Emeryville Will Now Allow You to Do Business With City Hall Anonymously As The Law Guarantees
After 22 years violating the people’s Fourth Amendment rights at City Hall, the City of Emeryville has recently joined with other Bay Area municipalities (and beyond) who honor the United States Constitution. Formerly, people in Emeryville who wished to do business with their government were required to surrender their identification, a direct violation of the Fourth Amendment and the Brown Act. With a little bit of help from the Tattler and some tape, we happily report that after about a week tearing off our corrective signs, City Hall has finally given up and joined Team Constitution. Way to go Emeryville!
The sign has been removed from the lobby after the City was threatened with a lawsuit. The City Manager probably realized the City standing its ground in its violating the Constitution would not be looked upon favorably by any judge. The illegal sign is gone. This is how progress is made in our town….a lot of activism and then baby steps.
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| This sign remained in the lobby at City Hall since the building was constructed in 2000. Some people over the years, not knowing their rights, probably gave in and allowed the government to intimidate them. |
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| The Tattler had a correction to the violation. We returned many times over a week to replace our paper sign. The police were summoned but EPD allowed the paper sign to stay put. No arrests were made even though a charge of 'vandalism' was bandied. |
The thing that was best about your sign? The politeness of it. I've always thought signs should be more respectful and courteous. The sign from the city was too stern. Yours is better. Now about the content? The city has to know who is roaming around city hall so I don't think asking for people to sign in is any bad thing.
ReplyDeleteToo bad those that don’t want to sign in also harass staff for names while leaving them in fear of doxxing - nothing polite about that nor in service to the community
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