Deputies to stop harassing I-502 proponents

By GENE JOHNSON - Associated Press
SEATTLE - King County authorities and the Washington State Public Stadium Authority have agreed to stop harassing people collecting signatures outside the Seahawks football stadium for an initiative that would legalize and tax recreational marijuana in the state.
One of the collectors, Benjamin Schroeter, was arrested Nov. 13 after he refused an order to stop collecting signatures for Initiative 502 in a public area outside the stadium where fans were tailgating. The King County prosecutor's office declined to file charges, but the sheriff's office didn't return his petitions until Wednesday.
Another gatherer, campaign staffer Tonia Winchester, said she and others were threatened with arrest and kicked out of the north parking lot at the stadium for collecting signatures before the Nov. 26 Apple Cup game between Washington and Washington State.
Sheriff's deputies responded to complaints about the signature gathering from parking attendants, and took down the group's signs without asking, Winchester said.
Schroeter and Winchester sued the county, the Public Stadium Authority, and First and Goal Inc., the private operator of the stadium, claiming their First Amendment rights had been violated. In a stipulation filed Thursday, the sheriff's office and stadium officials did not admit wrongdoing but agreed that law enforcement officials, parking attendants and others would allow the signature gathering at least through the end of the year.
Representatives of the sheriff's office, stadium authority, and First and Goal did not immediately returned calls seeking comment Thursday.
The complaint alleged that the north parking lot is obviously a public forum: it is owned by the stadium authority, was built with public money, and anyone can walk through it at any time.
Allowing fans of certain teams to express their viewpoint while suppressing the speech of marijuana legalization activists is a constitutional violation, the lawsuit said.
Schroeter, who was being paid to collect the signatures, said in a court document that he was walking among tailgating fans and asking if anyone was interested in signing the petition when event staff approached him and told him he had to leave. He disagreed, and told them to go find a police officer who would verify his rights to collect signatures in the public area.
He said a handful of deputies told him he had to leave. He asked to see their supervisor - Sgt. Luis Caballero - but Schroeter fared no better with him.
"Caballero arrived and told me I was trespassing on private property," Schroeter wrote. "I again stated that this was public property and that I had every right to collect signatures there. ... I then politely told Sgt. Caballero that I was not going anywhere, and held out my hands for him to place handcuffs on."
Schroeter spent the night in jail.
Alison Holcomb, campaign director for New Approach Washington, the group pushing the initiative, said she was thankful that Schroeter and Winchester were willing to speak up on behalf of "anybody that's trying to get a contentious issue in front of the voters."
The group must collect 241,000 valid signatures by the end of the year to send their measure to the Legislature.

 

Read more: http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/12/08/2303838/deputies-to-stop...
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Comment by Robert Doyle SR on December 10, 2011 at 1:41am

Peacful Petition to affect a notice to the Government of a (re-think) need to redress a (wrong) grievence with ill effects upon the citizens. We have an absolute right as the populace, to vote in a full public election format to delete a bad law, or to enact a good law. The people have been treated as insurgents in their own society. Read FM34~ Wikki it.Over 300 million adult residents in America , of which only one fourth do vote on issues, this initiative belongs  on every state ballot and even the Federal Ballott. The DRUG WAR of our new millenium begins with a peace treaty with the people. Then we can do all the paper legal work to instill QC & a slice for the Governments Tax Authorites.

Comment by apeman2502 on December 10, 2011 at 12:53am

  I spent a huge amount of time working on the Seattle and next year BLOSSOM Washington State initiative for legallization of the weed. To date, nobody has overdosed or died. That was in 1972-3.

   "Sign the petition to legalize marijuana. If I am at the beach and a bully walks up and kicks sand in my face and steals my bag of weed, I want to be able to walk up to that officer standing right there watching me now and say, "OFFICER! That man stole my stash! But, I can't. Please sign the petition to legallize marijuana. The father of our country missed a session of the new congress because he was collecting the best buds. The United States constitution is written on hemp paper, and the sails of the ship were made of hemp cloth."

Comment by Robert Doyle SR on December 9, 2011 at 12:43pm

RESTORE OUR US Constitution as it is our Supreme LAWSnd is complete with the solutions to a Federal Government run amuck. Vote RON PAUL in 2012 (R) primary.

"Destroying the New World Order"

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