Bridgeport Township Defends Allegations of Harassment by Officials with More Harassment by Officials

[XLFD]

From Bridgeport Township Michigan, a small community of 8000 people nestled just south and a little east of Saginaw comes the story of an as yet unidentified citizen who on March 4, 2014 addressed the township board with a long list of observations and grievances, and then went a little over the proscribed three minutes for public comment, which led to some problems.

A quick look at the Bridgeport Township website indicates that the Board meetings have little public participation in the comment section, the minutes reflect that the last member of the public to comment was back in March 2013, and it is anybody's guess what they said or who they were(BP Twp Minutes).  This is pretty sloppy and incomplete on the clerk's part.  The man gets up and brings up a litany of frustration and harassment in his dealing with the township, but gets to the three minute mark, where he is told to summarize his point.  The man points out that he had petitioned the board for a longer presentation, and is told he needs to sit down. 

It looks like he might be on his way to voluntarily complying when two police come up to him and place him under arrest for disturbing the peace.  A third officer comes up to help assist the man out of the meeting

The individual who posted the video, Carla Citizen, has been responding to Youtube comments. Regarding why they were videotaping that specific meeting at all, they said:

"I was not filming it at his request. I choose to do this on my own. As for the comment “that’s what he wanted”, that was made by another resident that was sitting near me, it was not made by me. Listen to the difference in the voices. My only remark is “this is going on the internet tonight”.

Whatever the dispute in question was is not known, but Carla Citizen says:

"This video does not show 3 years worth of the battle between him and the township board but it is not out of context. It shows him speaking before the board and being removed and arrested. The video speaks for itself"

Within three seconds the police make verbal contact with the man, and then immediately detain and place him under arrest.  Then forcefully take him out of the meeting, where it sounds as if they get rougher once he is out of the limelight. 

 The Mission Statement for those police officers:  "The Bridgeport Township Police Department will provide the highest quality of service to our community in a professional and courteous manner. We seek to build problem-solving partnerships with our citizens, to be proactive in preventing crime, and to enhance the quality of life throughout our community, always treating people with dignity, fairness and respect"

Mission failed on the professionalism, courtesy, problem-solving, and always treating people with dignity, fairness and respect.  The township board punctuated their own approach to the matter with asking for the doors to be closed after the man was removed, to silence the rough treatment he was getting, and one can assume the perfunctory "resisting arrest" charge the town cops would muster to prove the man's harassment charges as self-evident.

The heavy-handed approach by the Bridgeport officials definitely show that the man's statements had merit.  The general apathy of the crowd shows such activity is expected by their officials, when someone has a dissenting voice.  Bridgeport citizens should realize that something wrong is happening in their town, and it's not some old guy talking about public policy for over three minutes at a public meeting expressing his American right of free speech.

[AQUAMAN]

Strange coincidence, Bridgeport is the  home town of the MSP officer Butterfield we lost last year. Looks like Gestapo style governing is alive and well in Bridgeport nowadays. Given the man has 3 years of unanswered grievances to air, he can only redress these in 3 minutes? Reminds me a lot of a quaint quiet little fishing town on Lake Michigan, where people sit idly by and watch their liberties disappear, and stay mute for fear of police brutality. I'd like to see his mug shot after the arrest, it's obvious he was beaten after they hauled him outside. And for what for God's sake? What Mission Statement is this?

[XLFD]

Isn't it a tad bit eerie to see the indifference among the board and the rest of the audience (beyond the filmographer).  But if this happened in that quaint fishing town you speak of to its most outspoken citizen, more times than not you would see the same amount of apathy, except that the council would likely stand and applaud and heap praise on to the best law enforcement officers in this state.

And you'd probably have Chief Barnett ordering Reserve Officer Mayor Ryan Cox to help him remove the public nuisance that's disturbing the peace.

[Willy]

The reason for time limits to speak is to keep the meeting to a reasonable length of time, however if there are only a few people speaking then the time limit should be extended. Ludingtons Council meeting is the same. Very few folks get up and talk and since the meetings are bi-weekly there is no reason not to let people say what's on their minds instead of cutting them off with a time limit. Just like the FOIA requests. They are in existence if Government agencies want to require  them but they are totally unnecessary in the vast majority of cases and are used as a punitive measure against citizens. It appears that someone else followed the cops out the door and video recorded them in the hall. I'd like to see that video. Looks like Bridgeport cops need to go on a diet.

I found these comments on u-tube below the above video.

A property owner in Bridgeport, Michigan was addressing his grievances at the monthly township board meeting when he went over the 3 minutes allowed for public comment. The police went to remove him from the meeting and when he didn't comply in a fast enough manner for them, it sounded like they said he was under arrest for disturbing the peace. When he reached to get his coat is when several officers then grabbed him. Once they removed him from the meeting room it sounds as if he was slammed to the floor in the area outside the main room. You can hear it on the video tape. Outside as he was being put into a police vehicle they said he was charged with resisting arrest. I am not sure if that will be the only charge. He was going to the Saginaw County jail for the night I think and then he would be arraigned the following morning. I have no further news at this time as to the status of his case.
This man has had a 3 year ongoing legal battle with this township board. The Bridgeport Township board has a history of recalls, legal battles, court cases, this is not a one time occurrence for this township.

UPDATE: A poster asked for more details about this meeting. It was the regular monthly scheduled board meeting. This was not a special meeting being held for any particular reason.
If anyone is looking for more information about Bridgeport, the township board, a little history on some of the problems in the past in our small township, you can go to MLive.com and go to the Saginaw section (we are a small township outside of Saginaw) and use their search function. http://www.mlive.com/saginaw/
Our local newspaper is The Saginaw News, which you can access through MLive and our local television station is WNEMTV5. http://www.wnem.com/

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[XLFD]

Remember the cops came for the man's barbecue grill and his bird feeders; all that birdseed and grilled foods adds up to a lot of pounds that just can't be burned up by leading talkative citizens out of public meetings.

The man requested and was denied the ability to address the public body with his grievances, seemingly because they didn't like what he was going to say.  Technically it sounds like he followed township's rules :  "Any person or group wishing to place an item on the agenda shall register their intent in writing with the Township no later than seven (7) days prior to the meeting and include name and address of the participant, group affiliation, and the topic to be addressed." 

As someone who regularly deals with a corrupted public body, I know that if you wish to talk on a topic for more than the five minutes they give you, they won't allow it unless you're talking about making cat-feeding ordinances or are for the proposed historical district.  Brown-nosing public officials and business partners of the city can also get a pass.

[easymoney]

The others may not be dis-interested, they probably know if they speak up, they'll be hauled out also. That's the reading I get, all eyes are facing forward, instead of normal behavior, which would be to watch the incident.

[XLFD]

The latest on this story is that the Bridgeport man, Mark A. Adams, is going to be arraigned on a felony charge of "resisting and obstructing" and a misdemeanor charge of "disturbing the police".  He goes in front of the judge for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday. 

Is there anybody other than corrupted public officers (of which there are an awful lot) that doesn't see anything inherently wrong in this?  He was in the process of summarization when he was arrested, and never 'resisted' when in sight of the camera. 

http://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw/index.ssf/2014/03/felony_charge_f...