San Diego police arrest congressional candidate for voter registration in Civic Center Plaza

Democratic congressional candidate Ray Lutz was arrested for registering voters in San Diego's public Freedom Plaza (AKA Civic Center Plaza), where the local Occupy protest has taken place. The San Diego police arrested Mr Lutz for trespassing and confiscated his voter registration forms.

I've been skeptical of the "this is what democracy looks like" slogan (since mostly, democracy looks like boring things like long meetings, constituency consultations, and voter booths). But by any measure, registering voters in a civic square is assuredly "what democracy looks like." And arresting people who register voters? Well, that's something else altogether.

Ray Lutz being arrested at Freedom Plaza - Occupy San Diego

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: authoritarianism • election • occupy • police • san diego

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Trey Roady

I’m not really a fan of the choice here, but I will take one moment to mention that, in this case, the police were at least proper with their job. They followed a decent enough process, ignored the cameras as much as possible, and even gave a “reasonable” response.

We’ll see how the legal side of it goes, later.
- Dr_Wadd
  
  While it’s true that in this case the police arrest process was quite reasonable, I’m cynical enough to question their motives for behaving in a reasonable manner. It could quite well be the case that these were all good cops who respected the boundaries within which they are required to operate. If that’s the case then I agree that on some level they should be commended. However, I do wonder whether they had been explicitly instructed to behave as reasonable as possible in order to facilitate the spin that the police department is no doubt going to be putting on this. Too many people will see this video, see police behaving in a reasonable fashion, and therefore conclude that their actions were fair, just and legal.
  - swankgd
    
    I’m not quite sure what’s so bad about what you describe. ”These officers were told to act professionally and responsibly so that people would see them as professional and responsible.” Boy, I hope that kind of horrible deception doesn’t spread throughout the department! Imagine the consequences!
    
    The fact is, their actions WERE fair, just, and legal. They believed he was breaking a law, explained to him what law they thought he was breaking, and gave him an opportunity to comply with that law. When he didn’t, they arrested him. A judge and/or jury will decide whether the officers were right about him breaking the law. But this video shows police officers doing their job exactly how they are supposed to be doing it.
    
    I wanted to add that, after reading the Supreme Court decision, I do think they probably were wrong about him breaking the law. That happens. But that’s why we have a judicial system.
    - marilove
      
      Why is it that ignorance of the law doesn’t apply to citizens as an “excuse”, but police officers can use that excuse all the time?
      
      What a great way for our government to get rid of those pesky people doing legal things like registering people to vote: Just have officers claim they “thought the guy was doing something illegal” and bam! Now the guy has been arrested, and will sit for some time in a jail. Will probably have to spend his own money on attorney and legal fees. Will have to go through the emotional roller-coaster of being arrested. Will now have to deal with court dates, taking time away from his campaign. Will now have to deal with the chaotic public exposure that he was in no way expecting. It may have a negative impact on his campaign, even though what he was doing was perfectly legal. (Hopefully it has a positive affect on his campaign, but we can’t predict that.)
      
      And there will be no recourse whatsoever for the officer(s) that illegally arrested him, since they can claim deniability of the law. And of course that time, money, and emotional stress this man now has to go through will never be given back. All because the officers “didn’t know the law”.
      - swankgd
        
        Okay, I might agree with a lot of what you say…but “deal with the chaotic public exposure that he was in no way expecting…”? Really? A candidate for office shows up somewhere with a copy of a supreme court ruling in his hand to do something of a political nature in public and he is in no way expecting public exposure?
        
        I agree that if this is being done repeatedly and in a widespread fashion it’s an issue. But to claim that Mr. Lutz is just some poor schlub caught in the wrong place at the wrong time is laughable.
        
        I applaud people who willingly put themselves in these situations where they know they will be unjustly targeted, to bring attention to the unjust targeting. I do NOT applaud them when they feign that they were just “minding their own business” when they knew full well what they were doing. Again, not justifying the arrest or abuse of position. But you didn’t see MLK saying, “Gee, officers, I was just trying to have lunch. Golly, why are you arresting innocent little me?”
        
        And I still say the individual officers doing the arresting did so in an exemplary fashion. Calm, clear, respectful, in contact with superiors, and in no way making a spectacle. There are clearly serious questions that need to be asked of those superiors, but man I wish more officers would act like the ones in this video did.
      - marilove
        
        There is a difference between public exposure and being arrested. I’m sure he was aware that what he was doing was legal (he probably has a team to look into this sort of stuff).
        
        I agree that if this is being done repeatedly and in a widespread fashion it’s an issue.
        
        Where have you been these last few months? This has been done repeatedly and widespread since the beginning of these protests. You’re just as bad as these officers and their supervisors. “I’ll just remain ignorant so I can be the devil’s advocate and claim ignorance of what is actually going on.” Derailing, much?
        
        Also, you seem to be implying that this man was protesting, with the rest of your comments (comparing him to MLK). He wasn’t! He was just trying to register people to vote. He was not protesting. Is registering people to vote now considered protesting?
    - Tres Watson
      
      You would be in sound judgment, except they have been ‘accidentally’ applying the law consistently to over 100 people who were within their legal right. Most of them have been thrown out by the courts, and that seems to be chillingly consistent ‘accidental’ application of the law. That is the issue.
      - marilove
        
        You basically expanded on my points above.
        
        Really, really convenient to make 100+ similar arrests, all the while continuing to claim the officers “thought” they were doing something illegal. Oh, really?
        
        These protests have been going on for WEEKS now. So have these arrests. Yet the officers can continue to deny their knowledge on the actual laws? I don’t think so.
        
        And where are the supervisors? If the officers on the street don’t have the knowledge on these what the laws are, the supervisors certainly do.
    - Dr_Wadd
      
      The ramifications of that sort of deception are horrible, as they present a veneer of respectability on an otherwise unreasonable act. Your argument only holds true if the police in the video were acting entirely under their own volition, I do not believe this to be the case. They will have been ordered by a superior to take that action, a superior who should know full well that this was not an illegal act.
awjt

“trespassing and refusing to leave”

Wait, tell me again how you can trespass on public property?
http://www.disoriented.net/ angusm

While cops arresting politicians is a healthy trend, I think they may have started with the wrong one.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=749833892 Florian Braun

One question, is this actually public property or is it one of those public/private spaces that are open to public use but actually privately owned (ie a shopping mall)?

Because if this is actually a public park in broad daylight then this is horrendously illegal. If it is semi private then it is merely sleazy.

Edit: So as posters after me had noticed the space is technically privately owned (ty Ellen and spoonipsum). Its still sleazy to have him removed for political activities when others are allowed to frequent the place but not illegal.
- Jonathan Badger
  
  It isn’t public property — it is actually owned by a nearby office building. That’s kind of Ray’s (the arrestee’s) point — that much “public” space isn’t really public.
  
  Here is a letter by the guy prior to his arrest explaining why he feels that what he is doing is legal.
  http://www.copswiki.org/w/pub/Common/M1205/2011-11-28-COPS-Letter-to-CivicCenterPlazaBuildingOwner.pdf
- Tres Watson
  
  Please review, it is totally public property under California state law. It is horrendous.
  http://www.facebook.com/notes/canvass-for-a-cause/know-your-rights-free-speech-on-privatepublic-property/268719639843204
  - Antinous / Moderator
    
    Please review our Comment Policy. As you made the same comment with the same link seven times, I have removed six of them.
William Ventura

Police seemed non roid’d up here so that’s okay i guess.

was kinda hoping they showed up with flame throwers and torched his little setup.

ie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VF9rT1RHhAQ
Manuel Dahm

Your country is so fucked.
- Phil Fot
  
  That’s true. But about the voter registration thing? If this keeps on, it won’t matter if one is registered to vote or not because the voting will necessarily take place from the rooftops.
  
  There is an ever narrowing distinction between Tienanmen, Tahir, Syria, Yemen on the one hand and America on the other.
  
  If the US Government can’t walk the talk of democracy, then it’s past time to replace it with a government that can. Either that of America’s elected officials should STFU about abuses in other countries.
  
  Arresting a person who is registering voters, who isn’t causing a disruption of typical activity in a public place or disturbance to the peace smacks of the registration shenanigans of the post-civil war south.
  
  It’s time for REGIME CHANGE IN AMERICA.
MrHaroHaro

Reminds me of The Red Cocoon, the park bench belongs to everyone but not to you.
lakelady

there’s more info here http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/29/1040920/-Former-Dem-House-Candidate-arrested-for-voter-registration-at-Occupy-San-Diego-w-updates!

What we can’t see from this video is what the officers said to Lutz before cuffing him and taking him away. Gotta love selective editing to make your point.
http://twitter.com/ellenbrenna Ellen Brenna

What people think is a “public” space is not public at all. As a result of city zoning policies in some places private developers are given bonuses (extra floors permitted etc.) for including a “public” plaza in the design.

These plazas like enclosed malls are in fact private property. The public can use them but the owners can decide what they can be used for.

Protest, free speech, organization, and other political activities are usually frowned upon.
- http://mordicai.livejournal.com Mordicai
  
  What you’ve just described sounds like modern America in a nutshell.
spoonipsum

It’s private property that’s open to the public, not ‘public property’ as the occupy movement wants you to believe. If the property owners asked the police to remove the guy then they absolutely should show up, ask him to leave and when he says ‘no’ arrest him for trespassing, anyone spinning this as ‘police state’ and ‘anti democratic’ are living in crazytown.
- Cocomaan
  
  Governments love your logic. “Let’s sell off all public property until there isn’t any. Now we can deploy police everywhere.”
  
  Not all of us kiss the boot, fortunately.
  - spoonipsum
    
    If you think we need more public property I’ll completely agree with you, but while we are talking about private property I think the rules are perfectly fine, and I think changing the rules because there is no reasonable public property would be the wrong way to go, lets address the actual issues and make more things public… or would that be too reasonable for you?
    - OoerictoO
      
      i think i agree with both of you on public/private property issues. but how about some reasonable public access/ownership when public funds help build the building through tax incentives, breaks, writeoffs, etc?
    - Cocomaan
      
      More public property? I’d settle for not selling the property we have. Like Zucotti.
  - Another Kevin
    
    They hang the man, and flog the woman
    That steal the goose from off the common,
    But let the greater villain loose
    That steals the common from the goose!
    - Cocomaan
      
      Well played.
- http://www.tulgeywooddesigns.com Amphigorey
  
  San Diego’s trespassing code includes in its provisions an exemption for peaceful political activity. That is exactly what registering voters is. To say that he was breaking the law is flat out wrong.
  
  The plaza may be privately owned, but people still have the right to use it.
  
  Note that the California Supreme Court ruled in Robins v. Pruneyard Shopping Center that the California Constitution protects speech and petitioning in shopping centers, even when those centers are privately owned.
  - spoonipsum
    
    Robins v. Pruneyard didn’t say the high school kids could erect booths did it? I’m fairly sure Mr Lutz would not have been asked to leave had he been there with a couple clipboards. There is a large difference between freedom of speech and setting up a booth
    - http://www.tulgeywooddesigns.com Amphigorey
      
      I don’t share your faith.
      
      Did the police say that the table was the problem? We can’t tell from the video, but it sure doesn’t seem so. They said trespassing was the problem. I bet he would have been arrested even if he hadn’t had a table.
      
      Also, you are ignoring the fact that San Diego’s own trespassing code allows for peaceful political activities. The Supreme Court case isn’t the only thing Lutz was relying on.
      - spoonipsum
        
        The video is purposefully edited to not show them asking him to leave, or him telling them about the supreme court case and handing them what he printed out, them reading it and then calling in to make sure they’re actually allowed to remove him… they just start with the arrest and say that its public property, and they never ever suggest there is a grey area, it’s always back and white.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=749833892 Florian Braun

This is why i prefer to have the government own things. Our government is (theoretically at least) bound by the constitution, private entities are not. Eventually all public space will be privatized and no one will have any rights, nice loophole they found there.
http://twitter.com/dougporter506 Doug Porter

Let’s look at Ray Lutz’s arrest in context. The SDPD, while keeping their pepper spray attacks away from the cameras, has engaged in a campaign of harassment and intimidation aimed at preventing citizens from speaking and assembling to present their grievances.
At one point it was deemed illegal to bring cups containing coffee into the area. Two days ago the SDPD went postal over the fact of an unsolicited donation of three cases of of sweet potatoes…”could be used as weapons”. At a rally people were told they would be arrested if they used the sidewalk to draw their protest signs…”we can’t tell if you’re sleeping or not”. I could go on and on here.
This “private property” that all these people have their panties in a bunch up about is actually an office building mostly leased by the City of San Diego that faces out onto the “Community Concourse”. Setting up a card table to register voters in spaced that the public is invited to traverse is clearly (according to the CA courts, or better yet ask Target stores, they lost the case) protected activity. Representatives from both political parties have in the past set up tables in this area because it is near the space where new US citizens are sworn in.
http://www.matthewpetty.com/ Matthew Petty

If that’s the same plaza I used to walk through on my way to work, then I’m pretty certain there were registration booths there in 2008. Mind you, there were cockroaches there in the evening.
kromelizard

This seems entirely consistent with the well known Republican electioneering tactic of seeking to block the registration and voting of classes of voters likely to oppose them.
mrclamo

“Freedom Plaza”? They need to rethink the name of that park!
- tom mccann
  
  This is a fitting and telling comment. The USA loves to go on about freedom this and freedom that, land of the free, live free or die, etc,, but I see precious little liberty these days. You’re free to do what the cops and the corps want you to do, and nothing more than that. Shame on the people in this discussion who give the cops a pass on this just cos they were polite. If people are now seeing nuances in this and similar stories then the cause is lost. This is an offence against freedom of speech and freedom of assembley. Period.
http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/42THFKXIPMJHQBIH6OPI4RVIDY Thebes

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will will make violent revolution inevitable. -JFK
riku

> I’ve been skeptical of the “this is what democracy looks
> like” slogan (since mostly, democracy looks
> like boring things like long meetings,
> constituency consultations, and voter booths).

I particularly like the “this is what democracy looks like” slogan, because it speaks to the central point of the #Occupy protests. Long boring meetings and voting would indeed be what democracy looks like if we lived in a functioning democracy. But when voting and going to meetings and the other more usual avenues of civic involvement don’t appear to have any meaningful impact on what the government actually does anymore, then democracy looks like civil disobedience (and believe me, all those endless general assemblies are long and boring too).
Marc45

It seems to me that if Ray’s activity was protected with citable court cases, then his lawyer should be able to get a summary dismissal and Ray can go back to collecting signatures. Publicity may have been a motivating factor here. A lot more people know Ray Lutz today than yesterday but call me cynical…

Also, just because a “public” private property owner may be able to limit activities on their property, doesn’t mean they have to. If it had been a Republican candidate, then the cops might not have been called.
swankgd

Please, point to where I defended the decision to arrest? I have defended the manner in which the officers at the scene, having been given the order to arrest, comport themselves. And I will stand behind that.

As for the rest, I’ll turn around something you leveled at me. If he expected not to get arrested, where has he been for the the last few weeks?

Also, he’s not a constitutional lawyer, the officers on the scene are not constitutional lawyers, their superiors are not. There is no expectation for them to be able to interpret on the street how a supreme court ruling affects enforcement of a city law. Yes, there is far more context when you start looking at what lead up to that moment, and I’m not denying that the department should, at this point, be well aware of the constitutional context of what they are doing. But the whole bringing the ruling with him is pure theatrics and has no bearing on anything. The fact is, people HAVE been arrested over and over for this, despite the ruling, and Lutz was either fully aware of that or lord is he too ignorant to get my vote for any office.

You want to go down there and make a point, more power to you. But have the balls to be honest about what you’re doing. Don’t walk around with an “arrest me” sign and then pretend to be shocked when you’re arrested when 100 people before you had already done the same. That’s just phony.
http://www.tulgeywooddesigns.com Amphigorey

” Don’t walk around with an “arrest me” sign and then pretend to be shocked when you’re arrested.”

Walking around with an “arrest me” sign is perfectly legal, so yes, it would be shocking.
ArnoDick

Wearing an “arrest me” sign isn’t illegal, bro.
- swankgd
  
  You’ve completely missed my point. I didn’t say it was illegal. I said showing up at a location wearing an “arrest me” sign where 100 people with “arrest me” signs have been arrested and acting surprised that you get arrested is dumb.
  
  Bro
  - http://twitter.com/Jon_Wake Jon_Wake
    
    And we’re saying that justifying his illegal arrest by people that should know better that way is twice as dumb.
riku

> And tell me, if he had the Supreme Court ruling in
> his hand, and the officer was in contact with
> his supervisors, how can the officer
> continue to claim ignorance of the actual
> legality of what was going on?

Yeah, I couldn’t help wondering how the cops in Zuccotti park rationalized not letting back in the protesters who had copies of the injunction saying they could be there in their hands too.

But you know, it’s not the cops who are claiming they’re ignorant of the law, it’s just swankgd who is. I’m betting the cops actual rationale is “my boss told me to”. After all, that’s why they called first to ask what they were supposed to do about the fact that he handed them a copy of the case law that says they’re about to open themselves up to a giant civil liberties suit if he wants to pursue it.

If I was protesting in the 9th district (California), I’d have a copy of the case law prohibiting use of pepper spray on nonviolent protesters with me all the time to hand to the officers too. Following the law is pretty clearly not what the police response to #Occupy is all about.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  riku,
  
  Learn how to do a blockquote.
xian

Why didn’t they pepper spray him? They could have gotten hurt!
andrewx

From Europe in the last month I saw american police pepper spray, assaulting and arresting people without any solid reason. In my opinion arrests are being used as a punishment to cause distress. They know the accusations won’t stand (will they?). But the execute them anyway, just to cause distress. One of the arrested was only taking pictures at a train station. It’s a very disturbing image of the Usa. Is it still a democracy? I was planning on flying over in the summer to tour California and Nevada, but now I’m quite scared. What if I get pulled over in traffic, what if I give the wrong answer to the wrong question? Guess I’ll choose a different destination.
realityhater

DEMOCRACY – Define it , Defend it , watch it slip through our hands
winkydog

nobody’s mentioned the officer also video taping; wonder if that’s an ongoing policy and what’s the legal status of the recording (is it publicly available?)

just curious
realityhater

winkydog , I noticed the police camera as well , wonder if Lutz can use (bend) the same anti-wiretapping law police use when they don’t want to be video taped
Navin_Johnson

5+ police to arrest a man for trying to engage the public in the democratic process while the police protect those that subvert it.
donovan acree

See Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins, 447 U.S. 74 (1980) which rules this a legal activity under the California Constitution Article 1, § 2
Every person may freely speak, write and publish his or her sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of this right. A law may not restrain or abridge liberty of speech or press.
California is unique in this respect. Privately owned public spaces are free game for political speech and activity.
- spoonipsum
  
  Is there a first amendment right to put a table anywhere you want on another persons private property that I’m unaware of? How about bringing a mobile home into the square? just think of how awesome of a registration booth you could make out of a mobile home… He should have gone there with a clipboard.
  - tom mccann
    
    I love people like you. If you’d lived through the French or American revolutions, you’d have been on the sidelines consulting your your rule book, tut-tutting at the revolutionaries and saying “well, he WAS breaking the local ordinances; look at how those flower beds have been trampled by the horses”. Stop being such a fucking wimp. Has it got to the point where the great-great-great-grandsons of the brave are now worried about a fucking table in a public square when democracy is at stake?
    - spoonipsum
      
      He was asked nicely to leave, and then was arrested for trespassing, which he clearly was. You seem to think the police shouldn’t be enforcing the law when they are called upon by property owners to do their duty, I think the guy should have just used a bloody clipboard.
      
      Maybe I’m a wimp, or maybe you’re completely overreacting by comparing this to the French and American revolutions, if you want to protect our democracy stop saying the police shouldn’t enforce basic laws and start saying we need to change the laws because that’s what democracy is.
riku

> Learn how to do a blockquote.

Ah, screw it. I’ve wanted to know how to do that for quite some time, but haven’t been able to figure it out and can’t find any instructions on the site to show me and can’t find a way to contact anyone to ask. Sigh. I was about to apologize and ask for help, but jeez, what’s with the instant snark? I think I just won’t comment here anymore instead. Thanks for your assistance.
- http://shadowfirebird.tumblr.com shadowfirebird
  
  Sixteen zillion different commenting systems out there and everyone expects you to be competent in all of them. I could never remember how to do blockquote in the old BoingBoing system, so I certainly feel for you.
  
  It so happens that a lot of places I comment use Disqus — including my own blog — so FWIW here is a handy reference.
  - semiotix
    
    Riku is just peacefully advocating for an alternative method of quotation here in this publicly-used private space. Unfortunately, as everyone knows, all mods are corrupt fascist thumbsuckers who use their pretended ignorance of the Comment Policy as a cheap excuse to put the screws to dissent.
    
    Oh, sure, they clean up their act when they know archive.org is watching. But I have friends who were disemvoweled right in front of their kids. Don’t try to tell me there’s such a thing as a “good mod.” Even the ones who aren’t getting off on the power trip are perpetuating a system that protects the worst ones.
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      Note to self: change avatar.
flickerKuu

Hey I know- instead of actually going and nabbing the bad guys doing crime let’s illegally arrest peaceful protestors with massive lawyers behind them so we can get sued and cost the city even more money. The more I research this guy, the more amazing he becomes in my eye. Check his wiki out- the guy is an animal when it comes to political rights. Arresting him will become a serious mess for the city- good work guys, we need him suing us like a hole in the head. How about we stop arresting protestors and just arrest the people we are protesting. Then everyone will go away. It’s really that simple. In the old days we would just grab pitchforks and a rope and kill the bad guys. If the police and politicians don’t start doing their REAL jobs, we might have to go back to rope.
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

uhm…
DeargDoom

I’ve been skeptical of the “this is what democracy looks like” slogan (since mostly, democracy looks like boring things like long meetings,…

Seems to be exactly the kind of thing I saw going on at the Occupy protest to be honest.
http://mrsplooge.myopenid.com/ bob

This would be no different than setting up in the Walmart parking lot. While publicly accessible, Walmart still won’t like it and will have you arrested.
William George

“I’ve been skeptical of the “this is what democracy looks like” slogan (since mostly, democracy looks like boring things like long meetings,…”

They should be doing both. Each alone has shown to be useless.
Laroquod

“Learn how to do a blockquote.”

Learn how to teach people how to do a blockquote. You ain’t there yet.
Josiah White

I campaigned for Ray Lutz in 2010. He’s a nice guy. The incumbent was elected by name only (his father was in the office before him and has almost the exact same name).
mothernatureseven

Registering voters is now a criminal offense. WTF is going on in this country? The police, even in little towns, become more SS like everyday .
They have APCs in villages of 1,000 people and tanks for police in big cities. WTF happened to “to serve and protect” has it gone to sh!t?
Petzl

My “Shit is fucked up and bullshit”-meter is off the scale.
SkipMitchell

THAT’S SOMETHING ELSE

(Come on, you had to have seen that coming)
marilove

I totally missed that somehow , so thank you for pointing that out. What he probably thought was that these pigs were going to overreact and arrest him without knowing the law, or by ignoring the law (and claiming ignorance), because of the hundreds of examples over the last few months over the exact same thing. I’d say hew was being properly prepared and trying to avoid being arrested by a bunch of fascists who continue to actively ignore the law, just so they can make someone’s life difficult. He clearly had reason to try to avoid arrest by having the proper documents to show that what he was doing was perfectly legal.

And tell me, if he had the Supreme Court ruling in his hand, and the officer was in contact with his supervisors, how can the officer continue to claim ignorance of the actual legality of what was going on? That’s bullshit. My points still stand.

Interesting that he had proof in his hand that what he was doing was LEGAL, yet he was still arrested and the officers can still claim ignorance. And you defend it!
agthorn

dooooood…It’s generally frowned upon ’round here to separately reply to half a dozen people with the same comment over and over.