I smell a lawsuit coming. Something along the lines of a First Amendment violation. Abridging the freedom of the press. The People’s Republic of Burlington, Vermont, has instituted a 10-minute rule in city hall. The City Hall Code of Conduct and Trespass Policy. It is quite unprogressive.
For example, a city that favors progressive vagrancy and drug use might put you in the pokey for six months for “Possession, use, selling, or distribution of any regulated drug” in City Hall. No sex in City Hall either. Fundamentalist prudes.
Does that apply to all the metaphorical rape of taxpayers that begins there? Probably not.
The list of offenses is something to behold, but not beyond the pale of what we might consider common-sense public behavior. Things liberal women find difficult but that the rest of us assume are normal. But they make engaging with the local government more difficult, especially the 10-minute rule.
Notable among these prohibited behaviors is a ‘Class C offense’ that involves remaining in public areas for more than 10 minutes without explicit business, provided there is an intent to disrupt or impede City employees. This policy appears to be aimed at journalists like Todd DeLuca of the Beautiful Scenic Burlington YouTube video page, who has already been trespassed for waiting in hallways to speak with the mayor or other city officials – a practice common among journalists covering city, town, or state government.
To summarize, if someone in elected office at City Hall doesn’t want to speak to anyone about anything, especially a citizen journalist who might ask actual questions, they just need to make them wait for 11 minutes.
Remaining in a public area of City Hall without explicit business for a period of longer
than 10 minutes, with the intent to cause annoyance, disruption, or the obstruction or
impeding of City employees from carrying out City business.
You can leave when asked or risk 30 days as a guest of the city, since you seem to “like” them so much.
If you are unfamiliar with the relationship between citizens and government, your explicit business is their annoyance, disruption, or obstruction. Residents of Nashua, New Hampshire may be familiar with this sort of thing. Or anyone who has something to say at a town or school board meeting that the elected officials present didn’t want to hear.
Burlington is very progressive, woke, liberal, far left. That means high-strung, low tolerance for anything that isn’t toeing their line or lifting their bail. Annoyance, disruption, or obstruction are a low bar, but someone will have to test it and then sue them.
Telling reporters, especially citizen journalists, that their business isn’t legitimate and then making them wait until the city can throw them out or lock them up is inviting a lawsuit.
I can’t say if you can find relief in a court anywhere near Burlington, but there are numerous pro bono national outfits who might represent you as far up the judicial food chain as you need to go.
That’s not advice, but there’s no obvious press exception.
Is that because they don’t want the homeless people, drug addicts, and panhandlers you have to live with every day coming into City Hall claiming to be reporters?
The Proglodytes have no issue with making you live with their mistakes, but they don’t want anything to do with them, and they certainly don’t want to answer your questions about them.
You could, of course, do a string of reports from outside, after being asked to leave, about how you went to talk to X but were told to leave. After a while, the few normal people left in Burlington might begin to think that’s not the most transparent way to run a city government.
You could all get together and form a club that would fit in a minivan.
