 they are blocking people’s paths, and arrest them at will. A woman has been arrested for posting a banner on the fence that blocks people’s access to the lawn. The banner might be disagreeable to some (it had an American flag and the words “Freedom of Speech?”), but if the woman wanted it to be visible to passing traffic on 101N while not interfering with anyone, she chose the exact correct location.
Protest is fundamental to American democracy. The courts have held that government buildings are among the most valid places to protest, and that place restrictions are least credible when against protest at government buildings. The courts have ruled that restrictions against protest must not be overbroad. Here we have a ban from the traditional location of protest in the county, so broad that it restricts anyone from pushing a picket sign’s post into the ground or providing a card table for leaflets or a lawn chair for an elderly person.
This is a county whose government is incompetent and incapable of exercising common sense. It thinks the way you deal with young women interfering with a Congressional office is to swab their eyelids with pepper spray, and it thinks it can smash a group rather than work with it. You’ll notice that the other local “occupies” just seem to have drizzled out on their own. Occupy Eureka has been energized by the county government’s stupidity. This Board of Supervisors has disgraced itself.
I agree there’s been a problem at the courthouse. In fact, I think there are two. There’s a problem of many homeless and mentally ill people congregating outside it, but there’s a far bigger problem whose offices are inside of it.
Apparently not, 69er. Why don’t you fill us in?
Here’s a suggestion that will fund a homeless shelter for Eureka, and mental health services. Lay off 10 top managers at DHHS and use the resulting savings to buy and renovate the Downtowner or some crony-owned property. Then reassign 10 of the remaining managers to cook and patrol the building.
The county pretends it treats the vulnerable well, but shoving money at DHHS’ management payroll is not solving the problem, it is ensuring that the problem is not addressed.
They could open a homeless shelter that would serve 100 people and soon 200 new people would come to the county.
If they were ever stupid enough to open a homeless campground the problems at the front of the Courthouse would pale in comparison to the insane problems that would grow at the campground. If the campground could fit 500 people we would have 1,000 people camping there and it would attract 2,000 more people to our county.
I’ll fill you in Plain Jane……the “kid” in Sanford was not the little 12 year old depicted in the pictures the media ran with. He was nearly 18 years old, 6’2″ and between 170 and 180 lbs. George Zimmerman is 5’9″.
The “kid” had been suspended 3 times in the last three months for such innocent things as posession of burgularly tools and stolen property, and posession of weed. He was a known small time dealer in his school. Most recently he had “swung on” a school bus driver. He was only visiting Sanford because he was on suspension.
His Twitter posts, available on line, paint an interesting picture as well. Hi account name was “No_Limit_Ni**a”.
The media did everything they could to turn this into a race issue until the truth began to come out. When it was discovered that Zimmerman was not white( he’s mixed race), they began to refer to him as “white hispanic”. NBC has fired the person responsible for doctoring the 911 tape.
It was a terrible turn of events, but the “kid” was a wannabe thug, and it caught up with him early.
A “wannabe” thug, you say, who was not committing a crime when he was murdered. Zimmerman appears to be an actual thug given this unnecessary shooting and his past arrest record.
Mitch,
I do appreciate your position on this but I do not believe anybody’s rights have been violated. If I want to go down there right now I can hold up a sign that says “fuck the county”, can I not? I can bring 100 of my closest friends, right?
Regardless of that, it is totally ineffective. What do you think has been accomplished thus far the the Occupy Eureka? Have they moved the dialogue forward?
Total waste of time and time resources.
Heraldo…… not committing a crime? Assault is a crime. Zimmerman was returning to his truck when approached from behind and punched in the face. He was taken to the ground and had his head pounded into the pavement before Zimmerman fired. Self defense is not murder.
Even Rev. Al Sharpton seems to have toned down his rhetoric. I think Tawana Brawley might have called and reminded him that the truth is sometimes slow to come out.
1. Assuming the jewelry was stolen is without foundation since it was never been reported as stolen and he wasn’t charged with a crime.
2. A screwdriver is only a burglary tool if it is being used to commit a burglary. Carrying one in your backpack is not evidence that it has ever been used or planned for use in a burglary. I carry a screwdriver but have never used one to commit any sort of crime.
3. Zimmerman didn’t even know his name so he couldn’t have known anything about him to cause suspicion. His suspicion was due to Martin being black.
4. Zimmerman lied about screaming for help. Several experts have said it is definitely not Zimmerman screaming on the tapes. They don’t have an audio of Martin to check but since there were only 2 involved in the altercation and Zimmerman has been ruled out, we have to assume it was Martin screaming for help.
5. Zimmerman has been arrested twice for violence, once against the police and once domestic which were settled by his entry into an alcohol treatment program.
6. Martin’s cell phone conversation with his girlfriend at the time he was attacked throws Zimmerman’s entire claim out the window. He accosted and murdered an innocent boy who was talking on the phone with his girlfriend about being followed by a stranger. He didn’t initiate the encounter and (by Zimmerman’s own claim to the police dispatcher) was running away.
“not committing a crime”?
According to witnesses, Trayon was on top of Zimmerman pummeling him.
What is interesting about all this was the number of people wanting to lynch Zimmerman before they ever got half the facts about the incident. Yet Zimmerman is a Democrat, a hispanic and voted for Obama in the last election.
Since the shooting somewhere around 6-900 other people have been killed across the country and nobody seems to care about them. Obama hasn’t stuck his nose in any of the other killings. Race hustlers like Sharpton & Jesse Jackson haven’t released any comments about those other killings.
Being a Democrat and voting for Obama is relevant exactly HOW? And how in the hell would you know who Zimmerman voted for? Does Florida keep track of secret ballots some how?
According to witnesses and Zimmerman, it was Zimmerman yelling for help but we know that was a lie. Why would you believe anything from people who have been proven to have lied to the police?
The cell phone conversation with his girlfriend is evidence that Martin was attacked, not the other way around.
Poor HiFi can’t understand the outrage over a vigilante killing of an unarmed kid and the authorities just letting him go. Murders happen, but in most cases when the perp is known they are charged, tried and usually convicted, especially if they are black.
I never inferred that Zimmerman was a saint, was only speaking of the now known facts about Martin. Tood riddance and I hope zimmerman gets his too.
PJ is a perfect example of unthinking people’s rush to judgement.
Then, when confronted with new facts, digs in and refuses to even consider backing off much less changing her mind.
Which relevant facts have come to light? That Martin wasn’t an angelic choir boy? What did Zimmerman know about Martin that could justify killing him? Zimmerman saw a black male stranger walking in the rain and this caused him to be so suspicious as to call 911. Martin was returning to his father’s house, unarmed, who noticed he was being followed, “walked fast” away (his words to his girlfriend) or “took off running,” (Zimmerman’s words to 911 dispatch) and Martin’s call to his girlfriend abruptly ended when the altercation occurred. It’s clear to anyone without bias who instigated the altercation. Even if Martin was a gangster felon out on parole, Zimmerman (who couldn’t possibly know anything about a stranger walking down the street) wouldn’t have the right to stalk or accost him, much less shoot him dead.
The outrage isn’t just because an innocent was killed by a wannabee cop vigilante. It’s mostly about the behavior of the authorities after the fact AND it’s because of people like you and fckface (69er) who try to justify an unjustifiable murder. Most of us don’t want to live in a new wild west where everyone’s packing and people aren’t prosecuted for murder.
Remember that last year it was PJ said that it did not matter what the facts were regarding the AZ congresswoman’s shooting, that it was the fault