Posted on 12/22/2015 9:19:20 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Remind me again… is this Christmas or Groundhog Day? Last year, just before Christmas, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis illegally shut down the Mall of America on one of the busiest shopping days of the year by flooding the mall with activists and preventing customers from moving through the facility. That led to many (mostly fruitless) court cases and not much else. Well, another year has gone by and the leaders of the local chapter are at it again. They are calling for all their supporters to show up on the privately owned property and obstruct commerce. But this time the mall’s ownership is being proactive and asking a judge for a restraining order. (Yahoo News)
But the mall is trying to take that decision out of their hands. Mall officials are seeking a temporary restraining order against eight activist leaders to stop the planned rally. They also want the group to post a message on its Facebook page announcing the rally’s cancellation. In a statement released early Monday, Black Lives Matter Minneapolis called the suit “unconstitutional.”
The Mall [of] America continues to seek to bar free speech for the community on its premises despite receiving hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies, which it has used to appropriate the traditional public forum in service of its own corporate profit. The Mall of America has now taken the further outrageous and totalitarian step of attempting to control the speech of individuals.
One thing that the BLM leaders in the area don’t seem to have invested in is a lawyer. The argument they are making is that the Mall of America is somehow “public property” and a suitable venue for protests because the company who built it received tax breaks and other public subsidies when it was constructed. It’s an interesting argument, but unfortunately it was already shut down by the state supreme court almost twenty years go, specifically citing Mall of America as the example. (City Pages)
In 1996 the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled the free speech protection written in the state constitution “does not apply to a privately owned shopping center such as the Mall of America, although developed in part with public financing” in State v. Wicklund.
Freeman Wicklund was part of a group of about 10 people who were arrested and charged with trespassing after they protested the sale of fur products outside of Macy’s. Before the Supreme Court ruling, lower courts originally sided with Wicklund, agreeing the mall was a public forum.
Of course, none of this has anything to do with free speech and respect for the Constitution or the law when it comes to BLM. Miski Noor, a spokesperson for Black Lives Matter of Minneapolis, said on CNN this morning, “We are going to disrupt your life.” That’s an exact quote. She was being asked why they couldn’t simply protest outside the mall on public property in accordance with the law, where tens of thousands of shoppers would see their protest and hear their message. Her response made their objectives quite clear. This isn’t about speech… it’s about thuggish behavior intended to intimidate people who had absolutely nothing to do with any police shootings and to disrupt and shut down businesses which are not affiliated with the police or the government and have no ability to change government policy.
When asked what they would do if the judge granted the restraining order, she flatly stated they were going to show up and do it anyway. That brings us to the big question: what will the government and the police do about it? If the answer is “nothing” because they are too afraid to look bad on CNN’s cameras then the citizens of Minneapolis and Minnesota need to begin electing some new leaders with a bit of spine. If the government cannot be relied upon to protect private business and the free movement of their own citizens engaging in commerce, they have failed in their duty and need to be replaced.
M of A, you had better double your security anyway.
I don’t go to any store that might have BLM types even close to it. I limit my in town visits to Tractor Supply, Cavendars or Baskins, Cabelas, Lowe’s , and Academy.
Lesson here. Don’t take tax money. It always comes with hooks
I don’t understand how BLM hopes to win hearts and minds by acting like assholes all the time.
They had better request a strong police presence, too.
BLM is just a FRONT for this radical agenda group!!!
It’s bad enough these parasites are not productive.
Now they want to destroy the ability of others to be productive and earn a living.
These folks need to spend the effort looking for a job. Sadly, they think they can do anything with no repercussions.
maybe they are only trying to win the Aholes.
Yeah...that’ll work...
Yep, they want everyone down to the lowest common denominator so they don't look so much like losers.
We need a good cartoonist drawing Obama pouring gas on the fire. That’s exactly what he did with these #BlackLivesMatter terrorists.
He pours gas on the fire on so many things that are destroying this nation.
They aren’t trying to win hearts and minds. They are being used by nefarious characters like Soros to incite a race war.
M of A is private property, which is open to the public. Big difference. Individual mall retailers should also file lawsuits against BLM For unlawful restraint of trade. Bury these idiots in legal costs.
CC
I guarantee you, the MOA will go out of business by 2020. This is why more and more people are shopping online. Who wants to be around this s-it?
BLM was covertly organized by Team 0dunga to SHIELD HIM FROM IMPEACHMENT. We’ll see an escalation of BLM activities in the coming year, giving 0dunga cover to wage his final series of attacks on America before his term is over.
Might as well return the faver...
Doesn’t matter. The dept. of just us will come to BLM’s rescue.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.