Let’s commit an Act of Free Speech, and get arrested – join me in Olympia February 6th

https://www.wethegoverned.com/victory-washington-state-backs-down-suspends-free-speech-suppression-policy-at-the-capitol/

As I discussed a few days ago, we organized and planned the “Commit an Act of Free Speech” event at the Washington State Capitol Campus located in the City of Olympia last Saturday. I wrote an article about this event (linked here), produced two videos announcing it (here and here), and I emailed all of this information to the state in advance, so they knew we were coming and what we planned at this event. We had nothing to hide.

I was not arrested, which makes this a victory, but more importantly the Washington State Department of Enterprise Services, which manages the Capitol Campus), and the State Patrol, which is responsible for security, notified me on Friday the day before the event that they would suspend enforcement of the rules they had been referencing in the previous weeks when they threatened to cite and arrest others for committing free speech on the campus. I did ask that an attorney from the Attorney General’s office be present in that conversation, but the AG avoided that scenario. While some attorneys are disappointed at losing the opportunity to litigate against Washington State in Federal Court over such an egregious and unfathomable anti-free speech policy, it is still better that our civil rights not be infringed in the first place. The right to free speech was restored, even if just in this small way on Saturday. There will be many more fights like this in our future if we are to restore civil rights in this state.

Our rights, IF we exercise them…

It is always important to remember we only retain our rights and freedoms if we choose to exercise them. For the past few weeks, the state had threatened citation and arrest to anyone who used speakers, microphones, chords, and mini-generators to power them on the Capitol Campus. This was perplexing to most people because since the invention of electricity, this was a common and normal activity on the Capitol Campus, particularly during the legislative session, which starts the second week in January. Yet, the excuse given by the State was that we could only do this with a permit and they were not issuing permits at this time. Until Saturday, everyone capitulated under the State’s threats of citation, fines, and arrest.
I witnessed the effect of this effort to silence free speech on January 10th at an event where I spoke, in which we had to use marginal megaphones to be barely heard. At the time, I just thought it was a one-off mistake by Covid-crazed bureaucrats distracted by Governor Inslee’s confusion over his own lockdown orders. However, when Doug Basler showed me video from a few days later which demonstrated this had become the radical and absurd new policy at the capitol campus, I had all the proof that my attorneys needed. We were eager to see if Washington State’s bureaucracy and the AG were willing to greenlight my arrest for committing an act of free speech. This would be a bizarre action, even for the Inslee administration. Fortunately for them, an adult obviously intervened and prevented any arrest from happening.