[Noisebridge-discuss] Call the Mayor Day - Tuesday February 9th

[Sai Emrys]

On Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 10:38 PM, Ian Atha <thatha at thatha.org> wrote:
>> If there's another point to make, please make it more cogently.
> And hopefully, less cogently than Sai's 637 word argument [0].

Your footnotes are simultaneously good and highly amusing. I heartily approve.

s/cogently/wordily, though. I tend to err on the side of clarity over
succinctness when critiquing someone's argument. I would hope that
Ani's real intended message can be communicated well in <20 seconds,
given that she wants to make a media event of it.

In case it's about the seizure: "The ABC has been targeting[0] lawful
establishments for excessive investigation for violations of very
minor zoning regulations[1]. In doing so, they have repeatedly[2] done
illegal searches and seizures that were completely unjustified by the
circumstances." (With a handout giving references - [0] a list of
raids, [1] a list and quote of the actual claimed sections violated or
investigated and whether they legally permit raid-level enforcement,
and [2] independently verifiable list of violations)

But yeah, you got me. :-P

> Letter of the law != spirit of the law [1]. You're certainly aware of "malicious compliance" [2].

Absolutely. The last context I read for this was ironically also for
the SF ABC - on gay bars*. That was transparently targeted at "the
gays" though, whereas I've not seen anything here to indicate that
they think they're targeting anything but what they think are "illegal
raves"*, which is really more of a straightup zoning dispute.

It seems to me more plausible that they are doing exactly that, and in
doing so, they are behaving illegally and unjustifiably in the search
and seizure.

If they continue legally - merely giving tickets for not serving
enough food - will anyone really care? If you repeal those food
ordinances, will it stop them? No and no.

So crucify them for illegal search & seizure, not about some stupid
citations for how much food they serve or when they're open.

- Sai

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cat_Bar#Police_harassment