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City of Rockford, IL
Police Indifferent to Crime and Threats
It is always important to make judgments based on what someone does,
not on what they say (especially if it's a lawyer doing the "saying"). Rockford,
IL City Legal Director Patrick Hayes says, "The
city is very serious about First Amendment protections and reacts quickly when
those rights are threatened." While
Mr. Hayes says so, do the actions support the assertion? Not even close!
You may not know this but the city of Rockford was involved in a
landmark US Supreme Court decision back the 1960s regarding 1st
Amendment free speech, known as Grayned vs. City of Rockford, IL. The Grayned case involves the city noise
ordinance, which ruling forced the city to change its ordinance to the one now
in use. Some things just don't change;
such as the use of an unconstitutional ordinance (not to mention they changed
the noise ordinance to an equally unconstitutional form - more on that later).
Kevin Rilott (et al) is bringing a federal lawsuit against the City of
Rockford, IL for violation of 1st Amendment rights of free
speech. In 2006, Mr. Rilott and a small
group of individuals contracted Wright Advertising and signed a 1 year contract
to place an ad on a bus bench on the corner of E. State St. and Summit Av. The principle problem is not the constant
destruction of the bench message, nor that the individual was known to the
police who was being destructive: it is about the City of Rockford putting pressure on Wight
Advertising to break the contract with 6 months remaining in the 12 month
contract with Mr. Rillott. This action
is what is at the center of the contention in the federal suit being
filed.
Now there has been an amended complaint that includes Wayne Webster
and Keith Sterkeson as defendants along with the City of Rockford, because of the Rockford City Police
routinely ignoring harassment, assault, and threats against Mr. Rillot and
others, while engaged in First Amendment activities, similarly to the bus bench
incident by these two individuals. The
common denominator is the indifference by the City Police to the complaints of
crimes and threats.
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