Free Speech? Sure, if you have a permit of course.
Today was a very sad day in my campaign. The City of Mission, KS held its annual "Arts and Eats" festival in downtown Mission. Since the entire city of Mission is within district 24, I decided that would be a great opportunity to get out and meet people and spread the word about my campaign.
Last night I spent an hour at Kinkos making a new flyer. I then came home and spent another hour folding it, and made sure I had everything ready. Then, around lunchtime, Alice and I set off for the fest.
I began introducing myself to as many people as I could, and asking them if they'd like to talk or at least take a flyer. The response was fairly good. My two opponents of course had the same thing in mind, but they each had a booth at the fair.
Within about an hour or so, I was approached by city officials and told that I could not campaign at the fest. They explained that it was not fair to allow me to campaign for free when my 2 opponents had paid for a booth. I of course pointed out that they got a booth, so they received what they paid for. I did not want a booth. I just wanted to excercise my 1st amendment right to campaign on public property.
A short time later, I was approached my Mission PD. They told me I had to quit "soliciting" or leave. I told them I was not soliciting, I was engaging in free speech. They disagreed, and repeated their statement. After some consulting with their superiors, they decided to tell me that I could walk around with my sign, but could not hand out literature as that constituted "soliciting". I told them I would not quit and they'd have to arrest me.
Being shrewd policitians, the officers' superiors told them that I was not to be arrested. Instead, I was to be escorted out of the fest, but the officers on no uncertain terms told me that I would NOT be arrested, period. Clever. Throw me out, but don't arrest me. That way there's no bad PR, and they don't have to deal with that nasty little first amendment issue.
I'm very disappointed in what our nation has become. Some elderly gentleman I was talking to stood up for me and told the officers that "this is no longer America". I agree.
Last night I spent an hour at Kinkos making a new flyer. I then came home and spent another hour folding it, and made sure I had everything ready. Then, around lunchtime, Alice and I set off for the fest.
I began introducing myself to as many people as I could, and asking them if they'd like to talk or at least take a flyer. The response was fairly good. My two opponents of course had the same thing in mind, but they each had a booth at the fair.
Within about an hour or so, I was approached by city officials and told that I could not campaign at the fest. They explained that it was not fair to allow me to campaign for free when my 2 opponents had paid for a booth. I of course pointed out that they got a booth, so they received what they paid for. I did not want a booth. I just wanted to excercise my 1st amendment right to campaign on public property.
A short time later, I was approached my Mission PD. They told me I had to quit "soliciting" or leave. I told them I was not soliciting, I was engaging in free speech. They disagreed, and repeated their statement. After some consulting with their superiors, they decided to tell me that I could walk around with my sign, but could not hand out literature as that constituted "soliciting". I told them I would not quit and they'd have to arrest me.
Being shrewd policitians, the officers' superiors told them that I was not to be arrested. Instead, I was to be escorted out of the fest, but the officers on no uncertain terms told me that I would NOT be arrested, period. Clever. Throw me out, but don't arrest me. That way there's no bad PR, and they don't have to deal with that nasty little first amendment issue.
I'm very disappointed in what our nation has become. Some elderly gentleman I was talking to stood up for me and told the officers that "this is no longer America". I agree.
posted by Jason E. Peck at 5:34 PM
2 Comments:
Keep up the good fight, Jason. Know that your incident did not go unnoticed, and that you are currently on the front page of digg.com, which is one of the 100 most frequently visited sites on the net. Good luck on your campaign!
Adam aka jizzatch on lpks yahoo group
Keep up the good fight, Jason. Know that your incident did not go unnoticed, and that you are currently on the front page of digg.com, which is one of the 100 most frequently visited sites on the net. Good luck on your campaign!
Adam aka jizzatch on lpks yahoo group
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