Petrelis Files

SF Supes Pull Navy Vet From Mic in Handcuffs: Why?


(The incident starts at the 4:00 minute mark.)

Every week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors at their Tuesday meeting show their deep contempt for their bosses, the voters and taxpayers, by never having a fixed time for public comment. They willy-nilly allow public comment and generally require ordinary citizens to wait hours for a chance to address the board - for two minutes, at the end of the meeting. During public comment, the supervisors either take a pee break, cruise the web on their computers or chat among themselves.

On Tuesday, October 22, during public comment longtime good government advocate and U.S. Navy veteran Ray Hartz was handcuffed by two sheriff's deputies at the direction of board president David Chui. What was Ray's offense? The speaker before him, Peter Warfield, a sunshine advocate, had the mic cut off by Chui, for a very minor infraction. Peter reports:

Ray had called out "Gestapo" as he approached the lectern -- because a sheriff's deputy was approaching me as I finished my comment a few seconds longer than the unlawfully-minimal two minutes (Sunshine Ordinance says speakers are to be given three minutes). [Open government advocate] James Chaffee was arrested a year ago in the chambers. 

And what does Ray have to report?

What I said was one word, which disrupted nothing!  It was also during Public Comment and I was the next speaker, approaching the podium when I said what I said.  I have to go back and check, but, I think Chiu had already said "next speaker," which was me.  As Mr. Chaffee noted earlier, Chiu had a number of options and he chose to act in what I consider an illegal manner.  He could have admonished me, other many other things, but, denying me my Constitutional right to speak was not one of his options!

In the excerpted video above, Chui is heard talking about an alleged outburst by Ray and that is reason enough to deny him a chance to use public comment. I'd sure like to see the law that allows the board president to decide what defines an outburst and how that precludes making public comment. Watch almost any Tuesday meeting and you'll hear plenty of short seconds-long outbursts of applause or booing from the audience.

Ray said one word, a bit loudly, interrupted none of supervisors and was clearly not engaging in a sustained disruption, yet Chui gave him no chance to collect himself and simply speak for two-minutes. Instead, Chui bullied Ray when he directed the deputies to handcuff him and then force him out of the board's chambers.

(Ray, in the center, before he was handcuffed. Credit: Josh Wolf, San Francisco Public Press.)

Despite the facts that the manhandling of Ray and stifling of his free speech rights were broadcast on SF Gov TV, and that San Francisco is an alleged bastion of free speech and the right to petition local government, not one supervisor protested during or after the incident. Hello, alleged progressive members of the board - David Campos, John Avalos, Eric Mar, Jane Kim, Norman Yee - why do you remain silent on this?

Heck, I'd also like to know why the progressives are not pushing for a fixed time at Tuesday's meetings for public comment.

The only media coverage about the incident was by Josh Wolf at the SF Public Press. Thanks and good work, Josh.

Over at the Bay Guardian, which claims to be the paper of record for progressives, nothing about the incident has been reported on their site or in their print edition. Sure would be great if the Bay Guardian took its tongue off the buttholes of Campos and Avalos, and pushed them to develop a board policy mandating an iron-clad time for public comment.

Just before the incident, Hartz said that he resented the way the supervisors were talking among themselves during public comment. Chiu had been in a private conversation with two other supervisors during the previous speaker’s comment.
The supervisors “do not feel any obligation to actually listen,” when the public addresses them, Hartz said after the confrontation. “They always talk this line about how much they appreciate public input, but when members of the public actually get up to give their public input, they do everything but spit in our soup.”
Hartz was escorted out of City Hall and admonished for his behavior, said Susan Fahey, a sheriff’s spokeswoman. Hartz said he planned to file a complaint against Chiu with the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force.
- See more at: http://sfpublicpress.org/news/2013-10/sf-supervisors-grapple-with-half-billion-dollar-price-of-new-jail#sthash.ukwwLRdi.dpuf

Just before the incident, Hartz said that he resented the way the supervisors were talking among themselves during public comment. Chiu had been in a private conversation with two other supervisors during the previous speaker’s comment.
The supervisors “do not feel any obligation to actually listen,” when the public addresses them, Hartz said after the confrontation. “They always talk this line about how much they appreciate public input, but when members of the public actually get up to give their public input, they do everything but spit in our soup.”
Hartz was escorted out of City Hall and admonished for his behavior, said Susan Fahey, a sheriff’s spokeswoman. Hartz said he planned to file a complaint against Chiu with the Sunshine Ordinance Task Force.
- See more at: http://sfpublicpress.org/news/2013-10/sf-supervisors-grapple-with-half-billion-dollar-price-of-new-jail#sthash.ukwwLRdi.dpuf