing literature, blocking egress, littering, resisting arrest, assault on a police officer, interfering in a police officer in the performance of their duty ... such is the life of an activist.
Sadly, by at least one of your members not wanting to see McCain, and not standing their ground, your standing in court is probably very limited. Especially if the Mainstream Media didn't bother to hang around to cover an obvious newsworthy event... heck, they would rather see McCain talk too. And assuming you were not filming the exchange --- if you don't film it, it never happened. Then it becomes a 'you say, they say' (deny) non-happening. Sadly someone of you needs to be arrested. And preferably a video documenting the activity, the confrontation and the arrest needs to survive. At least post a PDF of the horribly disruptive pamphlet you were distributing, along with the McCain handout(s).
Then at some point you will be dragged before the third branch of government --- a judge or more likely the paid for lackey equivalent of one referred to as a "magistrate" or "commissioner." Oh, don't expect justice, but it is your third time to have fun! [The pamphleting and the confrontation with authoritay being the first two --- the arrest portion sucks.]
And that leads to both a civil suit in an Arizona Superior Court and a 42USC1983 civil rights suit in a federal courthouse. Your turn to appear before a judge under your own terms. And the beauty of it is the U.S. Supreme court has gutted the First Amendment on every issue save one -- political pamphleting (they have so far placed a couple of restrictions), which is what you were doing, while nearby Sen. McCain's people were doing the same unmolested. Sweet case! The Supreme's would have been happy to twist the CONstitution to ban y0u from such activity. Pity, it would have been nice to give them the opportunity. [Fourth time to have fun.] Maybe next time one of you won't care what McCain (or fill in the blank) has to say more than what you have to say. Then the others of you can bail them out after the talk (though I suspect they would be released on their own recognizance (OR) after being banned from the building).
If one of you really decides to get arrested plan it out well ahead of time. And remember always be sweetly polite, ALWAYS answer questions with a question and never ever touch a cop, make motions toward a cop, point a finger at a cop, go passive, be passive, have witnesses -- preferably totally upstanding members of the community or members of the Bar, have your government issued ID on you so you may get released "OR" and have one or more people standing well away recording your event preferably as a live broadcast.