CITIZENS OPPOSE COUNTY’S EFFORTS TO CURB FREE SPEECH

By Miriam Raftery

June 8, 2015 (San Diego) – Last week, we reported that Supervisors on Tuesday will consider a proposal to restrict protesters to “free speech zones” outside the County administration, ban amplified sound, require permits for events bigger than 200 people and impose fines for those who violate these rules. Supervisors will also consider rule changes to impact all county parks.

But the proposal is drawing strong reactions – and so far, all the comments we’ve received have been negative toward the county’s plans.  Here are some of the comments we’ve received from people who don’t want their free speech rights limited:

““Hearing from constituents is key at the County Administration building,” says Masada Disenhouse, co-founder of San Diego 350, a nonprofit concerned with climate change issues. She adds, “Free speech should have been one of the planned uses for the spaces around the County Administration Building and is an important part of the use for our government buildings. Remember the people raising their voices are constituents and entitled to space same as those seeking recreation.”

Michael Benoit, a leader in the local Libertarian Party and former Libertarian Congressional candidate, has this to say. “The nature of the beast is for government to grow and liberty to decline. Leave it up to a petty tyrant to muzzle dissent.  While we're at it let's end their million dollar slush funds which they use to get themselves elected at the expense of the poor,” Benoit adds.

Bonnie Price, PhD, an officer at the East County Democratic Club, calls the plan a “travesty.”

She states, “I would challenge its constitutionality, on the grounds that the area is public property that has been used for public expression of dissent for years!  Surely an established practice cannot be removed with a stroke of the pen.”  Price adds, “Removal of the right to gather freely at the area shows that supervisors do not care about what people think.  They plan to hide people's dissent from themselves and others coming to supervisors' meetings, as well as the media,” she concludes.

A reader using the name “Throw the Bums Out” posted on our story  urging,  “Lets set a date and have 100,000 of us show up to protest a County Government that builds a multi million dollar water park, in the San Diego City limits, miles from any county resident. Lets see if, with their 1 BILLION DOLLAR Law Enforcement budget, if they can put ALL of us in jail?” He adds, “Way past time for the second American Revoluton!”

County staff's report indicates the reason for the proposal to restrict protesters to free speech zones and impose stringent restrictions on public protests is to protect recreational users in the county’s new waterfront park.  But advocates of the First Amendment want their rights to freely assemble and protest to be protected, too—and they argue that constitutional rights should be given more weight outside a civic building than the rights of people there to simply have fun.