It’s unfortunate that instead of working together to fight neighborhood blight, the city of Wichita and Sunflower Community Action often have acted like adversaries. Now two Sunflower members, J.J. Selmon and Louis Goseland, have been found guilty of trespassing while protesting at the home of City Manager George Kolb. They were sentenced Friday to 30 days in jail but will be allowed to serve their punishment by being on probation. Instead of putting so much effort and resources into antagonizing and prosecuting each other, the two sides should commit to a constructive partnership that benefits them both.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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37 Comments
30 days probabation . . . for causing a 15 minute ruckus at a politician’s house.
Well, I guess we can all sleep easier now, knowing that justice has been done.
I wonder how much jail time the slum lord got for stinking up the working class neighborhood for the better part of a decade . . . I’m guessing NONE.
And here’s wide-eyed naif Philip pleading, “why can’t we all just get along?”
Maybe it’s because of the golden rule, Philip.
He who has the gold, rules.
It’s always the same with the compfortable status-quo: why don’t these angry people just TALK out their problems like civilized human beings.
Why? Because the people in power have no intention of yielding power until they are forced into it.
It’s the same thing The Eagle editors were saying about M. L. King and the Civil Rights movement until King was good and dead and he had been made into a saint and couldn’t confront anybody anymore.
Forget not what King writes in “Letter from Birmingham Jail”:
You [critics] deplore the demonstrations taking place In Birmingham. But your statement, I am sorry to say, fails to express a similar concern for the conditions that brought about the demonstrations. I am sure that none of you would want to rest content with the superficial kind of social analysis that deals merely with effects and does not grapple with underlying causes. It is unfortunate that demonstrations are taking place in Birmingham, but it is even more unfortunate that the city’s white power structure left the Negro community with no alternative.
. . . .
You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling, for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored.
Constructive? The Sunflower group told the city there was an illegal dump to be cleaned up. The city ignored them as they have ignored other reports of illegal dumps in the past. If the city responded to the people rather than to developers who stuff cash into politician’s pockets there wouldn’t be a need to knock on Kolb’s door.
I am slightly acquainted with one of the Sunflower participants, Louis Goseland. I have talked to him at various locations in which he was participating. I believe he graduated from West High School this last year.
I suspect he is patterning his life after some of the famous progressive activists of the 1960’s. I say good for him. Currently he is doing what many young people would like to do — help disadvantaged people who can’t help themselves fight city hall to gain benefits they deserve.
Local government should be a good training ground for young activists.
I recall Louis speaking to the school board at a USD 259 school board meeting. He was proposing an idea that I didn’t particularly agree with. However, I congratulated Louis on getting in there and making his position heard.
I suspect as Louis Goseland and other teenagers grow older and acquire families, property, pay taxes, get jobs … they will tend to moderate their views … who knows? Sometime in the future, Louis Goseland and his contemporaries will run for political office becoming our future city councilmen, state legislators and congressmen.
In the meantime, we should allow Louis Goseland and his portable megaphone latitude to gain experience in the public/political arena.
Those holding the power such as City Manager Kolb should back off and not use appointive power like a club. This only serves to discourage future participation in government by young people in such a way to generate a tremendously foul smell in our Wichita air.
All i have to say is if they wanted to protest, they should protest at City Hall, not at his home. Like the Cities Attorney said, just because he (Kolb) is a public figure, doesn’t mean he looses his personal property rights.
They should have protested at city hall, where more people could have seen him. Heck, they could have gone inside to get the permit for the protest and they could have stood there all day every day…
How much money did the city spend to prosecute this case? How many police and attorney manhours were wasted because Kolb used them like his own personal CSI team? I’d like to see a dollar figure, then I’d like to see an ethics hearing for Kolb if there’s room in our antiquated legal system for it.
The quote from the Judge is exactly right.
“Visiting Judge Darin Beck cited a U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the idea that people should be free of intrusive protests at their homes. Evidence showed the protesters stood on Kolb’s porch and used a bullhorn.
“This is not how you go about expressing your free-speech rights,” Beck told the defendants.”
This also applies to let’s say, the KKK coming up on someone’s porch and making protests with a bullhorn.
The decision was a sound one, one does not give up private property rights just because people angry about an issue want to express their discontent.
The hypocrisy of this city’s government is absolutely astounding. Convictions and probation for people who wanted the city manager to do his damn job.
Yet Operation Rescue breaks Wichita laws on a daily (yes, DAILY) basis. Every day, they park their billboard trucks on residential side streets that are clearly marked NO PARKING; they consider the $10 fine a “cost of doing business.” They regularly drive their huge billboard trucks through neighborhoods with weight and vehicle restrictions, and almost _never_ get ticketed. They regularly protest at clinic worker’s private homes. Last month, they confronted Nola Foulston in her driveway. Every day, they place hundreds of signs on private property (the crosses around the clinic), yet if a counter-protester tries to do the same, expect to get pushed, shoved, and spat on. WPD looks the other way.
While I am no fan of George Kolb, I am glad that this jury valued property rights over a misplaced interpretation of free speech rights.
By the way, where was former District 1 Councilmember Carl Brewer when his constituant needed help at 10th and Volutsia?
What, he vaulted into the mayor’s chair based on his leadership on matters like this? Unbelievable!
Anon–
There was no jury, dipswitch.
It was a single judge ruling on the case, no doubt a crony of Kolb’s.
You think a JURY would give jail time for this?
I did worse during frat hazings . . .
Umm-Juries don’t hand out sentences, judges do. Single judges.
By the same token, either a simple fine or community service would have seemed to suffice.
True, LJ.
But no jury would convict either . . .
I believe any jury that properly examined the facts would have convicted them of simple trespassing. Not a hard charge to prove. But again, in my mind, the sentence was not commiserate with the “crime”
I think two of the protesters have filed for jury trials. It’ll be interesting to see how that turns out.
Tony – they already HAD tried the City hall route. They were ignored and Kolb could continue to hide in an upper floor.
Appeal it.
Strange, it seems that Wichita is being run by many “hired bureaucrats and consultants” from southeast coastal states of the United States. Apparently Wichita has few home grown leaders with the desire to step up to the plate.
In any case, one of those is out-of-towners is city manager, George Kolb. Perhaps he is too old for the job. Perhaps his enthusiasm for public service give and take has long since disappeared.
After all, Mr. Kolb is the highest paid political leader in Wichita. Under our form of city government, organizationally, city councilmen are subservient to the city manager in most circumstances.
And now we see City Manager Kolb using his city management powers like a club on citizens of Wichita who are merely trying to get the City’s attention on a failure of the City to act on the behalf of the people.
Like President Harry S Truman said, “If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen”!
if they had stayed on the street, or public sidewal, their actions might be, and in my opinion, are objectional, but not chargeable. Once on private property, they deserved to get charged and found guilty of trespass.
It’s astounding the lengths the WPD, public attorneys, and city admins will go to when it comes to petty nuisances. While I don’t disagree with the ruling that Mr. Kolb has a right to be free of intrusive protests, I feel it’s disgusting how much time, energy, and money was thrown at this case by the city. People are being murdered and gangs run rampant in this city, but the WPD and city officials would rather give ticky-tack traffic tickets and pursue cases like this one instead of devoting that wasted time to making us safer. If Mayor Brewer has any sense at all, he’ll examine how the law and order in this town is being run and revamp it from top to bottom, starting with Kolb.
There are churches in town who make it their regular business to go knocking on people’s doors. Perhaps the city should shut these places down since they are apparently a huge crime ring of trespassers.
Doug,If they are at your door, and they won;t leave, call the police. Have them charged with trespassing.
Unlike Kolb if I would tell them that they are trespassing and should leave. If I stand there looking like an idiot pointing out the obvious that I’m on private property that isn’t a dictate for them to leave. Maybe Mrs. Kolb should have tried that. However the city prosecuted the people simply for being on private property which is perfectly legal according to the Supreme Court when some Jehovah’s Witnesses were charged with trespassing for going to someone’s door. If going to someone’s door was illegal then why did they put door bell ringers on their house?
The illegal dump at 10th & Volutsia points to Wichita’s policy of neglect for Northeast Wichita. Eventually this will allow developers to score a heck of a deal and sweep up blocks of broken down properties and abondonded lots for pennies on the dollar. Is there any other explanation for a 20 year old dump situated 8 blocks from the local health department and the neighborhood inspectors that are supposed to enforce city code.
The main problem with this policy, is that good homeowners, and their are many of them in Northeast Wichita, are left with sinking property values, no access to capital to maintain their home, and no ability to sell and relocate.
This is why city officials get so bent out of shape when the products of their policies are brought under public scrutiny. Residents in Northeast Wichita deserve the same neighborhoods standards that protect homeowners throughout the city.
Nearly all of those who own the abandoned properties live out of the area and use them for tax right-offs. If developers have their eye on the area–they can attain it through fair practices. The city can ensure that residents who have maintained their property are compensated fairly by enforcing the housing codes for the rest of the properties.
Any city administrator that uses their power to crush and quiet a group of citizens demanding only their legislated rights for a clean and safe neighborhood–SHOULD BE FIRED!
“However the city prosecuted the people simply for being on private property which is perfectly legal according to the Supreme Court”
If that is true, then they should sue the city for violating their civil rights.
I don;t know if Kolb told them to leave or not. If he did not, then shame on him.
i still think it was obnoxious, if not criminal. But obnoxious is in the eyes of the beholder.
As a legal matter, the defendants’ trespassing and the dumpy house are separate matters.
WHY they trespassed is irrelevent; motive is not an element of the offense, and protest or civil disobediance is not a defense.
Simple.
Maybe this is a lesson to the rest of the defendants, get a jury trial and dont rely on some dipshit judge.
Tom:
The judge did, as a LEGAL matter (which was what was before him) EXACTLY the right thing. I suspect a jury would too; they should be instructed that WHY the persons were there was not relevant; it’s entirely possible that the reason the defendants were there would be kept from the jury by motion in limine. If I were the prosecutor, I’d seek same.
A motion in limine might work except that the video footage admitted in evidence would give it away and unless you sequester the jury they can read the paper and watch the News, and a good defense lawyer will court public opinion to his advantage. And as a matter of principle if i was one of the members of sunflower I would appeal
And as a general rule, your better of with a jury, unless your a uber scumbag.
Tom:
Appeal? On what grounds? What trial error was there to appeal? It’s clear to me that your reference of the judge as “dipshit” is based entirely on your dislike of the case being prosecuted, and not on any sort of error or malfeasance on the part of the judge.
In other words, you’re blaming the wrong party. Personally, I’m with the city on this one – were I the city, I would not tolerate this kind of harassment at the home of city employees. That is entirely separate and apart from the merits of the reason the protesters were protesting. In other words, the end does not justify the means.
And yes probably, you’re better off taking your chances with a jury; a friend calls a bench trial a “long, slow guilty plea.”
If it was in municipal court, which I couldn’t tell by the article, they donl’t get a jury trial, and they don;t need a reason to appeal. If they disagree with the ruling, it may be appealed to district court,and will be retried from beginning, and a jury trial may be requested, no?
Tom, were you posting about the appeal right to District Court from a Municipal Court trial? It’s my understanding that’s what will happen concerning at least two of them.
For those who are unaware, a person convicted in Municipal Court may appeal to the District Court for a trial de novo, after satisfying certain procedural steps.
lj -
I’d forgot that this was a municipal trial; you’re exactly right – it’s an appeal by right, and a trial de novo.
Another thought: Tom notes that a good defense lawyer will “court public opinion.”
No, he won’t, not if he’s an ethical attorney (I’ll pass on a general slam of the defense bar here, even if justified). Cases are tried in court, not in the papers. And voir dire should minimize the risk of carrying that pre-trial publicity into the courtroom, where cases are tried on facts, not the whims of public opinion.
where cases are tried on facts, not the whims of public opinion.
Posted by: GMC70 | June 20, 2007 at 09:44 AM
umm. you are right on how they are tried, but not necessarily so on how they are decided, unfortunately
GMC, your partially correct my calling the judge a dipshit was partly on the merits of this case but also my general disdain for government and our justice system. This case was only tried because the “victim” was the city manger. Groups like Operation Rescue, Peta so on use similar tactics and are brought to trial.
“general disdain for government and our justice system”
While I certainly have expressed a healthy distrust of the State, I’d ask: Do you have an alternative to offer? or do you simply offer “street justice” played out, as you yourself encouraged, by manipulating public opinion? are you saying, then, that the end justifies the means – that if the protesters’ goals were good, their violations of the law are endorsed?
And please don’t bother with the “someone else did it first” defense; I left first grade long ago, and that’s exactly where that defense belongs.
it is a violation of constitutional rights of a us citizen to be forced to municipal court convictions before your right to jury trial….plain and simple. also, juries make decisions on law and common popular opinion…that’s why it is your peers and not a jury of lawyers or judges…it would be nice if sedgwick county respected proper constitutional justice instead of what is easier and cheaper.