In San Diego a protester is standing trial on criminal vandalism charges (with a possible sentence of up to 13 years if convicted) for a scribbling a series of anti-bank slogans in chalk on a city sidewalk.
Mayor Bob Filner has denounced the prosecution of Jeff Olson as a waste of taxpayer money & an abuse of power that infringes on the First Amendment.
The city attorney, Jan Goldsmith, defended his pursuit of the case in remarks published yesterday on a San Diego news website, saying: “We prosecute vandalism & theft cases regardless of who the perpetrator or victim might be.”
“We don’t decide, for example, based upon whether we like or dislike banks,” Goldsmith added. “That would be wrong under the law….”
To add to the air of farce a Superior Court Judge yesterday issued a gagging order in the case, forbidding all parties from discussing the trial further. He previously ruled that Olson would not be permitted to invoke freedom of expression as a defense in the case.
Olson is charged with 13 misdemeanor counts of vandalism, each carrying a maximum penalty of one year in jail plus a $1,000 fine.
He is accused of writing a series of protest slogans between February & August 2012 on sidewalks in front of various Bank of America branches.
Olson has admitted to the graffiti protests, but said nothing he wrote was profane or vulgar & suggested his prosecution was politically motivated.
“I wrote, ‘No thanks big banks.’ I wrote, ‘Shame on Bank of America,'” he said, adding: “If I had drawn a little girl’s hopscotch squares on the street, we wouldn’t be here today.”
The mayor’s office would not rule out the possibility that the mayor might appear as a witness for Olson.
The mayor & city attorney have previously clashed over the mayor’s recent successful effort to cut $500,000 from the city attorney’s budget.
So much for the land of the free. In France he would by now be a national hero with a promising career in politics (a younger M. Bové).
ThursdayAgain 
You must be logged in to post a comment.