Mall sues war protesters...

[marmar]

Mall Sues War Protesters
Submitted by danielifearn on Sat, 2006-09-16 03:30. Nonviolent Resistance
Published on Friday, September 15, 2006 by the Kingston Daily Freeman (New York)
by Katie Young

TOWN OF ULSTER - Kings Mall has filed a civil suit against protesters who read the names of dead soldiers and distribute anti-war literature in front of the military recruitment center at the U.S. Route 9W mall.

The mall's attorney, Jon A. Simonson, said the suit stems from tenants' complaints over loss of business from the protests, with damages estimated at $50,000.

The suit follows the dismissal in late May of trespassing charges against two of the defendants, Jay Wenk and Joan Keefe, both members of the group Veterans For Peace. The two were arrested Feb. 4, and Wenk was arrested again Feb. 11, on charges of harassment.

Ulster County District Attorney Donald A. Williams said the February case was not a criminal matter and that the mall was "initiating an appropriate civil remedy."

Wenk and Keefe were charged with trespassing in August 2005, but those charges were dropped four months later because the complaint failed to state why the two had been asked to leave the mall.

The 79-year-old Wenk, who lives in Woodstock, said he and Keefe were served with the suit while protesting at the mall on Saturday.

"The D.A. refused to prosecute us on criminal charges, and so the mall filed a suit using big business," said Wenk, a World War II veteran.

The rest of the article is at: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/14216

[acmejack]

1. What a bunch of SOBs!

Talk about trying to suppress the first amendment. I will be sending my fellow VFP members funds for their defense & encourage everyone else to do likewise.

[bleedingheart]

2. how about the Democrats there insure they lose more business

I say an all out protest of the mall....put people out in the public streets surrounding the mall with signs like "Kings Mall limits my right to free speech".


Additionally, I would ask as a defendent for historical data. If there is no evidence this protest limited those stores receipts it should be thrown out.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. Looks like a good place for a big-assed demonstration

Get a couple hundred activists from NY and New England to raise a little hell in front of some lenses.

Let's see ... we've got King George's war ... corporate stifling of dissent ... barratrous use of the courts ... profits-over-people ... suppression of free speech ... yeah, there's a lot of issues that can be invoked.

--p!

[PuraVidaDreamin]

4. There's a recruiting office inside the Kingston Mall in Ma.

Maybe Veterans Day would be a good day for everyone
to find a mall with a recruiting center. Pass out
some counter reacruiting material to all the kids
off from school that day too!

I'm digging this idea

[marmar]

7. "I'm digging this idea"

Me too. Piss them right off.

[EFerrari]

5. Make 'em feel it, Jay and Joan!

:kick:

[soothsayer]

6. Hey! A good time to use their abortion-clinic tactics against them.

[marmar]

8. Shootings and bombings excepted, of course.

:)

[nuxvomica]

9. I think the fundamental issue here is private space

I am reminded of the case of the man wearing the antiwar T-shirt at Crossgates Mall, who was denied his 1st Amendment rights because he was on private property. I think these protesters have a similar problem but I suspect that because the suit was brought after failure to bring trespassing charges -- the appropriate remedy -- the mall may be on shaky legal ground.
Because of the private property issues, I think it's innapropriate for government offices to reside in other than public space raising the question of whether the private space protects the government from petitioning or rather the right to control of private property is overridden by the rights of petition and assembly. I'm not a lawyer but I can see an argument that the mall waives certain of their own rights by accepting money from government entities to site their operations within it's space.

[WePurrsevere]

12. I remember that hitting the news... is that the one where they asked him

turn it inside out? There have been a few cases with Crossgates. The mall's position being that they have not become the "town square" and therefore people there are subject to the same private property rights as a person has in their own home.

[nuxvomica]

13. Yes it is

I think the whole public space/private space issue is muddled by shopping malls and it's probably best for us to just avoid them and hope they go away in the absence of any clear assertion from the legal system that they probably are public space. To me, if it looks like a duck and walks like a duck, it probably is a duck. Shopping malls look like public space and gain value from that appearance so they should abide by the rules that govern public space.

[WePurrsevere]

14. Agreed as malls include more & more public events & orgs, ...

such as post office branches & even police stations, they open themselves up to function as, and therefore become, "town squares" and therefore should be governed by the same rules as public spaces.

[WePurrsevere]

10. King's "Mall" in Kingston, NY... it's a strip "mall" that's...

reviewed on a site called "Dead Malls" - http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/kings_mall.html

Here's a Dec 18, 2005 news article about one of the protests: http://archive.recordonline.com/archive/2005/12/18/news-p5-jsprotest-12-18.html
Apparently Mr. Wenk is a WWII Veteran who survived the "Battle of the Bulge", "Wenk, a Woodstock resident who fought in the Battle of the Bulge, said the developments have energized the protesters, who will expand their protests to include weekdays. "We're stepping it up," he said."


(Above map snipped from here: http://maps.citysearch.com/location/7597094)

[fed-up]

11. need people to say they quit shopping because of recruiter's office nt

[me b zola]

15. Interesting

If the defense can show that shoppers have stopped shopping at the mall because they are offended by the recruiting center...then the law suit gets tossed.

[Name removed]

16. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[me b zola]

17. I, for one, think the claim is bullshit

If I need an electronic device from Radio Shack, and there were gop protesters, they wouldn't stop me from getting what I want. I think it is more likely that if there is a fall in sales it is because people sympathetic to the protesters. Hence, the mall needs to kick out the recruiters :hi:

[CarlVK]

18. They are more concerned about profit loss than soldier loss

What a bunch of sociopathic shitheads.