Insolence OK Now...
Lauren Williams wrote an article in the Daily Pilot yesterday, HERE, telling us that on Wednesday a federal appellate court held that a Costa Mesa ordinance that restricts "insolent" speakers when addressing the City Council is unconstitutional. This springs from the Benito Acosta affair several years ago when Mayor Allan Mansoor cut him short while speaking to the council and Acosta was subsequently dragged from the council chambers and arrested.
WHAT A DIFFERENCE A WORD MAKESAccording to the article, by simply removing the word "insolent" from the code the remainder of the ordinance is constitutional.
Here's a definition of that word from Dictionary.com.
in-so-lent - boldly rude or disrespectful; contemptuously impertinent; insulting.
CURRENT MUNICIPAL CODE SECTION
This is how the section of the Municipal Code, Section 2-61, presently reads:
(Click on the image to enlarge)
LET INSOLENCE PREVAIL!So, I guess it's OK for you to be "boldly rude" or "disrespectful" or "contemptuously impertinent" and "insulting" when you address the council. It's a little confusing because the definition of "insolent" includes impertinent yet the article says the code will be OK without that word. If so, it will continue to contain "impertinent". We need some clarity here.
However, apparently you may not make any personal, profane or slanderous remarks. And, you can't yell at them, either - much as you might feel like it.
REMEMBERING BENITO...
And, just in case you're interested, you can watch what happened to prompt this whole thing in the first place in this short video clip. As you watch it you can use the timer to see that Mansoor does cut him off. You'll also see then-Police Chief John Hensley direct the officers to take Acosta out. Way down at the end of the tape, around the 4:50 point on the counter, you'll see Phil Morello, President of the Costa Mesa Republican Assembly and organizer of the recent Tea Party "demonstration" at City Hall protesting the incident involving Jim Righeimer and the CMPD in the upper right corner of the frame, hands cupped over his mouth, as he screams the words to "God Bless America" at the young woman who had been singing "We Shall Overcome".
And, just in case you're interested, you can watch what happened to prompt this whole thing in the first place in this short video clip. As you watch it you can use the timer to see that Mansoor does cut him off. You'll also see then-Police Chief John Hensley direct the officers to take Acosta out. Way down at the end of the tape, around the 4:50 point on the counter, you'll see Phil Morello, President of the Costa Mesa Republican Assembly and organizer of the recent Tea Party "demonstration" at City Hall protesting the incident involving Jim Righeimer and the CMPD in the upper right corner of the frame, hands cupped over his mouth, as he screams the words to "God Bless America" at the young woman who had been singing "We Shall Overcome".
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE...
By the way, Acosta was recently seen at the demonstrations in Anaheim being escorted to a police car. He was subsequently released. Funny how some things - and people - just don't seem to change.
Labels: Allan Mansoor, Benito Acosta, John Hensley, Phil Morello
posted by The Pot Stirrer at 9/06/2012 02:43:00 PM
15 Comments:
Oh boy....
did anyone ever wash that punks mouth out with soap? he is over in anaheim hassling the cops now. good news for the usual speakers at public comments. all that nastiness is OK!
roboto:
"Did anyone ever wash that punks mouth out with soap"
Look who's talking. Did he get into altercations at JWA or with a Costa Mesa teacher? Was he a defendant in a bunch of lawsuits? Did he flash a phony badge? Did he mislead the people of Costa Mesa when he made believe he didn't know why the DEA came to town?
Who's the punk??
Wow,
This really happened? It was way before I cared much about local politics. I probably would have left immediately. From the video it looked like many people were getting off on this.
Dr. Onan, the anarchist punk is Benito. I kick ass and don't take names one on one. this punk couldn't take a chest bump any more than that commie teacher who thought he was tough and then ran home to mommy. Let's see Benito come talk crap now and stay around for a break time. Got a can to open with his name on it. Feeling lucky Benito? now we got Weitzberg who will yell at you too. facts are friendly Dr. Onan, check them out. I am undefeated.
Trying to incite a public riot is the real reason why he was pulled off the podium. All comments are supposed to be directed toward the Council. He began directing his comments to his supporters in the audience trying to rally them out of their seats. His purpose was to disrupt the meeting and turn it into a potentially violent setting to make a bigger point. I think the police acted correctly, just in time and in a professional way and would have done so regardless of the Mayor's justified actions.
Steve, you're undefeated because you were never elected, and never will be.
I met that guy you chest bumped at the FTF,and HE'S JUST A KID. Is that really something you want to brag about? You are a loser.
I really want to hear you talk about your lawsuit from the early 90's.
That will really show people what you're made of.
Actually, it was 4/2002. How about that Roboto/Steve?
I will gladly take the Roboto challenge any time any place.
roboto and steve are different people so i don't know about the lawsuit you are talking about. anyone can sue so a lawsuit means nothing more than lawyers filing papers.
This comment has been removed by the author.
That isn't what my papers show, but me thinks you doth protest too much, Steve.
Mr. or Ms. No Hablo Espanol:
Unless you’ve somehow put a gun to the head of Allan Mansoor or Benito Acosta and made them confess, you have no idea what their reasons were for anything they said or did. None. And Geoff’s video is incomplete. It doesn’t show the previous speaker, Jim Gilchrist -- a racist agitator, xenophobic fabulist, and head of a loose collection of goobers called the Minutemen -- turn to his minions in the hall and asking them to stand up in solidarity. Acosta then made the same request for his people, and was . . . handcuffed. OK, mine is just an opinion, as is yours, but from what I saw that night Mansoor clearly lost it. He didn’t like what he was hearing from a brown face with accented speech. A brown face that stripped Mansoor of his phony, pretentious “law n’ order” blustering and revealed the shameless demagogue that he was and still is. I was shocked and angered that something like that happened in my town in the 21st century, and that’s putting it mildly. It looked like a beer-hall putsch in 1930s Weimar Germany: free speech being stifled by unarguably the worst mayor in Costa Mesa’s history. Or perhaps the first in a line of equally reprehensible mayors and city council members. I hope only the former is true and that the 3-M hucksters running for office are soundly defeated. As they should be.
So Mike, I stand corrected (I mean chastised). I was not there and based my opinion entirely on the video. Clearly Gilchrist did not go as far as Benito but if he was supporting the idea of limiting illegal immigration, I would support him 100%. I also would not support disrespectful behavior of any sort toward anyone. Unfortunately we now have even more rights to attack council members verbally and insult them without recourse thanks in part to Benito and the ACLU. And should a council member say anything in the least in his/her own defense, they will be attacked and sued. What a wonderful country we live in.
Finally, unlike you Mike, I do not like people sucking off our economy. I will take a big chance here and bet you dos tacos that Benito and many of his amigos got here illegally. Just a hunch.
Mr. or Ms. No Hablo Espanol: The court’s ruling concerned disruptive behavior. Obviously, in our democracy, we don’t want people interfering with the people’s business. But Acosta disrupted nothing. Mansoor’s excuse was that he “thought” Acosta was going to disrupt the session, and that ain’t good enough. That’s akin to “preventive” detention. As long as you don’t interfere with the public’s business, you can say what you please, and if the feelings of a council member get hurt because you call him or her a toad, we’ll have the chaplain punch his or her ticket. (Recall one of the council member’s petulant aside, “I didn’t sign up for this” when he was criticized.) As for your support of Gilchrist and your belief that people are “sucking off our economy,” that’s a red herring. It had nothing to do with the original topic. But I will nonetheless say this: Yas, yas . . . harrumph . . . we’re all against illegal immigration. But does anyone really think that a border fence, the entire INS, and a few dozen hillbillies with Walmart shotguns can stop poor, starving people from coming into the U.S.? They absolutely cannot. I don’t have all the answers, but yours is clearly impossible.
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