Peace be with you
Here is my version of what happened in my jail bound saga. Being that Humboldt County jail is the most dangerous place in Humboldt County, I figure it is wise to say a prayer and remind everyone I love them. I’m sorry this post is so long, but I wanted to give you a fairly clear idea of what’s happened so far. It might motivate you to better protect your own liberties. I have no remorse for what I did. My entire “rap sheet” is a bunch of resisting arrests where there was no arrest involved. It’s the digital scar of activism – a badge of resistance. Thanks to all of you who resist – I love you too.
On January 27th, 2009, I went to the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors meeting to voice my concerns about the county’s renewal of an agreement with Bar-O Boys labor camp. That particular meeting varied greatly from the typical progression of all other Supes meeting I’ve ever seen. Instead of ignoring me until the vast majority of other members of the public left, the Item D items pulled from the consent calendar were inexplicably trailed until the end of the entire agenda. On top of that, during the last department report prior to the calling of the D-Items, both the head of probation (the department requesting the agreement), Douglas Rasines, and Supervisor, Bonny Neely got up and left.
Naturally after seeing such a blatant manipulation of our process I was more than a little upset when I arrived at the speakers podium. I spent a little less than 30 seconds scolding the Supes for the unnecessary wait they put the public through. Then I started outlining why it is immoral to profitize “punishment,” especially when children are involved. About a minute and a half into my speaking, I had to stop to and try to get Jimmy Smith, the chair of the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors, to pay attention to me. It was my public comment period, and Smith was denying me my right to addressed the board. He was straining over the dais having a meeting with Phillip Crandall, the head of heath and human services. After an angry snideness from Smith, I regained his mock attention. I continued while Phillip Crandall got up and exited out the side door of the chambers. As I am attempting to say my peace (sic), Jimmy Smith again interrupts me to very angrily inform me I “have one minute left.” I again continue and as I was coming to the natural end of the grievance I was addressing, Smith, again very angry, tells me “my time is up,” and “sit down.”
I have spoke at probably hundreds of public meetings. I have never been the type to filibuster. I admit I’ve talked over a few seconds here or there, but most often I have spoke less time than the average speaker. The common practice at every other Supes meeting is, when the chair doesn’t want to hear what you have to say, he/she says “rap it up,” and I always do. This one time, in all of history however, Smith cuts someone off at exactly 3 minutes. No warning, no “rap it up,” no “keep it to three minutes” preamble before allowing public comment, not even a “we’re doing things different today,” just a spontaneous “three minutes are up, we’ve called the cops” policy. I said a few words (again less than 30 seconds) about how rudely I felt Jimmy Smith was behaving and turned to return to my seat.
I knew Smith violated the Brown act. The Brown act, California Government Codes, 94950 et seq. states in its first code:
54950. In enacting this chapter, the Legislature finds and declares that the public commissions, boards and councils and the other public agencies in this State exist to aid in the conduct of the people’s business. It is the intent of the law that their actions be taken openly and that their deliberations be conducted openly.
The people of this State do not yield their sovereignty to the agencies which serve them. The people, in delegating authority, do not give their public servants the right to decide what is good for the people to know and what is not good for them to know. The people insist on remaining informed so that they may retain control over the instruments they have created.
Specifically I knew this was a violation of section 54954.3, which reads:
54954.3. (c) The legislative body of a local agency shall not prohibit public criticism of the policies, procedures, programs, or services of the agency, or of the acts or omissions of the legislative body.
Mostly I knew this was a violation of my freedom of speech
CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION, ARTICLE 1, SEC. 2. (a) Every person may freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of this right. A law may not restrain or abridge liberty of speech or press;
SEC. 3. (a) The people have the right to instruct their representatives, petition government for redress of grievances, and assemble freely to consult for the common good. And of course;
UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION, ADMENDMENT I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
When I turned facing the door that leads from the supes chambers to the little foyer, I could see Phillip Crandall frantically signaling someone to come in a hurry. I took a few more steps watching Crandall lift to the balls of his feet every time he swung his arm when six cops turned the corner like a pack of brown shirts on their way to a bar mitzvah, and apparently it was my bar mitzvah. Their mission was to throw me out of the meeting by threat of violence, or even physical violence if necessary.
I knew that the supervisors summoning the cops to throw me out did not constitute a “lawful duty” by the cops as required by California Penal Code 148 (a)(1). I further knew that Penal Code 836 (a)(1) says that a misdemeanor must be committed “in the officer’s presence,” and I was back to my seat by the time they swatted me. So they didn’t see shit. I especially knew that if I just allowed them to just throw me out like a preacher in a strip club, because they don’t like what I say, then anytime they didn’t like anyone criticizing their actions a nazish squad of 250 lb, 7 ft tall, brown shirt clad, courthouse bailiffs would come in and remove the dissenter by threat and/or use of violence. Taken by themselves any one of those gnosticism would comfort my heart for resisting as a matter of Constitutional Fucking Rights. The last one however, is the one that gave me pause to ponder my sense of duty to resist. I refused to leave.
The goon squad, that has become part of the new “court security,” doubles as enforcers of dissent control for good ol’ boy politicians. I had every right guaranteed by the Constitution to do what I did, be where I was, and to be unmolested doing so. As the video of the meeting shows, I did nothing to require police intervention. Nothing that is, unless you count my words, and how those words don’t fit the paradigm they are claiming in your name. Every week I go and point out to those supervisors how their policies, funding, agreements, contracts, and other decisions contribute to keeping you on probation, in jail, and on “mental health” drugs. I guess it must be waking some of you up, because they put a lot of time and energy into shutting me up. I even warned the supervisors that this “court security” would be used to quite dissent at supes meetings someday.
The Humboldt County District Attorney, Paul Gallegos, arraigned me under the charges “Disturbing the Peace,” and “Resisting Arrest.” On June 8, 2009 the DA amended the charge of “Disturbing the Peace,” to the charge of “Disrupting a Public Meeting.” I then went up until trial planning on fighting the underlying “Disrupting a Public Meeting” charge, and rely on the jury instruction that says if you don’t find the person guilty of the underlying charge, then you can’t find them guilty of resisting arrest.
On the first day of trial, the DA drops the charge of “Disrupting a Public Meeting,” and just tried me for resisting arrest. This wasn’t good police work, or a fair trial, it was nothing more than a dirty trick – a “what ever it takes” dirty trick. It has nothing to do with the concept of “justice for all” as Gallegos campaigned under. It is a tyrant using deceit to eliminate political opposition. I was forced to abandon my right to adequate defense in order to maintain my right to a speedy trial. Though clearly an experienced DA would have known months before that he would drop those charges at the eleventh hour.
The court record “official” story, as documented from only the testimony allowed, would have you believe that a clerk in another room behind the Supes chambers, Kathy Hayes had special censuring powers verbally vested upon her by Jimmy Smith. While listening to me on the wall speaker she decided that I was too “angry,” and had another secretary, Vanessa Erickson, push a “panic alarm.” It was also testified again and again that the “panic alarm” was only to be pushed in situations when someone is facing serious harm.
Then the story goes I was magically in the “detainment” of the court house bailifs, who knew absolutely nothing about anything that had happened up to that point in the story, and which I resisted for no apparent reason. Needless to say the dirty “justice for all” trick worked. It didn’t hurt that the DA and the County Counsel worked together to coach the witnesses to lie.
The official version of this tale was witnessed in its manufacturing. A person who was at the January Supes meeting told me after my trial that he was in the supervisors office waiting area, and witnessed Blair Angus, County Counsel, and Jeremiah Ross, District Attorney’s office, concocting a story with two prosecution witnesses as to why Vanessa Erickson pushed the “panic alarm.” One witness offered the unused excuse “I could say I pushed the wrong button.” They even went as far in their conversation on hanging me as to make “hemp rope” references.
The out of town gun slinger that passed as a judge in my trial sentenced me to 30 days, plus 5 more for fines I wouldn’t of paid. I’m not sure whether he gave me that long in jail out of retribution for my not accepting probation, or whether he just has a butt buddy relationship with fellow good ol” boy Jimmy Smith.
I’ve seen people shouting from the audience halt meetings longer and get less authoritarian oppression than I am. One person who was there told me they thought it was a set up, and to tell the truth that was what my heart was screaming to me at the time also. Did Jimmy Smith send Crandall to summon the cops? If so that had nothing to do with the “3 minute rule violation” alleged in the police report. Whether the conspiracy between elected officials happened, by design, or by accident, it was definitely there.
I am a political prisoner right here in Humboldt County, and as such I will resort to the methods of political prisoners. Never in the history of humanity has an oppressor ever voluntarily surrendered their right to oppress. Only when we demand it will they even begin to pay attention.
“”To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness… And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.” – Howard Zinn
love eternal
tad
Oh yea!,
Jimmy Smith (707) 476-2391
Paul Gallegos (707) 445-7411
Gary Phelps (707) 445-7251
chairperson of the humboldt county board of supervisors
