Fun fact of the day: You can be arrested in Surprise, Arizona, for making complaints about a city employee during a city council meeting. Not an exaggeration, not a joke, just plain reality in the City of Surprise.
Here's the city policy which is printed on the back of each public speaker form that citizens hand in before council meetings:
Oral communications during the City Council meeting may not be used to lodge charges or complaints against any employee of the City or members of the body, regardless of whether such person is identified in the presentation by name or by any other reference that tends to identify him/her.
And here's what happens when you break this rule and speak freely about your public servants — in this case discussing their salaries:
Rebekah Massie, 32, was arrested Tuesday night and cited on suspicion of trespassing, a class 3 misdemeanor. The arrest came after she was removed from the meeting at the behest of Mayor Skip Hall who accused her of breaking the city's rule against complaining about city employees while making public comments.
Yeah, the internet is not happy with ol' Mayor Hall right now.
The Surprise Police Department is charging Massie with additional class 1 misdemeanor charges for reportedly resisting arrest and obstructing government operations …
Tuesday night's controversy started near the end of the meeting when it was Massie's turn to address the council.
She was using her time to express concerns about the performance and compensation of Surprise's city attorney. Hall, however, interrupted her comments.
Arrested for her free speech.
This one's definitely going to a higher court, and I'll wager that Mrs. Massie will win.
Because making a rule that you can't complain about a public employee during a city council meeting is 100% a violation of the First Amendment.
On Wednesday, Massie raised a handful of claims against the arresting officer, who she alleged, shoved her against the wall and threw her to the floor for resisting arrest.
'He said I was resisting,' she recalled, noting her response to him. '"I'm not resisting, my daughter is here, I don't know what's going on, you say I'm being detained, but I don't know what for." He said for disobeying a lawful order, but I said, "the order was not lawful."'
The officer, she also alleged, didn't read her Miranda Rights and didn't allow her to contact an attorney.
The city says she wasn't read her Miranda Rights because she was never questioned — she was simply cited and released. They remain strong in their stance that the anti-free speech policy isn't a violation of the First Amendment.
I'm sure we'll find out over the coming months whether or not that turns out to be the case.
For the record, the City of Surprise says that while you're not allowed to complain about public employees during the council meetings, you can totally leave your complaints with the city manager during normal business hours and you will not be arrested for doing so.
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