Nordal noted that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and President George W. Bush have lauded the Minuteman movement.
No kidding? When?
Posted on 06/22/2005 7:21:48 AM PDT by Rio
ENCINITAS ---- City of Encinitas and county sheriff's officials were accused Monday of squashing First Amendment rights after demanding that a local political club pay $15,000 for security to allow a controversial leader of the anti-illegal-immigration Minuteman Group to speak.
Craig Nordal, leader of the neophyte North Coast Republican Club, said the club voted Monday to indefinitely postpone Wednesday's political fund-raising talk by Jim Gilchrist, leader of the Minuteman Project.
Gilchrist and the Minuteman Project caused a national furor in April when they sent volunteers into the Arizona desert near Tombstone to look for illegal immigrants trying to cross into the United States. Immigration-rights critics called the project vigilantism that was making border problems worse.
Nordal said city and sheriff's officials were so concerned that Gilchrist would draw protesters to the Encinitas Community Center that they told the club they would have to hire an entire platoon of sheriff's deputies ---- 48 in all ---- to provide security. Nordal said the $15,000 price tag was impossible for the club to swallow.
"I don't blame the city of Encinitas or the sheriff's department," Nordal said. "But the effect is that our First Amendment right is being squelched."
Gilchrist also objected, and blamed the city, the sheriff's department and protesters who would intimidate people to keep them away.
"It's a blatant attempt to suppress freedom of assembly," Gilchrist said. "It's getting more and more obvious to me that our First Amendment has pretty much been compromised by the people who will kill you, or beat you up, or show up and smash car windows with bricks. This is serious. It's no longer a country ruled by law."
City of Encinitas officials did not return several phone calls Monday.
Lt. Don Fowler, second in command at the sheriff's Encinitas station, said the department and city routinely charged groups when their events required "extra" security beyond normal police protection.
Nordal said he understood the city's security concerns, and that he notified the FBI and the sheriff's department when Gilchrist agreed to come to Encinitas to speak.
Encinitas is one of nine cities in the county that hires the sheriff's department to provide law enforcement.
Fowler said the city was within its rights to charge a fee because it was an event that would have taken place at a city facility ---- the community center.
"If this was on private property, it would be different," Fowler said. "I understand the unhappiness. But the intent was not to prohibit free speech."
Like Nordal and Gilchrist, Peter Scheer of the California First Amendment Coalition said he was troubled by the city's action.
Scheer said it was reasonable for the city to charge groups for security measures if they were holding them on city-owned property.
But Scheer added that there is an expectation that the cost won't be so high that it discourages events from taking place.
"When the American Communist Party or the Ku Klux Klan go marching down the avenues of New York City, there are police around ---- and that cost can't just be shifted to the sponsors of the events," Scheer said.
Scheer said shifting those costs would effectively prevent controversial events ---- protected by the First Amendment's right to free speech and free assembly.
He said cities and towns have to pick up some of the tab.
"It's the cost of doing business under the U.S. Constitution," Scheer said.
Fowler said city and sheriff's officials were concerned that the high cost of security would effectively censure events.
But he said Gilchrist and anti-illegal-immigration leaders had attracted violent protests in the past, and that the demand for a "platoon" to provide security was reasonable.
Gilchrist said he was too busy to mount a fight with Encinitas officials.
Nordal noted that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and President George W. Bush have lauded the Minuteman movement. He said his club hoped to use Gilchrist's speaking engagement to raise money for local Republican efforts.
He said his club still planned to have Gilchrist speak in Encinitas, and would search for a private venue.
"Again, I don't want to come across as anti-sheriff and anti-city of Encinitas," Nordal said. "But one way or another, we'll get this thing done."
And the ACLU stood up and protected the free speech rights of the anti-illegal group....huh?...you mean they didn't? How could that be?
"It's getting more and more obvious to me that our First Amendment has pretty much been compromised by the people who will kill you, or beat you up, or show up and smash car windows with bricks. This is serious. It's no longer a country ruled by law."
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Remember that there are TWO SETS OF LAWS, two Constitutions, when it comes to the issue of illegals!!! Just ask Washington, DC.
This is how they will rob us of our freedom. Permit thugs and goons to intimidate and threaten violence, and then CHARGE THE VICTIMS for police protection, which they cannont afford.
Nordal noted that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and President George W. Bush have lauded the Minuteman movement.
No kidding? When?
I wonder if the club would have to pay the same amount for security if Governor Schwarzenegger were to come down there to speak. Lately he is attracting protestors, too.
In my view, it is the job of the police to protect people from thug protestors. If they are not going to do the job, I guess they will have to allow the public to carry weapons.
Our First Amendment Rights just got raped.
==============================================
"It's a blatant attempt to suppress freedom of assembly," Gilchrist said. "It's getting more and more obvious to me that our First Amendment has pretty much been compromised by the people who will kill you, or beat you up, or show up and smash car windows with bricks. This is serious. It's no longer a country ruled by law."==============================================
AMENDMENT I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Needs to be repeated.
I don't fault the City of Encinitas for asking the MM to pick up the tab for security in order to protect them...but anymore, to speak out as per the First Amendment will require groups to do so.
Oh wait, unless you live in Baldwin Park, Alhambra, or....
Reverse discrimination. Such a wonderful thing.
/s
It's starting to sound as if we're already Norte Mexico :-(
I must have been sleeping when this happened. I sure don't remember Bush saying anything about the Minutemen except to call them "vigilantes."
Let's hope they can find a private facility to hold their meeting. IF the militant protesters get away with it there then they will try it everywhere.
It's because we are, in the convoluted minds of these thugs.
Total BS.....if it were me the first thing I'd ask that sheriff is what the hell are we paying you, your deputies and spending all these $ for anyway? Isn't it your job per your OATH OF OFFICE to protect and defend the Constitution and American citizens?
We don't need no stinkin' protection!
Address: 505 S. Vulcan Ave. Encinitas, CA 92024 Phone: (760) 943-2227 or 633-2672 City Attorney: Glenn Sabine gsabine@ci.encinitas.ca.us
Do you think it would help if we contacted this guy and told him what this protest was all about? Are they so "politically correct" down there in Encinitas that they don't want protests? Encinitas is VERY near to the San Diego/Mexico border, and parts of San Diego are looking more and more like Tijuana.
Don't do a THING about these rioting thugs. Let them run wild and terrorize.
Then, turn around and blame the riot on the patriotic Americans.
This is an initial stage of the ethnic cleansing of gringos out of Aztlan.
...but anymore, to speak out as per the First Amendment will require groups to do so.
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The tragedy upon America, that is this whole illegal immigration issue AND THE PROBLEMS that it is creating, is the BALKANIZATION of America. It is already happening and Washington is just fiddling, like Nero. Clearly, Washington is failing this country by LETTING this all happen.
Nordal noted that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and President George W. Bush have lauded the Minuteman movement.
That will definitely be in the MSM/ACLU/WH playbook.
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