We have another incident that rings of NH Gov. Chris Sununu’s Amen moment, where nine individuals in a crowd were arrested for disrupting a public meeting. There was no disruption, and charges had to be dropped. Compare that to the arrests of three residents of Moscow, Idaho.
An Idaho college town is set to pay $300,000 to three Christians who sued the city over their arrests for not wearing Covid masks at an outdoor church service during the pandemic.
The city of Moscow said it will settle with Gabriel Rench, and Sean and Rachel Bohnet, who were filmed being handcuffed at a communal psalm singing event on 23 September 2020 in footage which later went viral.
The trio sued city officials in March 2021, alleging their First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the undue and heavy-handed response.
Moscow in Idaho. College Town vs. Christians.
The event occurred outdoors on public property to protest the city’s mask mandates, so it was both religious and political expression, but police were on hand with instructions to cite those who disobeyed their master’s mask and distancing mandate, and they did. Just following orders!
We covered the story when it broke back in September 2020.
The Public Health tyranny continues without much objection except by those being persecuted for refusing to follow what are, by some accounts, unconstitutional mandates. And the five people cited were not in the minority. According to this report, most of those who attended the Christ Church “protest” neither wore masks or social distanced. The two arrests “were arrested for suspicion of resisting or obstructing an officer.”
Suspicion of resisting or obstructing?
One of the two is a Republican candidate for Latah County commissioner, known by the officer who arrested him but detained for refusing to provide identification when requested.
Three of those five were a school basketball coach, a music teacher, and his wife. They sued, and according to the Daily Mail, Moscow, Idaho’s municipal insurance company suggested they settle after “The trio sought damages for the violation of their constitutional rights, hoping to set a precedent so the city could no longer restrict political or religious activities.”
A magistrate judge later dismissed the city’s case for their arrests, while US District Court Judge Morrison C. England, Jr. said they ‘should never have been arrested in the first place’. …
Meanwhile, the city said its liability insurance provider, Idaho Counties Risk Management Program (ICRMP), ‘determined that a financial settlement in the case was the best course of action to dispose of the suit and avoid a protracted litigation proceeding.’
You misspelled “to avoid protracted embarrassment and a much larger settlement” wrong.
In my comparison tyranny, the New Hampshire Nine were arrested for no good reason and, in some cases, forced to wait 18 months before the charges were dropped – because there was no “there” there and never was – they should never have been removed from the meeting. The charges should never have been filed, and the case should have been dropped that day or the next with a generous apology from the Governor and the State Police.
They dragged it out, knowing they had nothing, and as rumors of civil suits against the Governor continue to swirl, his excellency has decided not to run for re-election. That is very odd. Despite his many flaws, he is still a popular governor. He could easily win his primary and the general. He’d be (I think) the first five-term Governor in state history, and the Sununus’ are not ones to miss an opportunity to think they’ve made history.
Other potential scandals are swirling, and only time will tell. Still, Chris Sununu was as much a COVID tyrant as any of them at the beginning, and the arrests in Moscow, Idaho, reek of a similar failure. People in positions of authority were given an opportunity to abuse power and infringe on constitutional rights, and they took it.
I think Moscow, Idaho, got off easy. We’ll have to wait and see if Sununu has to defend himself and his actions or if he’ll get off easy too.
