Posted on 12/17/2005 7:32:56 PM PST by SmithL
Los Angeles - In a move that could test free-speech rights, the city attorney charged animal rights activists with illegally menacing government employees during protests that included acts of vandalism and a bomb scare.
"We all believe in the right of people to protest ... but we will not tolerate, we will not accept, threats of violence, harassment or intimidation," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Friday.
City officials allege that activists calling themselves the Animal Defense League have used increasingly aggressive tactics in the last year to put pressure on City Hall to stop euthanizing animals in city shelters.
The home of David Diliberto, one of the city's top Animal Services Department officials, was the location for protests this summer that resulted in graffiti and a bomb scare that forced an evacuation.
On Friday, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo filed misdemeanor conspiracy charges, saying the group violated a state law that bars people from threatening or attempting to threaten public officers or employees.
The complaint cited 62 specific acts allegedly committed since January 2004. They amounted to harassment and intimidation, prosecutors alleged.
If convicted on all 14 criminal counts, the league could face fines of up to $120,000 and its members could face probation.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
How harsh!
Double secret probation!
Yeah, boy that will teach them. Oh the humanities...
Congress shall make no law ... abridging ... the right of the people PEACABLY to assemble ...
My emphasis ...
at least Villaraigosa (prolly a lib) is starting to taste some truth.
city attorney charged animal rights activists with illegally menacing government employees
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Serious question; how does one legally menace government employees?
GOOD CALL
Via their elected boss's, at the ballot box, or in court.
Slow, cumbersome, often ineffective, but LEGAL!
Terrorists - Eco or Islamo - should be treated the same way: shot down wherever they are found without mercy.
I called the State of California's Board of Physician Licensing (he was a California doctor) the next day and demanded that his medical license should be revoked due to moral turpitude.
The woman I talked to said that the Board was aware of him and was already investigating him.
I hope they toss that scumbag right into the unemployment line.
Animal rights whackos are a menace to humanity.
Agreed. Terroristic threats are NOT free speech!
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