A Gandhi Kind of Week

[XLFD]

The Setbacks You get (when you ask for information and accountability)

 

Regarding a variety of decisions I had a part in this last week (June 24, 2012- June 30, 2012) I and my friends suffered an unusual amount of defeats.  Or was it really?  Here's all that happened last week regarding my ongoing conflicts with the local politicos.

 

A Nelson Mandela Monday

 

I led off this week just 49 minutes into it as I placed this thread chief-mark-barnett-hindering-public-investigations-pt-1 to formalize the contended elements of two FOIA appeals I was presenting that night. In it, I said:  "I predict the City Council, most of whose members have never even glanced at the FOIA law, will listen to their City Attorney, and force the City to defend itself in the Circuit Court, at large expense to the taxpayers, when the logical thing to do would just be to publicize the records that have been requested, in accordance with the law."  The City Council was gaveled into session.

a) A speech on the City Council's immoral raising tax rates in bad economic times without a popular vote went pretty much ignored by the City of Ludington officials and their newspaper. 

b) A speech on why the City needed to provide copies of non-exempt public records regarding the marina was voted down 5-0.

c) A speech on why the City should be providing at least redacted public records on an inactive part of an investigation, was totally rebuffed by a 5-0 vote. 

councilors-get-chided-then-pass-laws-without-a-quorum

 

A Martin Luther Tuesday 

 

d)  Incredibly, I received a court order regarding my ongoing FOIA case with the City regarding the business records of Nick Tykoski with the City that said my complaint was a moot point as the City had eventually provided those records, but the City's counter claim still had some open points.

e)  The Ludington Daily News came out with an article about the prior night's meeting without touching on the points that Ludington has indeed raised taxes the past three years, or mentioning anything about FOIA law in explaining what happened the previous night.  kevin-branisceski-lost-in-translation

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.   --Mahatma Gandhi

 

A Lech Walesa Wednesday

 

f)  Florida's courts rule in the Trayvon Martin Shooting that investigatory records regarding polygaph records, police reports and interviews with George Zimmerman, a suspect in an open investigation, can be released to the news media.  I wait patiently by the computer for an E-mail from Shay and Spaniola about reversing their denials; none come.

g)  I start a mini-movement on Facebook to get other folks concerned about Baby Kate to also do FOIA requests to John Shay to get the Ariel Courtland records.  The denials start filtering in to them the next day. 

 

A Henry Thoreau Thursday

 

h)  The victory of getting a FOIA request granted regarding a bicycle-SUV accident, was muted by a denial received later for Dan Ruba's records regarding the Baby Kate case. 

i)  A call for accountability to two City Councilors guilty of betraying the public trust gets mostly ignored nickles-for-nick-les  and neither of the two councilors make any public statement refuting the records or explaining the ethical lapses, again.

j)  After learning of other's failures to get results from John Shay, I develop a set of guidelines for trying to get the info out  foia-for-kate-worksheet this once again involves having Baby Katers get not only denied by Shay, but also by Prosecutor Spaniola.  Group denials, group appeals.

 

A Sigmund Freud Friday

k) Today's batch of rejection started with Dan Ruba records being denied, after it was inquired about what statute exempted his records ( he never took a polygraph test), this was put up in this Torch article  baby-kate-cover-up-continues-dan-ruba-records-sealed. 

l)  Received a letter from the Michigan Attorney General's office rebutting some allegations I had made to that office over the last few months.  Nothing I submitted was worth action by that office.

 

An Andrei Sakharov Saturday

 

m)  Mason Co. Prosecutor Spaniola sends me a formal denial of any records from the Baby Kate case.  Spaniola responds that he has no  correspondence  between him and Ludington City Attorney George Saylor over the last year, as per a FOIA request.

n)  Spaniola responds that the correspondence between him and Ludington City Attorney Dick Wilson is going to be way expensive, and is confused about 'correspondence'.  Questions my indigency.

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Fourteen undeniable losses for me and my friends occurring during a week, what a bummer huh.  Defeat is to be expected if you have a losing argument, but defeat is also expected when you are up against tyranny.  I described the days of the week by using 5 past leaders who fought against repression and tyranny in their own non-violent ways, and a psychoanalyst, which is what this City and County desparately need for their leaders.

The United States of America was founded on being a republic, something John Adams would say is based on laws, not men (or women) that are in positions of power.  The fourteen 'losses' all fall within this latter case-- if laws can be ignored by those in power, then I 'win' when I can demonstrate the loss was due to an unfair system.  So for the 14 lower cased losses I (and my allies) suffered above, the victory arises when you look beyond the defeat as to what was actually demonstrated by the agencies behaving the way they did.  Thus for the corresponding defeat, I can justify victory by looking at it thusly:

 

A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble.   --Mahatma Gandhi 

 

A)  The flummoxed Mayor after the speech, was notably defensive about the tax ordinances, Councilor Johnson could not even defend the DDA effectively, all councilors (except Castonia) forgot the meaning of the word "quorum".  No rebuttal of the excessive tax raises during hard times made by the City was raised.

B)  The flummoxed Mayor after the speech was halfway awkwardly let the issue be half-stated, then would not allow an answer to their question later that would have contained the supplementary material.  No valid means of exempting the material, by statute or court precedent was presented, even though I used law for all my arguments.  FOIA law was never addressed by the City, just their perceptions of security.

C)  The flummoxed Police Chief and City Attorney uttered a lot of platitudes and a polygraph law that made no difference as Ariel Courtland showed up and stated she wanted the records out. The Michigan Municipal League and  This precedent, among others cut through the BS.  We need records or we need answers!

D)  The court order (as will be reported soon) showed further major violation of judicial ethics by Judge Cooper and the 51st Circuis Court Administrator.  Also, the Ludington City Attorney had its part as well.  Once we get through the meaningless Counter claim, we can finally address this outside the county.

E)  Once again, Kevin B. of the COLD News, destroys his claims to fairness and credibility when the minutes and the meeting recording come to light.  I can't imagine a journalist like him, and an editor like Steve Begnoche, come out against the FOIA; no matter who uses it.

F)  Even though this Zimmerman ruling is pointed out to FOIA Coordinator Shay, it doesn't get any response.  Florida rules differ from Michigan rules, but the same thing would have likely happened here with fair local courts.  When FOIAC Shay quiets up, he has no adequate reply, and none really exist when comparing the cases of Trayvon Martin and Baby Kate.  One investigation  is active yet open to the public, the other is inactive and closed to the public.  The former is lawful.

G)  Although the Baby Katers taste defeat, they also get a taste of what I have had to go up against in getting the records I have been able to get over the last few years.  The wrongful defeat will only make them stronger, and understand the local tyranny that is also strong.

H)  The Dan Ruba request was actually a test to see whether they were consistent in denying records and not just protecting Ariel's records.  Denying interviews and police reports dealing with 'background' information should have no exemption as regards the FOIA.  This was an expected defeat, used to solidify a legal argument for later.

L)  Openly denying laws and ethical behavior is a topic neither City Councilor is likely to discuss as long as they are protected by their fellow City hallers and the COLD News.  Such behavior has not gone unnoticed by the public at large; displaying tyranny that cannot be refuted is a victory even when it is mostly overlooked.

M)  The denial was unequivocal and showed the character of the PA, and his resolution to defy FOIA law not only by denying the records but by misstating the FOIA law.  Such elitist responses show not only his ignorance of the law, but his dislike of the common people.  Also declaring he could be found guilty of attorney misconduct is based on his misinterpretation of other statutes.

N)  This semi-denial displayed in (n) actually is not a valid response as per the FOIA law, and the PA is likely expecting to jack up the bill by making printed copies of non-exempt computer E-mails.  He may want to extend by some unrecognized abeyance his response, but if his response is not timely, he may find himself losing another FOIA lawsuit.

 

Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is cooperation with good.   --Mahatma Gandhi 

 

Egotistical bullies, (which include Shay, the Ludington City Council, Spaniola, Barnett) ignore the law because everyone they know accomodates them in doing so.  How else could a Workplace Safety Policy be created which keeps taxpaying citizens from public areas when they have violated some unwritten rule of questioning their authority? 

A republic shuns tyrants, and I fear we are losing the battle against those who rule by whim, not by law.  But our defeats upon defeats, can turn into victory, oh so easily, if we can show how the other side cheated-- and keep the faith of our fellow man (and woman) in overthrowing the tyrants.

[Willy]

Well written post

[XLFD]

My hope is that it will inspire those who do go up against a den of corruption, either as a whistleblower or an outsider, and find the inner strength to accept the setbacks for what they are-- usually, the proof that what you're going up against is operating outside the law or the public interest.  Find strength in people like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Henry Thoreau, etc. who fought injustice because they found the will inside them to do so against great odds.