Government ignores citizen's Free-Speech..

By John H. Webster

Government ignores Free-Speech and the demands for redress of grievences. It only cares that it has the majority vote and that only on election day. What we need is a Provider/Customer relationship.

Last year before we invaded Iraq there were lots of Peace Rallys. Vice President Dick Chaney was asked what he thought about the rallys in light of his determination about the US going into Iraq.

His response was: "They have Free Speech Rights, they can say what ever they want to." In other words, what ever the Demonstrators say, the Government has the right to ignore them.

Several years ago I was arrested and later convicted for handing out a flyer near a courthouse in San Jose. The flyer did not concern any particular case then in court but it seems that I had violated penal code 169. Part of that law states: "It is unlawful to picket or parade in or near a courthouse ... with the intent to influence Judges, juries, or officers of the court." That flyer was asking potential jurors to consider whether or not a miscarriage of justice would result before finding any verdict. In other words I was asking the jurors to question the law.

A year an a half ago, I started driving a billboard truck around the San Jose City Hall and around the San Jose Police Administration building. The signs on the truck accused the San Jose Police of being Bad Cops that alter evidence, and named a Police lieutenant that had participated in that alteration. I drove that truck an average of three hours a day, three days a week for many months.

So what did the City of San Jose do? Did they look into my accusations? Did they do any investigation or ask me for the details? No! They served me with a Restraining Order preventing me from being within 300 yards of either the Police Department or City Hall. What is interesting is that the City Attorney did this carefully avoiding any chance of allowing me to prove my accusations were true.

This type of response from Government is characteristic of the deteriation of the Government/Citizen relationship. What is needed is to convert this into more of a Provider/Customer relationship where the provider does not automatically get the customer's money but has to earn it.

For this to happen it will be necessary for the tax laws to be changed so that a tax-payer can get out of his tax liability if he can show that he is not getting his tax-money's worth.