Trump
may be gone, but we still have to deal with local Trumpnuts
By
Will Collette
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and
to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”- First Amendment of
the US Constitution
Jim
Mageau, Charlestown’s most vocal Trumplican, has been writing letters to the
editor again. That’s good news or bad news depending on whether you are amused
by his rants or disgusted by them.
On
December 23rd, he wrote
a letter complaining about people who were comparing Donald Trump to
Hitler. Since Trump’s January 6 failed beerhall putsch, that letter stands
refuted by actual events that horrified the nation and tightened Trump’s image
as a fascist.
On
January 19, Mageau wrote another letter this time trying to justify local state Rep. Justin Price’s participation in the January 6 coup attempt by asserting that Price was simply exercising his First Amendment rights.
 |
One of Price's last tweets complaining that his
accountant quit, apparently over Price's
January 6 actions |
Mageau
says “The First Amendment to
the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees freedom of speech!” which it does, but not unconditionally.
In fact, none of the
rights protected under the First Amendment are absolute.
Religious freedom does
not give you the right to practice polygamy, as the Mormons found out. Nor does it give
you the right to practice human sacrifice or any other normally unlawful act.
Freedom of the press
is no shield against knowingly and malicious publishing libelous or slanderous statements.
Freedom
of speech does not give you the right to “Fire!” in a crowded theatre, or to
incite a riot or insurrection.
Freedom
to petition the government for redress of grievances does not cover trespass,
destruction of property, beating police officers to death or within an inch of
their lives nor does it cover stealing or destroying government or personal
property. It does not cover terrorism.
 |
Price's Twitter account has been taken down. In his letter to the editor,
Jim Mageau revealed that he also has been booted from Twitter and
is now posting on AOL |
I
spent more than half of my life working with community organizations. That work
frequently involved planning political protests.
Part
of the planning always involved discussing the line between First
Amendment-protected actions and those where you may be subject to arrest. Leaders
and staff needed to know where that line was so we could enforce it on our
members and protect it from inappropriate police intervention.
But
sometimes, groups I helped decided they needed to cross the line and engage in
non-violent protests that broke the law - some form of civil
disobedience like a blockade or deliberately trespassing.
The
folks who beat the Invenergy power plant project that threatened Burrillville
(and Charlestown) often used civil disobedience as part of their resistance. Several of them were arrested.
 |
Anti-apartheid protesters waiting to be arrested at the South African
embassy. Stevie Wonder was in this day's group. Cathy was not. |
Another
good example was the almost daily protests at the South African Embassy in
Washington, DC during the fight against apartheid. A pre-selected group would
deliberately walk up to the door of the embassy to present petitions knowing
that they would be subject to arrest. My wife Cathy was arrested doing this not
once but twice.
Every
time we planned an act of civil disobedience, we knew there were consequences
and prepared to deal with them.
Now
here’s gullible old Rep. Justin Price (R-Richmond, Exeter, etc.) who travels
down to Washington to take part in the January 6 protest.
Price
knows what protests and civil disobedience are and, as a law-maker, had already registered his opinion
of them. On March 1, 2017, he introduced H-5690.
Price’s bill would have relieved a
motorist of civil liability if that motorist runs down a protester who is
blocking traffic. Seriously – read the bill.
Fortunately, that bill did not pass.
 |
Trump mob tries to beat DC Metro Police officer
Mike Fannone to death |
On
January 6, 2021, Price took part in a “protest” at the Capitol that was, by
all accounts, a riot.
He
claims – though I don’t believe him – that he did not actually go into the
Capitol building. However, he got close enough to make the false claim he saw Antifa and Black Lives
Matter people instigate the attack on the Capitol..
Even
if Price is telling the truth about not actually going inside the Capitol, he did commit criminal trespass. I know
that area very well – I worked in the United Methodist Building across the street from the Capitol for 9 years.
 |
Prohibited areas around the Capitol
outlined in red. US Dept. of Justice |
Even
on a calm and normal day, there are severe restrictions on where you can go
around the Capitol. On January 6, whole blocks around the Capitol were off
limits, cordoned off with barricades and police lines. Price had to cross
several of those lines to make his Twitter observations.
He
broke the law.
Unless
he’s already ditched his cellphone, its GPS tracker can show exactly where he
was and how many police lines he crossed. And it can show whether or not he
went inside the Capitol, though he would already have committed criminal
trespass by the time he got there.
Jim
Mageau is outraged that any RI elected officials would demand accountability
for Price’s behavior, including his Twitter ravings about how it was all Antifa’s
fault:
“Now here comes a mob of progressive Democrats
demanding that he [Price] resign his seat as a state representative for
exercising his freedom of speech. A right guaranteed under our Constitution
that he swore an oath to defend as a U.S. Marine. THey [SIC] may be illieterate
[SIC] or aybe [SIC] they lied, but the crackpots who are calling for Price to
resign also raised their right hand and swore an oath to uphold the U.S
Constitution when they were sworn in to the House of Representatives.”
Price
and the other rioting Trumpnuts deliberately crossed the figurative as well as
physical line and committed criminal trespass – at minimum. It was not
non-violent civil disobedience.
He
should step up and accept the consequences. At least no one is going to run him over with a car.
It
can be a full-time job correcting Mageau’s garbled version of events but while
I’m dealing with his January
19 letter, let's review some more Mageau nonsense.
For
example, Mageau places the blame for the riot on DC Mayor Muriel Bowser who
according to Mageau “who
failed to order adequate police security at the capital and around the city.” This of course is bullshit.
Mayor Bowser’s calls to mobilize the DC National Guard as well as Guard troops from Maryland and Virginia went unanswered because Trump loyalists in the Pentagon refused to grant
that authority. It took Mike Pence, of all people, to belatedly issue the
order.
Mageau claims there
are “80 million other Trump supporters” besides Justin Price (and presumably
Mageau). Not even Trump claims that number. Does that mean that 6 million of
them failed to vote on November 3? I’d love to know the real number today as
even the Q-Anon crazies are bailing on Trump.
Finally, Jim issues a
challenge:
"show me where in P********t
Trump’s speech on Jan. 6 does he call for or even suggest that his supporters
engage in violence, civil disobedience or to attack the capital.”
The House of
Representatives did just that in the Article of Impeachment that will be the
basis of Trump’s impeachment trial:
On January 6, 2021, pursuant to the 12th Amendment to the
Constitution of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, the
House of Representatives, and the Senate met at the United States Capitol for a
Joint Session of Congress to count the votes of the Electoral College. In the
months preceding the Joint Session, President Trump repeatedly issued false
statements asserting that the Presidential election results were the product of
widespread fraud and should not be accepted by the American people or certified
by State or Federal officials. Shortly before the Joint Session commenced,
President Trump, addressed a crowd at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. There, he
reiterated false claims that "we won this election, and we won it by a
landslide." He also willfully made statements that, in context, encouraged
— and foreseeably resulted in — lawless action at the Capitol, such as:
"if you don't fight like hell you're not going to have a country
anymore." Thus incited by President Trump, members of the crowd he had
addressed, in an attempt to, among other objectives, interfere with the Joint
Session's solemn constitutional duty to certify the results of the 2020
Presidential election, unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol, injured
and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress, the Vice
President, and Congressional personnel, and engaged in other violent, deadly,
destructive and seditious acts.
And then there was
this Trump line: “Now,
it is up to Congress to confront this egregious assault on our democracy. And
after this, we’re going to walk down, and I’ll be there with you, we’re going
to walk down, we’re going to walk down.”
Except Trump, true to
his conman history, did not walk with the mob he dispatched to attack the Capitol. He
stayed in the White House to watch it on TV and cheer on the insurrectionists.
