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ASHLAND, Ore. — A Jackson County resident who called the Ashland Police Chief Tighe O’Meara ‘a fascist’ at a City Council meeting last September has filed a civil rights suit for violation of his First Amendment rights.
Toren McKnight (23) was escorted out of the meeting on September 16 when, during the public comment section, he opposed the proposed ‘Enhanced Law Enforcement Area,’ calling the police chief a fascist.
He was criticizing Tighe’s request to declare two exclusion zones where people could be banned, even if they had not been convicted of a crime.
The exclusion zones downtown and the business corridor from Ashland Street to the Interstate 5 interchange at Exit 14 were subsequently approved by the council.
McKnight, an activist who lives in Central Point, was asked by Mayor Tonya Graham to refrain from making personal attacks and was ordered out of the meeting when he repeated his previous comment.
McKnight, who was escorted out of the meeting by the Ashland Police, now claims in the lawsuit that his removal was unlawful, calling it an act of silencing political speech. He is suing the city of Ashland, the police chief, and the mayor.
According to Oregon law, removing an individual from a public meeting if his view is offensive, ‘is not legally permissible.’
However, according to a municipal code governing the conduct of Ashland Council meetings, public speakers are prohibited from making ‘negative personal’ comments about others.
McKnight’s lawsuit, filed yesterday in the Medford U.S. District Court, describes the ‘no personal attacks’ policy as a suppression of criticism of city officials.
In 2006, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down an ordinance in the city of Costa Mesa, California, limiting speech at city council meetings.
The court’s finding that the public has the right to speak, whether they are critical or laudatory of their city government, provides the Ashland lawsuit a clear on-point precedent beyond local politics.
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