Mark Kamleiter speaks to St Petersburg FL City Council about Baywalk Sidewalk

[1killertomato]

1% of the Population has DUPED 46% of the population into voting AGAINST their own self interest!! Now that's payin' it forward!!

And they continue to use the SouthernStrategy, Gays & guns to devide and enslave!! Dopes!

[Gulfporter]

I'm not a dupe. I'm gay and armed and a Democrat and I don't see what that has to do with the Baywalk issue.

The bottom line is that St Pete For Peace is lying by omission. They won't say in public the real reason they want to protest at Baywalk, so they try to wrap it in the constitution. Well, Williams and Straub parks are right there for constitutional protest in the public square. Baywalk is private property.

[firehawkv8]

Second of all, crowding a large group of people in a small place causes problems that the property is trying to avoid. Since a majority of the protests are not agreed with by a majority of the public. This causes fights, assaults, and more. In order to reduce the threat of violence, we ask that the sidewalks be clear. I want people to speak their mind and to express their opinion, its what I fought for in the Marines. But it should be done in a way that is not disruptive.

[willia3r]

I served in the U.S. Army with 1188th TTbn out of Decatur, Ga. Privatizing a sidewalk is NOT what I fought for.

I often heard that the road to hell is paved with gold, and this country is doing exactly that with this insistence that everything should be commodified.

[firehawkv8]

Let's be realistic here. No one is losing their right to freedom of speech. They just want you to go across the street. Its not that they don't want people to voice their opinion, they just do not want protestors interfering with customers. When the entrance is blocked by people screaming things at you, throwing paper in your hands and making you feel uncomfortable and unsafe, you leave. Protesting here effects the people who work in those stores who are trying to earn a living.

[willia3r]

So what if the sidewalk across the street is privatized? What if every sidewalk and street in America is privatized? Your excuse for the way these City Councilman voted lie on a slippery slope to dictatorship, Nobility by wealth, and rulership by Oligarchy my fellow American.

I ain't buyin' it.

[firehawkv8]

Quit with the over dramatic bullshit. One sidewalk was privatized for public safety concerns. That is it. The Supreme Court has already ruled in the cities favor. In fact , one of the opinions in a previous supreme court decision stated that the government had a right to remove individuals or take steps to remove individuals who blocked pedestrian and vehicle traffic. Privatization of sidewalks is not new, it has already been deemed a legal decision, and there is no problem here.

[willia3r]

No problems. We will just wait until the Supreme Court tilts in another direction. Until then the Corporatcracy will have free reign, unfortunately.

Big Government = Big Corporation

No difference as far as I'm concerned.

[csbrudy]

Way to go, we in St. Pete do not want to be paying lawyers because of this shortsighted move.

Give the sidewalk away as a requisite for denying first amendment rights? Wrong decision.

[AnnCKeirns]

Mark, I love this! Hey -- they are just like Bush and Company getting legal opinions to justify torture! The city council in St Pete is blind to civil rights -- has been since I lived there! Go, Mark, GO! You have it right and they are still being dumb about peoples rights!

[darshana33]

GO Mark! thanks for telling it like it is! and thanks to all who spoke out for us. hopefully it will get through their "money over people" heads.