When the signal from your ideological higher-ups is that of course the Bill of Rights isn’t absolute — that men, not God, grant rights and consequently police them — attempts to circumvent your rights using the force of government and policing powers become far more commonplace, and far easier to rationalize.
On May 18, activist Mark Passio and his wife, Barb Marinelli, were arrested and handcuffed for distributing “End the Fed” literature near Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Penn. by federal park rangers. The shocking incident was caught on video.
According to Passio’s description of events, “I was walking with my wife Barb in Philadelphia from Market Street to Chestnut Street between 5th and 6th Streets, and handed out a few fliers about how the Federal Reserve Bank is de-valuing our nation’s currency to people standing in the line at the Liberty Bell location — something I have done almost 20 times in the past. I briefly spoke to a couple of them who asked me for more information.”
But then they were stopped by park rangers: “We then proceeded to continue to walk to Chestnut Street when we were stopped by two Park Police who said that I could not hand out fliers without a permit (I had already finished handing them out actually; I had a few left in my hand, and was in the process of leaving the area). They began citing some obscure federal regulation that I had never heard of.”
After explaining his rights to the ranger to hand out literature protected by the First Amendment, Passio explained, “I then proceeded to attempt to walk away toward Fifth Street on Chestnut Street, when these Park Police told me that I was not free to walk away from them, even though I had long since finished handing anyone any fliers and had done absolutely nothing to harm anyone or violate anyone else’s rights.”
A passerby mother, apparently with her kids, berated the rangers for their tactics “What are you teaching the kids? I don’t understand this… Children are watching this, is this what you’re teaching?”
At the end of the video, Marinelli stated what she was cited with, “Apparently, I was [charged with] ‘interfering with agency function’ and ‘failure to obtain a permit.’”
Now, to the law, First Amendment jurisprudence does allow government rules to allot certain time and place restrictions for where public assemblies, leafleting and the like may take place.
Further, federal regulations require that public parks allot certain areas for use of public assembly, demonstrations, leafleting, etc.: “Demonstrations are allowed within park areas designated as available” by the park superintendent “on a map, which must be available in the office of the superintendent and by public notice under § 1.7 of this chapter, the locations designated as available for demonstrations and the sale or distribution of printed matter.”
Per the regulation, the park superintendent does indeed provide such a map, and sure enough, it turns out Passio and his wife were actually within one of the designated areas where assembly and distribution of materials was permitted according to Independence Hall’s 2013 compendium […]
It gets even better. According to Passio’s account, he was stopped because he was leafleting without a permit. But the regulations, and the superintendent’s 2013 compendium clearly state that groups less than 25 do not need a permit: “Distribution of printed matter is allowed pursuant to the regulations listed above regarding public assemblies, provided that, for groups over 25, a permit to do so has been issued by the Superintendent…The distribution of printed materials involving 25 persons or fewer may be engaged in without a permit provided that the other conditions required for the issuance of a permit are met and providing the activity will not unreasonably interfere with other demonstrations or special events.”
So, that’s two strikes against the park rangers. They arrested two people for leafleting in an area that was designated for public assembly and leafleting. And then they wrongly claimed they needed a permit when they did not.
And strike three, afterward superintendent of the park, Cynthia MacLeod issued letters to Passio and Marinelli stating that all citations were dropped against the pair. Passio has since promised to file a lawsuit.
First, let me say this: thank goodness it wasn’t JHo.
Second, it is likely that these rangers were acting out of bloated sense of power and itching to use that power against something other than a rogue raccoon. Still, this kind of case is emblematic: assuming the rangers merely misunderstood the rules and were being such incredible douches only because they have badges and the Passios don’t, the fact that there are so many regulations and permits regulating what is a natural right — beyond what may present any danger to the public — opens up that right up to abuse, be it in some Philadelphia park of in virtually every university in the United States.
What’s different here is that the incident was captured on video; and that the Passios have expressed plans to file a lawsuit.
And they should. Because until someone forces the governmental bullies to rein in their attempts to act as on-the-spot Constitutional scholars — who not surprisingly seem always to grant the government and themselves vast powers in their interpretations of the Bill of Rights — these kind of abuses will continue, mostly unreported, mostly unpunished.
The goal is to make the exercising of your natural rights onerous, frustrating, and potentially expensive and legally suspect — be it a first amendment right as in this case or the case of Hobby Lobby, a second amendment right, or a 10th Amendment right (as with the states told by the SCOTUS that they have no recourse to defending their own borders).
All of which suggests that the Constitution need not be voided in order to void what’s in the Constitution. Administrative and police state harassment will take care of that.
Independence Mall is an especially appropriate place for Six Degrees of All Is Well.
Mark Passio and his wife, Barb Marinell need to sue the park rangers, not the agency that employs them.
I know one of the groups targeted by the IRS is going after the people involved and not the agency.
People like Mark and Barb need to make the point “just following orders” can be very expensive.
And, I don’t think it matters if you win or lose, as long as the people “following orders” are financially devastated.
First, let me say this: thank goodness it wasn’t JHo.
My thought process ran along those lines as well.
Are the universities also going to champion the Park Rangers for clamping down on the awful-awfuls in this country?
Damn if the brownshirts aren’t actually here.
Blake says June 3, 2013 at 10:21 am
People like Mark and Barb need to make the point “just following orders” can be very expensive.
I kinda like that, actually.
My personal opinion is that the courts are generally useless: only the ruled class are in any way compelled to follow their diktats, and the Obamas of the world just keep on going.
To me, the bigger flaw demonstrated here is that our laws have become so complex and convoluted that even the people (e.g. park rangers) tasked with enforcing them very regularly are not familiar with the them, and understandably no human could possibly remember them all in great detail.
That said, there should be obvious and non-trivial penalties for law enforcers that do so incorrectly. It has become so commonplace for people to be arrested incorrectly for “violating” laws that don’t actually exist, that the general population overlooks it, and it gets swept under the rug. Hopefully, penalties for improperly arresting innocent people would drive innovative policies and technologies to keep enforcement of laws that do exist “on the level”.
” . . . our laws have become so complex and convoluted . . . ”
Here we would like to distinguish between our primary law, The Constitution of the United States, which is not so unintelligible but which is not well taught if taught at all, and our “derived” secondary laws, which are often fundamentally unintelligible, and which are also not well taught, especially not taught to the extent they violate the plain meaning of the Constitution ab initio.
I would suggest a huge bonfire containing all of our printed regulations, then forcing Congress to start over, but what they’d put in place of current regs would be much, much worse.
I will not submit.
Both. Each is a contributor to the wrong that was committed — the rangers for misapplying their authority, the Park Service for putting obviously unqualified or untrained people out among the public with badges and tools of compliance.
Think of the carbon footprint! The greenhouse gases! The raw heat! You’d probably melt down every steel-framed building for miles around!
Silly, Scribe, heat can’t melt steel! Rosanne Barr told me so.
That was Rosie O’Doughnut, John.
She said fire couldn’t melt steel. Heat is hotter than fire, obviously — otherwise steel could never be melted.
Scribe of Slog (McGehee) says June 3, 2013 at 12:40 pm
Heat is hotter than fire
Ghost peppers? Scorpion Moruga?
Beware the fire that exists as hot as it enters…
-Exits-
Sorry.
Rosie is quite obviously unfamiliar with the concept of smelting.
I’ve never smelt her and I hope I never do.
“Ka-CHING!”
Heh. I walked right into that one, McGehee.
McGehee, ultimately, the taxpayer will fund the defense of the Park Service, which is why I suggest bankrupting the rangers. Nothing like a little personal ruin to make co-workers think a little harder about what they’re doing. Suing the Park Service doesn’t give it that little extra personal touch.
I think that requires a very fine-weave fishnet.
We used to do our smelting with nine or ten treble hooks tied to the line at about 6 inch intervals. Weight at the end of the line, cast into school, reel in with small jerking motion.
Di, I would suggest a huge bonfire of the park rangers and everyone up the chain. But that would be very visigothy.
And the best reason for suing these people individually is to make sure their real names, addresses, etc. get published. Can’t shun them properly if all their friends and neighbors don’t know…..
Oh, the rangers do need to be sued. The Nuremburg defense has to be eviscerated — without anesthetic — for all the world to see.
But I suspect that if the agency isn’t also a target judges won’t entertain an individual case.
1) they should have said they were passing out Occupy leaflets. Those people never have to pay for anything.
2) eugene debs was jailed for roughly the same thing in 1917.
3) philly is corrupt as hell. trust me i was born there. park rangers were looking to fill a quota.