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.<\/p>\n
NetRightDaily:<\/a><\/p>\n On May 18, activist Mark Passio and his wife, Barb Marinelli, were arrested and handcuffed for distributing \u201cEnd the Fed\u201d literature<\/a> near Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Penn. by federal park rangers. The shocking incident was caught on video<\/a>.<\/p>\n According to Passio\u2019s description of events, \u201cI 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\u2019s currency to people standing in the line at the Liberty Bell location \u2014 something I have done almost 20 times in the past. I briefly spoke to a couple of them who asked me for more information.\u201d<\/p>\n But then they were stopped by park rangers: \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n After explaining his rights to the ranger to hand out literature protected by the First Amendment, Passio explained, \u201cI 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\u2019s rights.\u201d<\/p>\n A passerby mother, apparently with her kids, berated the rangers for their tactics \u201cWhat are you teaching the kids? I don\u2019t understand this\u2026 Children are watching this, is this what you\u2019re teaching?\u201d<\/p>\n At the end of the video, Marinelli stated what she was cited with, \u201cApparently, I was [charged with] \u2018interfering with agency function\u2019 and \u2018failure to obtain a permit.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Further, federal regulations require that public parks allot certain areas for use of public assembly, demonstrations, leafleting, etc<\/a>.: \u201cDemonstrations are allowed within park areas designated as available\u201d by the park superintendent \u201con a map, which must be available in the office of the superintendent and by public notice under \u00a7 1.7 of this chapter, the locations designated as available for demonstrations and the sale or distribution of printed matter.\u201d<\/p>\n Per the regulation, the park superintendent does indeed provide such a map<\/a>, 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\u2019s 2013 compendium<\/a>\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n It gets even better. According to Passio\u2019s account, he was stopped because he was leafleting without a permit. But the regulations, and the superintendent\u2019s 2013 compendium<\/a> clearly state that groups less than 25 do not need a permit<\/em>: \u201cDistribution 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\u2026The 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.\u201d<\/p>\n So, that\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n And strike three, afterward superintendent of the park, Cynthia MacLeod issued letters to Passio<\/a> and Marinelli<\/a> stating that all citations were dropped against the pair. Passio has since promised to file a lawsuit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n First, let me say this:\u00a0 thank goodness it wasn’t JHo.<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 Still, this kind of case is emblematic:\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n What’s different here is that the incident was captured on video; and that the Passios have expressed plans to file a lawsuit.<\/p>\n And they should.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n All of which suggests that the Constitution need not be voided in order to void what’s in the Constitution.\u00a0 Administrative and police state harassment will take care of that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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. NetRightDaily: On May 18, activist Mark Passio and his wife, Barb Marinelli, were arrested and handcuffed for distributing \u201cEnd<\/p>\n
![issued letters to Passio<\/a> and](\"http:\/\/whatonearthishappening.com\/images\/stories\/woeih\/special\/free-speech-incident\/Department-of-Interior-Letter-Mark-thumb.jpg\"){kind=link}
![Marinelli<\/a> stating that all citations were dropped against the pair. Passio has since promised to file a lawsuit.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nFirst, let me say this:\u00a0 thank goodness it wasn’t JHo.<\/p>\nSecond, 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.\u00a0 Still, this kind of case is emblematic:\u00a0 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.<\/p>\nWhat’s different here is that the incident was captured on video; and that the Passios have expressed plans to file a lawsuit.<\/p>\nAnd they should.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\nThe 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).<\/p>\nAll of which suggests that the Constitution need not be voided in order to void what’s in the Constitution.\u00a0 Administrative and police state harassment will take care of that.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"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. NetRightDaily: On May 18, activist Mark Passio and his wife, Barb Marinelli, were arrested and handcuffed for distributing \u201cEnd<\/p>\nRead More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":9196393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9196393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49525"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49527,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49525\/revisions\/49527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/proteinwisdom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/whatonearthishappening.com\/images\/stories\/woeih\/special\/free-speech-incident\/Department-of-Interior-Letter-Barb.jpg\"){kind=link}