(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . 6th Circuit: Show your gun on Zoom to intimidate micropolitan people, get sued [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-06-02 ZOOM JURISPRUDENCE: 6th Circuit, 2-1, holds that a city commissioner bringing out a gun during a Zoom call can count as retaliation for speech in violation of the 1A. Does Qualified Immunity apply in this case? (vid) www.freep.com/… (vid) www.usatoday.com/... Qualified immunity is a type of legal immunity. "Qualified immunity balances two important interests—the need to hold public officials accountable when they exercise power irresponsibly and the need to shield officials from harassment, distraction, and liability when they perform their duties reasonably." www.law.cornell.edu/... JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge. During the public comment period in a Zoom meeting of the Grand Traverse County Commission, Patricia MacIntosh expressed her concern about the Commission’s prior invitation to and endorsement of the Proud Boys, a group that has been designated an extremist group and a hate group. She requested that the Commissioners make a public statement condemning the group’s violent behavior. In response, Commissioner Ron Clous produced a high-powered rifle and displayed it to MacIntosh and the viewing audience. MacIntosh sued Clous and the County, alleging that Clous unconstitutionally retaliated against her for exercising her First Amendment rights and that the County had an unconstitutional policy or practice of allowing this kind of First Amendment retaliation. Defendant Clous appeals the district court’s denial of his motion to dismiss based on qualified immunity. Because MacIntosh plausibly alleged that Clous violated MacIntosh’s free speech rights and Sixth Circuit case law put him on clear notice that his actions were unconstitutional, we affirm the denial of Clous’s motion to dismiss. -------------------------------— Grand Traverse County is a county located in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2020 census, the population was 95,238, making it the largest county in Northern Michigan. Its county seat is Traverse City. The county is part of the Traverse City micropolitan area, which also includes neighboring Benzie, Kalkaska, and Leelanau counties. Wikipedia United States micropolitan statistical areas, as defined by the Office of Management and Budget, are labor market and statistical areas in the United States centered on an urban cluster with a population of at least 10,000 but fewer than 50,000 people. The micropolitan area designation was created in 2003. Wikipedia On January 20, 2021, fourteen days after the January insurrection, the Grand Traverse County Board of Commissioners held a public meeting on Zoom (due to the ongoing pandemic )that included a public comment portion. Many citizen attendees dialed in by phone, but the Commissioners, including Clous, were visible on video. Directly before MacIntosh gave public comment, a County citizen identified as Kate Dahlstrom spoke. Dahlstrom criticized the Commission for allowing the Proud Boys to speak at the earlier County Commission meeting, noted that the Proud Boys have been labeled a hate group and an extremist group, and asked the Board members to publicly state that they did not belong to “this hate, extremist, and white supremacist group, or any similar group.” In response, the Board Chairman chastised her in an aggressive outburst and defended the Proud Boys, arguing that they were not a hate group. He ended by telling her that her opinions and political speech were not welcome in the meeting, specifically stating that “I don’t really appreciate this forum being used to spread misinformation about me or groups; you can do that in your magazines or editorials.” The Complaint alleges No. 22-1015 MacIntosh v. Clous Page 4 that it was unusual for Commissioners to respond to public comment rather than listening; another Commissioner questioned the Chair’s actions, asking whether it was appropriate to be responding to public comment in that manner. In response to that Commissioner’s question, the Chairman again responded in an irritated tone, accusing Dahlstrom of “spreading lies.” Pat MacIntosh was the next to speak during the public comment period. She criticized the Commission’s actions supporting the Proud Boys, expressing concern about the Proud Boys’ participation in the violent insurrection at the nation’s Capitol building, which she compared to political violence in their own state—such as the occupation of the Michigan Capitol building by people with assault rifles and the plot to kidnap and murder Michigan’s governor. MacIntosh then asked the Commission to “please make some sort of a public statement for the community that you do not accept the behaviors” of the Proud Boys and similar violent groups. In response, Ron Clous stood up and briefly left the frame, returning with a high-powered rifle that he displayed to the camera with a smirk. The Board Chairman laughed. Clous admits that he got his rifle in response to MacIntosh’s public comment. MacIntosh alleges that Clous’s actions made her feel fearful, intimidated, and physically threatened. Fear and concern for her safety have deterred MacIntosh from speaking at subsequent public governmental meetings, including at meetings held to address Clous’s conduct toward her. And MacIntosh also alleges that due to Clous’s actions, she began to receive threatening, anonymous communications late at night and has felt compelled to make a report to the police for her own protection. Publicly elected officials and other community members also expressed concern and fear. At a special meeting held to address Clous’s actions, about 100 community members made comments over four hours, “the great majority” of which “expressed shock, fear, and anger” at Clous’s behavior. Some people making public comment at this meeting said that they were afraid to give their names—more simply refused to give their names when asked. Another Commissioner felt that the incident was serious enough to merit proposing a resolution to censure Clous, which the Commission voted down. The local newspaper published an editorial characterizing Clous’s behavior as intimidating conduct designed to discourage MacIntosh from speaking freely. www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/... x Sutton's dissent begins: "If you work long enough as a judge, you can expect to see just about everything. Consider this strange but true fact pattern." From the dissent: pic.twitter.com/6ZKuP3jM0f — Orin Kerr (@OrinKerr) May 31, 2023 (2023) San Francisco Supervisor Dean Preston, a “Democratic Socialist,” is proposing legislation to prohibit retail security guards from simply unholstering a gun to protect property. He states it is “entirely unacceptable that our local law includes drawing a weapon to respond to protecting property… We need to make sure that our local law is crystal clear that a security guard cannot draw a weapon to protect property.” A section of San Francisco’s Police Code, enacted over 40 years ago, currently prohibits any “armed guard” from drawing or exhibiting “other than in a holster [,] any handgun except in lawful response to an actual and specific threat to person and/or property.” www.nraila.org/... is drawing a gun like drawing a bath (2021) On Dec. 3, a prosecutor in Oakland County, Mich., turned the tide when she announced she was charging James and Jennifer Crumbley with involuntary manslaughter after their 15-year-old son, Ethan Crumbley, allegedly shot and killed four classmates at Oxford High School on Nov. 30. Oakland County prosecuting attorney Karen McDonald said at a news conference that the teen’s parents could have stopped the mass shooting but failed to act on multiple warning signs. One day before the shooting, a teacher caught Ethan Crumbley searching for ammunition on his phone during class, the prosecutor said. The school alerted his mother, who later texted her son that she wasn’t mad at him and that he had to “learn not to get caught.” Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney Karen McDonald announces criminal charges against James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of alleged school shooter Ethan Crumbley, on Dec. 3, 2021 in Pontiac, Mich. On the morning of the shooting, a teacher found a drawing by Ethan Crumbley that alarmed her because it depicted a handgun and phrases that included “the thoughts won’t stop,” “help me” and “blood everywhere.” The teen’s parents were summoned to the school by administrators who said Ethan needed immediate counseling. But the Crumbleys kept their son in school. And they didn’t inspect his backpack, which may have held the handgun his father purchased for Ethan as a Christmas gift days before, authorities said. time.com/... (2007) Officials at an Arizona school suspended a 13-year-old boy for sketching what looked like a gun, saying the action posed a threat to his classmates. "My son is a very good boy [who] doesn't get into trouble," the boy's mother, Paula Mosteller, told CBS affiliate KPHO correspondent Mary Valenzuela. "There was nothing on the paper that would signify that it was a threat of any form." "He was just basically doodling and not thinking a lot about it." The Chandler Unified School District declined to give more details about the incident. Spokesperson Terry Locke said in a statement, "Federal privacy law forbids the school or district from discussing student discipline." There's nothing in a portion of the student handbook that addresses conduct to indicate the drawing of a weapon poses threat, KPHO reported. There is, however, a rule that says students should not engage in "threatening an educational institution by interference with or disruption of the school." The drawing, which is covered with smiley faces, did not show blood, bullets, injuries or target any human, the parents said. The East Valley Tribune reported that the boy said he did not intend for the picture to be a threat. "We're not advocates for guns," Mosteller said. "We don't have guns in our home. We don't promote the use of guns. My son was just basically doodling on a piece of paper." www.cbsnews.com/... Jan 13, 2022 The WA appeals court then addressed Johnson's pointing his finger at Zerr as if he were holding a gun. The court explained why it felt that Johnson's pointing was not a true threat… The finger gun is a hand gesture in which a person uses their hand to mimic a handgun, raising their thumb above their fist to act as a hammer, and one finger extended perpendicular to it acting as a barrel. The middle finger can also act as the trigger finger or part of the barrel itself. Also, an optional clicking of the fingers can be included when forming the “gun” as to emphasize the gesture. [...] Kirchner admitted he had pointed his finger at Klingseisen, but testified that he did so only after Klingseisen had pulled out two fingers of his own—i.e., that Klingseisen “gave [him] the finger with both hands.” Whether due to a lack of evidence, or because these fingers were not pointed at anyone, or because the hand configuration was otherwise harmless, Klingseisen was not charged. But Kirchner was, and the court found him guilty. He appealed, arguing that the evidence was not enough to show that “making a hand gesture, albeit in the rough form of a gun, is a hazardous or physically offensive condition,” as the statute requires. He pointed out that other hand gestures had been found insufficient to support disorderly conduct convictions, and that his gesture was not materially different from these, “as his hand could never be mistaken for an actual firearm.” The court did not dispute this, but held the evidence still supported the conviction—not because the “gun-like hand gesture” was hazardous in and of itself, but because it created a “hazardous condition,” namely the “risk of an altercation” between the two men. This is despite the fact that no such altercation took place, and based on the footage (which you can see at the link above), the risk of one was pretty minimal. The exchange of gestures is very brief, Kirchner never left the street, and Klingseisen never left his backyard. It’s hard to see anything “disorderly” about this. It’s just two neighbors making rude gestures at each other in a perfectly orderly way. The right to do this without interference by the government is just the sort of thing the American Revolution was fought to preserve (I’m pretty sure). For a similar but even dumber incident, you may peruse these items from 2013 concerning a seven-year-old boy who was suspended for allegedly biting a pastry into the shape of a gun and then using said pastry gun to “make inappropriate gestures that disrupted the class.” No one was harmed in the incident, because it was a pastry. www.loweringthebar.net/... A 14-year-old autistic boy was suspended and charged with a felony over a picture he drew in school, MyFoxAtlanta reports. The boy's mother said he was in a special needs class when he drew a picture of two stick figures, one of which was holding a gun. The eighth grader's picture depicted a stick figure with a gun that was labeled "me." The figure was shooting another figure that had his teacher's name above it. The boy has been suspended and is now facing criminal charges. www.foxnews.com/... The most vocal critic of Mackinnon and (Andrea) Dworkin's rights-based approach to pornography is Ronald Dworkin (of no relation), who rejects the argument that the private consumption of pornography can be said to be a breach of women's civil rights.[5] Ronald Dworkin states that the Ordinance rests on the "frightening principle that considerations of equality require that some people not be free to express their tastes or convictions or preferences anywhere."[6] Ronald Dworkin also argues that the logic underpinning the Ordinance would threaten other forms of free speech.[5] en.m.wikipedia.org/... Qualified immunity is a type of legal immunity. "Qualified immunity balances two important interests—the need to hold public officials accountable when they exercise power irresponsibly and the need to shield officials from harassment, distraction, and liability when they perform their duties reasonably." www.law.cornell.edu/... Need some help with this one. It is a mechanical pencil shaped like a pistol. The lead holder part is pulled back and locks in place inside the barrel until the trigger is pulled and then it snaps out for use. It looks like something is missing that was soldered to the cylinder beside the barrel. Possibly an eraser or spare lead holder. It looks as if there was lettering stamped to the left grip but impossible to read what it was. www.collectorsweekly.com/... /s Podcast in development [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/story/2023/6/2/2172575/-6th-Circuit-Show-your-gun-on-Zoom-to-intimidate-micropolitan-people-get-sued Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/