Geller has sued various cities and public transport authorities for refusing to accommodate her “speech”. She has prevailed in some of these suits. Maybe the mayor judged any effort to refuse her a permit would result in costly litigation he’d eventualy lose. At that point she spews her hate AND crows about crushing the Mayor’s effort to stifle her 1st Amendment rights.
3 Likes
The mayor sounds like a reasonable man. How did he ever get elected in texas?
3 Likes
It wasn’t a rally, though, and the mayor didn’t issue her a permit. And there were a lot of objections to Geller’s “event” raised beforehand. I believe it was held in some sort of hall, under the jurisdiction of the local school board, and used by the public for various purposes. The school board had been petitioned by locals to disallow it and they felt they couldn’t because, you know, free dumb.
4 Likes
Thank you
Anti, sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed a small town. However, that still doesn’t change my observation. It’s easy to disown an event after the fact. I’m just saying that someone in the community should have spoken up and someone in charge should have questioned the sanity of holding this kind of an event before the event actually occurred. The fact that the town is densely populated just means that many more people than I imagined ignored or were complacent or were okay with this upcoming event.
People did speak up. As soon as Geller’s rally was announced, there were many complaints, protests and predictions of what would happen. I’ve been reading the complaints in the Dallas Morning News from the day Geller announced her plans.
Edit: Here is a link to the February coverage
7 Likes
And that is what is problematic about denying groups such as this a permit (in the instances where one is needed) – apart from the matter of Constitutional rights to free speech and assembly.
A number of years ago, a skinhead group affiliated with the KKK requested to hold two back-to-back events, one in my city and one in a city just west of mine. My city processed the permit application as a routine matter and the event was held with little fanfare and controversy.
The other city, which had a history as a hotbed of KKK activities decades ago, took another tack. City officials there tried to deny the application, and then, when that failed, they asked the group to post a $500,000 “safety bond” to ensure payment if the event required a large police presence or resulted in widespread property damage. The group objected, and garnered sympathy for what it called an undue burden on their rights to free speech and assembly.
And in contrast to the event held in my town, the event in the other city attracted widespread media attention and attendance – which is probably exactly what the group wanted.
2 Likes
“But at the end of the day, we did our jobs,” he added. “We protected her freedoms and her life.”
See, that, right there, is what police work is about. You don’t have to like or sympathize of find the person “worthy”. The job is not to judge (which would be why cops aren’t called, say, judges). You need to protect the freedoms and lives of all the citizens.
3 Likes
I think you need to read up on this event. There was plenty of objection to it.
2 Likes
But on what grounds could they deny the event? Even unpopular or objectionable speech is protected.
3 Likes
Either what Anti said, or an alternate spelling for the name of a toy French Poodle. Depends on the context 
2 Likes
Meanwhile, the Good Guy with a Gun was dashing to the scene:
The First Amendment give any idiot the right to say just about anything. One of the exceptions carved out was “the right to cry fire in a crowded theater.” I don’t know if the current court would follow Holmes dictum, but the solution is easy.
Next time one of these events is held, require the organizers to pay the full cost of all security and have an umbrella insurance policy for 5-10 million (or more) to cover anything else. This is not an affront to the organizers free screech rights (sic) , in fact most cities require special events to get such a policy as part of the permit process.
3 Likes
When you can’t wander around in a poorly made banana suit without cops bothering you, well, I’d say this nation should just fold its hand and sign it all over to China. Freedom loses.
4 Likes
Homeland Security and the FBI warned local law enforcement of a potential attack:
The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI on April 20 also had issued a joint intelligence bulletin to local law enforcement warning that the Garland event was a possible target for a terrorist attack, according to a DHS official who was not authorized to be quoted discussing the document.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-texas-attack-20150506-story.html
NSA is an intelligence-gathering agency, not an enforcement agency. If they pass intelligence along to an enforcement agency, no one is going to make it public where they got the information from.
3 Likes
I understand about the permitting - but which public authority allowed the event to be staged in a publicly-owned venue? There is some discretion to be had about that.
Geller held her event at the Garland Independent School District’s Curtis Culwell Center. The DoD is always bombing schools in Afghanistan, Iraq, etc to deprive terrorists a place to gather. I suppose they could have called in air strikes once the event started. If it works over there…
“She picked my community, which does not support in any shape, passion or form, her ideology,” the mayor told the Morning News.
“But at the end of the day, we did our jobs,” he added. “We protected her freedoms and her life.”
In those few sentences, he made the GOP Presidential hopefuls look very small and very silly.
2 Likes
The GOP presidential hopefuls are doing an excellent job of making themselves look very small and very silly without any help.
But, yeah, this guy could run rings around any of them. Which is why he, or his like, would never stand a chance of getting the Republican presidential nomination.
2 Likes
Is there reason to think these things weren’t required of Geller and the other organizers?