This is one of those stories that is so outrageous that it is beyond my poor literary power to express. Still, I will do my mite by passing it on, in hopes that the outrage will spread and, in the end, that outrage might cause some semblance of justice to prevail.
Our tale takes place in San Diego, a reddish area in a generally blue state. It seems a fellow named Jeff Olson took it into his head to protest against the Bank of America. He chose to do so by writing slogans on the public sidewalk in front of the bank using “Creatology” chalky crayons, a toy designed for kids to do artwork on sidewalks and driveways. It’s suited for that purpose, because it washes off with water. Many months after his presumably ineffective protest, Olson was arrested for vandalism, at the behest of BOA, prosecuted by an elected prosecutor who has gotten money from BOA and apparently expects more. Olson faces 13 years in prison, and yes, you read that right.
But as Bob Dylan once wrote, take the rags away from your eyes, now’s not the time for your tears.
As would any good lawyer, his lawyer prepared to defend him on free speech grounds. It’s a reasonable defense, because even if, in the abstract, what he did constituted vandalism, if he is being selectively prosecuted for the contents of his vandalism, as he surely is, then the prosecution would be unconstitutional. We can all agree, I’m sure, that he would not have been prosecuted if he’d written “I ? the Bank of America” on the sidewalk. So, it’s a great defense, except he won’t be allowed to make it because Judge Howard Shore has ruled the laws barring disappearing chalk drawings take precedence:
During pre-trial motions prosecutors introduced a motion to prohibit Olson’s defense attorney Tom Tosdal from using the words First Amendment, free speech, free expression and other similar terms during the trial. The judge agreed saying jurors should focus on whether Olson committed vandalism and not why he did it.
(via Buzzflash)
And just to make sure that there is no unseemly criticism of the judge by Olson, his lawyer, the jurors, or anyone else within the judge’s power to restrain, he issued a gag order preventing them (this is a misdemeanor case, remember) from discussing it in public. Even that wasn’t enough for the judge, however, because “[t]he clearly pro-bankster jurist even rebuked the mayor of San Diego for calling the trial a waste of time”. The mayor is a Democrat, in case you hadn’t guessed.
By the way, now is the time for your tears, because the story’s over, or at least we’ve come up to the present.
Moving on: it appears that the prosecutor has mayoral ambitions of his own, presumably shaded red. So one must ask oneself, are his political calculations on the mark? Will the bad will he generates for this persecution be outweighed by the financial reward from BOA? Personally, I’m not sure he’s done himself a political favor here, but for his sake I hope he got something in writing from BOA before he went after this guy.
So welcome to America, the land of equality before the law. Think about it. If he serves 13 days, much less 13 years, that will be 13 days more than any of the bank presidents that led the criminal enterprises that pushed our economy off the cliff. We’re I Jerry Brown, and assuming he has pardon power, I’d step in right now.
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