At a recent Arizona city council meeting, a woman spoke out against a city attorney, which was against the rules, so the mayor had her jailed.
Rebekah Massie, 32, went to the city council meeting in Surprise, Arizona, on Tuesday. Surprise is a city of about 143,000 people just outside of Phoenix. The Sinclair National Desk called Massie a “Libertarian fighter.” When it was her turn to talk in public, she used the chance to criticize Surprise city attorney Robert Wingo.
Massie said Wingo broke a lot of laws and didn’t care about the Arizona Constitution or the Bill of Rights.
Massie then brought up problems with the credibility of past elections and said that Wingo “did nothing” about them.
A short time later, Mayor Skip Hall told Massie that she was breaking the rules for public comments by “personally insulting the city attorney.” It says in the rule:
“During the City Council meeting, people cannot use spoken communications to make complaints against any City employee or member of the body, even if the person is named or mentioned in a way that makes them easy to identify.”
Massie replied that all she was doing was giving “factual information” and that the rule is “unconstitutional” in and of itself.
“That goes against my rights under the First Amendment,” she said quietly.
Massie also said that the Constitution and past Supreme Court decisions would “guard” her right to free speech, so she could stand at the stage and swear at Hall for three minutes.
At this point, Hall got angry and said he would have Massie led out of the room. Massie agreed that meeting rules said she couldn’t criticize city officials in public, but said the rule was illegal.
Hall said, “That’s your view.”
Massie couldn’t believe Hall would try to grab her and yank her out of the room with her 10-year-old daughter there, just because she had used her “First Amendment rights.”
An officer of the law finally went over to the stage and tried to lead Massie away after more back and forth. When she said no, the police officer put her hands behind her back.
“Don’t touch me!” Massie yelled.
“Are you kidding me?” She asked again. “Why are you holding me? What charges?”
A video of the meeting showed that the police officer then dragged Massie out of the meeting while she screamed. Another person in the meeting, who may have been Massie’s daughter, quickly left as well.
