Occupy Denver: Charge against plaintiff in David Lane lawsuit dropped days before court date
The reason has to do with an e-mail sent on November 23 by Amber Miller, spokeswoman for Denver Mayor Michael Hancock, to Lane associate Christopher Dodd. Here it is:
Mr. Dodd -Lane had assumed that Denver reps would have been more thorough in responding to the initial records request. "On the one hand, I give them credit for fessing up that they didn't do a full-blown search," he says. "On the other hand, I give them criticism for not doing a full-blown search."
When we replied to your records request by saying the Mayor's Office had no responsive records, we meant that the Mayor did not have "documentation of any... communication between Mayor Hancock (and/or his staff) and the governors or mayors of any other states or municipalities (and/or their staff) regarding the Occupy Movement." We were not withholding any document based upon an exemption from disclosure.
Admittedly, we had only searched for records of the Mayor -- we had not searched for records of the staff of the Mayor's office. We have now done so and have determined that neither the Mayor nor any member of his staff has any "documentation of any... communication between Mayor Hancock (and/or his staff) and the governors or mayors of any other states or municipalities (and/or their staff) regarding the Occupy Movement."
Please advise of additional questions or concerns regarding this request.
Best --Amber Miller
Given this discrepancy, Lane and company will submit an expanded request just in case other things were overlooked.
In the meantime, a hearing over the injunction request has been set for 9 a.m. Monday, December 5, in the Federal District courtroom of Judge Robert Blackburn. According to Lane, "I want the judge to enjoin the City of Denver and its police department from ticketing people for honking in support of Occupy Denver, ticketing people who pull over to offer food, clothing or support, stop arresting people for being in the park after 11 p.m. and stop harassing and ticketing people for placing objects on the sidewalk."
Incidents that fall within these parameters continue to take place. Consider a brief police chase over a woman's attempt to make a donation on Thanksgiving. As such, Lane believes that "Denver police are absolutely retaliating against people because they don't like their First Amendment-protected speech.
"You can camp out on sidewalks or streets to get tickets for a musical show or a good deal on a sale. So when you're supporting capitalism by buying something, the police are your best friend. But if you're camping out in protest, they will do anything to harass you or anyone who wants to give you support -- and that's a First Amendment violation. Police don't get to pick and choose which messages they like and those people, and they don't get to pick and choose which messages they don't like and harass those people."
Look below to see a video version of the Thanksgiving story. Then page down to see our earlier coverage about the injunction and open-records requests.
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