New Poll: The Future of the NAACP

As the NAACP celebrated its 100th birthday on February 12, the Conejo Valley Democrat wants to put the question to the people: What should be the focus of the NAACP over the next 10 years? Comment here or vote using the poll below.

Simi Blinks First; Lessons from the Civil Rights Movement

It’s not quite over, least of all for Liliana, the immigrant sheltered in a Simi Valley church, but the Ventura County Star reported today that the city’s bill of $39, 307 to the United Church of Christ has been put “on hold.”

 

 

Make no mistake about it, the Simi Valley city council and the mayor blinked first.

 

 

Faced with the threat of legal action by the American Civil Liberties Union, the city made its first intelligent decision in this entire affair—it backed down. The church did not.

 

 

City Manager Mike Sedell is quoted in the Star’s report as saying, “The city’s biggest concern is public safety, cost comes later.”

 

 

Contrast this with what he told the Los Angeles Times last week: “We warned [church officials] that if they flaunted it in the public, then these [protests] will occur and there will be consequences.”

 

 

This lofty attitude came with a price: on shaky legal ground, the city is trying to repair its damaged reputation.

 

 

“The city will continue to pursue resolution of this issue, and the mayor will recommend to the City Council that further action against UCC to enforce the letter sent to UCC asking for reimbursement of costs be placed on hold pending further discussion,” read a joint statement issued by Mayor Paul Miller, the Rev. June Goudey, and others.

 

 

What will happen to Liliana remains to be seen, but odds are she’ll be deported.

 

 

It occurs to me that there are similarities between those who heckled the Little Rock Nine 50 years ago and those who picketed the churched harboring Liliana last week.

 

 

The protesters of both eras were intolerant, trying vainly to preserve a way of life that had already disappeared.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now, 50 years after the forced integration of Little Rock Central High School, former president Bill Clinton held the doors open for those who bravely risked violence to claim the education that was justly theirs.

 

 

 

Politicians fall all over themselves to give lip service in commemoration of the event. In addition to Clinton, the governor of Arkansas and the mayor of Little Rock attended a ceremony honoring the Little Rock Nine. President Bush issued a statement: “We resolve to continue their work to make America a more perfect Union,” said the president.

 

 

The day will come, probably sooner than we think, when politicians will fall all over themselves to praise the contributions of Latinos to American culture. They will say that they always supported a humane immigration policy.

 

 

When that day comes, we will remember those like Mayor Miller and Congressman Elton Gallegly barred the gates.

 

 

The United States should adopt more humanitarian immigration legislation, that which allows economic migrants, like Liliana, to stay in the country as guest workers. Groups like Save Our State would deride this as amnesty, but they forget our long tradition of offering shelter to those like Liliana who come here seeking a better life.

 

 

I’ll take Rev. Goudy’s version of America over Mayor Miller’s any day.

 

 

Greenberg Gets it Right

Congratulations are in order for Steve Greenberg, editorial cartoonist for the Ventura County Star, for his superb piece in Sunday’s paper. I think it captures my feelings about the constitutionality of the matter pretty well. Check out his website for more well-crafted cartoons.

The Good News and the Bad News about the Simi Valley Church Protests

What a week it has been for Simi Valley.

 

 

On Friday, the Ventura County Star reported that the anti-illegal immigration group Save our State would stage a protest Sunday at United Church of Christ in Simi Valley. The protesters were angered, some enraged, about the church sheltering an illegal immigrant and her infant son.

 

 

The immigrant, Liliana, crossed illegally into the United States nine years ago but is married to an American citizen and has three children who are American citizens.

 

 

On Saturday, the Star published an editorial calling the protest a “waste of time.”

 

 

“People with nothing better to do than to harass Simi Valley churchgoers on Sunday plan to protest at the United Church of Christ in Simi Valley,” read the column.

 

 

The Star urged the Save Our State to cancel their protest and “work constructively to encourage our politicians to pass a sensible, humane immigration policy.”

 

 

Bravo.

 

 

Save Our State, not entirely rational people, did not listen.

 

 

Instead they engaged in a loud, obnoxious protest, against a woman and her baby. And in front of a church, no less.

 

 

They drew both neo-Nazis, who sympathize with their views, and counter-protesters, who do not.

 

 

One counter-protester, Naui Huitzilopochtli, was hosed down with pepper spray. And not by the police. A very dramatic photo showed him clutching his face in pain.

 

 

Brook Young (a man), one of the protesters, claims to be the perp. He has a lawyer.

 

 

A group called Immigration Watchdog has produced two very slick videos of the incident. They shed little light onto what actually happened, but do show that common sense was not common currency on either side.

 

 

Apparently, Young claims to have been attacked by Huitzilopochtli and acted in self-defense. Huitzilopochtli claims he was just trying to find the bathroom.

 

 

But that was a sideshow. The real action came after the protest, when Simi Valley Mayor Paul Miller sent the church a bill for the protests. Now follow along here, Miller sent the church a bill not for protesting, but for causing a protest.

 

 

Hmm, dubious legal footing, I’d say.

 

 

Scholars agree.

 

 

Quoted in the Star, Los Angeles attorney Carl Shusterman said, “It just seems a little bit backward to charge the church. It seems the city is pandering to popular opinion in the community.”

 

 

This is correct.

 

 

Rabbi John Sherwood said in the same article, “If people want to demonstrate, requiring the police to be there, let the demonstrators be the ones who pay.”

 

 

This is wrong. Nobody should pay to protest. We have a First Amendment to the Constitution, which protects just this kind of speech, both on the part of the protesters and on the part of the church.

 

 

The Star, in an editorial, spoke out strongly against the actions of the city government.

 

 

The good news is that the American Civil Liberties Union might step in.

 

 

In another Star article, ACLU attorney Peter Bibring said, “Paying for the cost of a political demonstration like this is paying for protection of freedom of expression, which is the price of living in a democracy.”

 

 

“If people had to pay, no one would ever demonstrate.”

 

 

Finally, some decency.

 

 

And for the last bit of indecency, we present you with our congressman, Elton Gallegly: “Clearly the city is in the right to go in and take whatever is necessary.”

 

 

Is it really that clear? We’ll find out when voters go to polls.

Simi Valley Mayor, City Council Wrong to Fine Church

The Ventura County Star reported today that Simi Valley Mayor Paul Miller would send the United Church of Christ in Simi Valley a bill for nearly $40,000 for protests that took place near the church this weekend.

 

 

The church has been “harboring an illegal immigrant,” according to Miller. The immigrant is identified in the report only as “Liliana.” The mayor and the city council are apparently angry that despite their having warned Rev. June Goudy in August not to take in Liliana, she defied them.

 

 

The mayor’s and city council’s actions are clearly unconstitutional. Goudy should hire a lawyer and contest the fine. She will prevail in court.

 

 

A similar incident occurred in San Bernardino this spring after the City of San Bernardino billed Armando Navarro, organizer of a peaceful antiwar and pro-immigration rally, $17,674.08 for their policing of the event.

 

In this case, the city’s sensible mayor, Patrick Morris, who served for 30 years as a Superior Court judge, was strongly opposed to the fine, saying in a May 17 e-mail that “The right to free speech, especially when it involves criticism of our government, is one of our most cherished individual rights as Americans.”

 

 

“This fundamental right cannot and should not be burdened with the concern or fear that if you exercise your right to free speech, you will be sent a bill by your government.”

 

 

 

The irony is that most of the protesters were from an inane and mean-spirited group, Save Our State, which was picketing the church in protest of its protection of Liliana.

 

 

The problem with these organizations and the politicians that support their point of view, like Miller and Congressman Elton Gallegly, is that they focus only on the problem of illegal immigration and turn a blind eye to less talked about values that made our country great: tolerance, hospitality to foreigners, compassion, and charity.

 

 

They forget, perhaps, that their own ancestors were immigrants too, albeit probably legal immigrants, but with the same desire to live in freedom and prosperity.

 

 

Instead of taking a humane approach to the problem of illegal immigration, politicians and anti-immigration activists and their supporters instead focus on its negative aspects, notably those few individuals who commit crimes.

 

 

Gallegly’s recent editorial in the Ventura County Star is a prime example of this intolerance.

 

 

The United States has both the right and obligation to enforce its own immigration laws. But we should not lose the soul of the nation in the process.

 

 

In the end, Liliana, if she is an illegal immigrant, would have to be deported. This is a sad and an avoidable consequence of her decision to cross the border illegally.

 

 

It is avoidable because we can change our laws to allow guest workers. Our economy demands such a change, but the mainstream of the Republican Party cannot seem to get its act together and support the idea.

 

 

It may be that Miller, who has had a long career in law enforcement prior to becoming mayor, does not understand that his actions are illegal under the Constitution. Perhaps he is blinded by his anger at having the resources of his officers tied up by an inconvenient protest, caused by the actions of a person he disagrees with.

 

 

I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

 

But it is more likely that Miller knows exactly what he is doing. It seems that he is using his political office not for the good of the community, but to advance his cynical political agenda by whatever means are at hand.

 

 

“This city is not going to be known as ‘sanctuary city,’” Miller said, according to the Ventura County Star.

 

 

He will not win this fight.

 

 

Links:

 

“Church to Be Billed for Costs of Protest,” by Anna Bakalis, Ventura County Star, September 19, 2007.

 

 

“Mayor: City Was Wrong to Bill Protesters,” by Robert Rogers, SBUSN.com, May 18, 2007.

 

 

“Controlling Public Protest: First Amendment Implications,” by Daniel L. Schofield, Unit Chief of the Legal Instruction Unit at the FBI Academy, Law Enforcement Bulletin, November 1994.

Patrick Morris’s Superb E-Mail