Delegate Michael Smigiel, a Republican representing the upper Eastern shore counties, is serving the opposition to the Dream Act in Maryland in a critical way. He is working to ensure that our rights in this potentially ugly battle are not violated.
The right to petition is the people’s veto power over bad legislation from our elected officials. It’s an essential protection in the system of checks and balances.
PETITIONERS ILLEGALLY DISMISSED BY AUTHORITIES
We have had a number of cases in Maryland in which our volunteers were collecting signatures lawfully on public property and told to leave by authorities. These include incidences at post offices, at Camden Yards, on college campuses, on sidewalks outside of festivals, and on county Recreation & Parks playing fields.
Chris Huckenpoehler, a petition volunteer who was ordered off of post office property, said in our interview, “Since when do the USPS rules trump the U.S. Constitution?”
One incident occurred at a college in St. Mary’s County during a graduation ceremony. Petitioners were collecting signatures when a gym teacher drove up in a golf cart, asked to see the petition, and drove off with it. It was a petition containing voter signatures. The petitioners had to chase him down to get it back.
Two women collecting signatures outside of Camden Yards were told by a very hostile Maryland Stadium Authority official, James Slusser, Director of Security Operations, that they must remove their t-shirts which advertised the petition before they could short-cut across a piece of stadium property to get to where he instructed them to be. Bernadette Zgorski, one of the petitioners, described Mr. Slusser as “gestapo-type” and said in our interview, “Who are we protecting here? I’d be happy to go down there again, but not just two women.”
Delegate Smigiel has made himself available to any volunteers who experience these problems and is working to educate them on their rights. He said, “If you are holding a protest march or parade, then you need a permit. The right to petition is political free speech, which is the highest protected form of free speech. It is protected by the Constitution, you don’t need a permit.”
Del. Smigiel said, “I’m going to tell the Stadium Authority, if you don’t fix this problem, then when we go back into special session, I’m going to ask that about $50-100 thousand of your budget be set aside to train all the security officers in adherence to the Constitutional rights of individuals on the property.”
He asked for an opinion from the Attorney General’s office on where petitioners can collect signatures. The opinion is posted on his website here.
PETITIONERS HARASSED BY MEMBERS OF THE ORGANIZED OPPOSITION
In addition to violations by authorities, petitioners have also experienced harassment from opposing organizations. After the impressive results started coming in from the Board of Elections from the first deadline of May 31, Kimberly Propeack, Director of Community Organizing and Political Action for CASA de Maryland, an immigrant advocacy group, was quoted in the Baltimore Sun as saying, “I also think that we will be engaging people at the places where they are signing people up.”
Shortly thereafter, at the Hometown Holidays Festival in Montgomery County, petitioners were collecting signatures from their booth when a woman who was identified by one of our volunteers as Kimberly Propeack, physically put herself between signers and the petitioners. According to an article by Ron Miller, she was screaming “immigrant bashers” and “haters” at the petitioners. Interestingly, she did not identify herself as being from CASA de Maryland and was handing out literature with no identification either. One petition signer firmly told Ms. Propeack to stop harassing her. For a look at her inflammatory literature, see here.
Del. Smigiel said, “Anybody who interferes with the exercise of your rights starts getting into criminal law sanctions if they get into your personal space, threaten you, make you feel uncomfortable with respect to bodily harm or offensive touching. Those are assault and battery. Snatching something out of your hand is assault.”
DISCLOSURE: The writer is a county coordinator for the petition against the Dream Act. To sign the petition or volunteer, go to the website at www.mdpetitions.com.
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