SW Journal: David Brauer: The Freedom to Campaign
David Brauer writes in an editorial in the Southwest Journal:
» It didn't occur in Southwest, but a very troubling incident took place last week in the Minneapolis parks system that should bother all of us.
The short version is this: the Superintendent of the Minneapolis Parks system called the Park Police to remove a Park Board candidate for handing out literature to citizens attending a community meeting at a park building. Three (!) park squads arrived to see the order carried out.
In Minneapolis!
On June 8, Supt. Jon Gurban called out the cops on Jason Stone, a candidate for the District 5 seat in Southeast Minneapolis. Stone's offense? Distributing campaign literature to people entering park building.
Was Stone blocking the door or badgering people? Not even Gurban alleges that. Both agree that Stone moved away from the entrance - 100 feet away to the parking lot ("in the spirit of cooperation," Stone says).
Stone ran afoul of a 1991 Park Board policy outlined in a March 28 memo that states, in part:
"Campaign materials cannot be posted or distributed in the park or recreation center." (Emphasis added.)
Stone - who has been a critic of Gurban - needed apply for a permit to the very administration he's criticizing.
Gurban says that even if Stone got a permit, staff would make him stay 20-30 feet away from doorways. So what was the problem when Stone moved 100 feet away to the parking lot? Gurban determined that Stone was in the doorway-like "primary access/egress route of the park."
The ludicrousness of this should be clear by now, but if it's not, consider this: would we forbid someone from handing out political literature outside City Hall? If not, then why would we allow the Tinpot park dictators to forbid such activities outside a park building?
Stone wasn't bugging parents on the playground; he was trying to reach citizens attending a park planning meeting about his campaign for a job that oversees park planning.
While the parks policy applies to every candidate, there's a political subtext you shouldn't ignore: the prohibition makes it harder for challengers like Stone - who have to work harder to beat incumbents - to get their message out.
Such electoral bloodlust at the expense of political rights and democratic values is simply not acceptable.
Four things must happen now:
1. The board must change its policy.
2. The board must apologize to Stone.
3. Since Gurban was following a 14-year-old policy, he shouldn't be fired. However, the board must tell him in no uncertain terms that he and his staff must err on the side of political freedom, rather than calling the cops.
4. Voters must elect Commissioners who don't wait for moronic incidents to correct policies that trample free speech and political dissent. «