A Valley Center, Kansas man was arrested and charged with “criminal defamation” for placing a sign in his own front yard that was critical of the city and specifically the city administrator Joel Pile.
He was cuffed, fingerprinted, booked into the Sedgwick County Jail and released on bail. His crime: putting up a yard sign critical of the Valley Center city administrator.
Jarrod West is out on bail, facing criminal defamation charges for a sign he put in his front yard about persistent flooding issues he says cost him over $50,000 over the last three years. The sign says, “Dear Valley Center, I did not buy Lake Front Property! Fix this problem. This is what I pay taxes for. PS. Joel this means you!” Joel being City Administrator Joel Pile.
“They want me to shut up and go away,” said West. “I’ve got a home to protect. It’s nothing fancy, but it’s mine.”
When City Administrator Joel Pile saw the sign, West was arrested and booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on a criminal charge of defamation. He spent the night behind bars and is now free on a $10,000 bond.
Read the rest here.
When asked about the arrest, Joel Pile said, “People and individuals have an absolute right to free speech. “But however, when they do it and continue to do it within the realms of what we believe is actual malice for the purpose of holding me accountable to the public, we believe that crosses a line (emphasis added).”
While Mr. Pile is obviously a thin-skinned bureaucrat who dispatched the guns of local government to kidnap someone whose opinions differed from his, it is the officers who carried out the arrest that should feel the full weight of our rebuke. It takes a special kind of thug to carry out violence against someone simply because he wrote words on a sign that he himself owned. The foot soldiers of tyranny can easily put down their weapons and refuse to participate in the caging of innocent people, but they choose not to. Disgusting authoritarians such as Joel Pile would loose all their power if their thugs refused to do the dirty work.
Someone please get in touch with this man and let him know this is a very easy easy First Amendment lawsuit. He will make more than enough to pay for the damages to his home when the city settles this.
How dare we hold public officials accountable to their employers!
“People and individuals have an absolute right to free speech. “But however, when they do it and continue to do it within the realms of what we believe is actual malice for the purpose of holding me accountable to the public, we believe that crosses a line . PILE of what. there was nothing wrong in that sing if that is all it said and this pile guy is just a pile of poo
Almost the same happened to me a few years ago. I was living in another state and the city hit us with a very unfair sewer assessment to build new homes nearby. I put up a website making fun of the city council. The police dept. went into overdrive. They raided my home while I was at work and attempted to remove our children because it was “unkept”. They contacted my employer several times, imploring them to fire me because I was a potential “threat”. Eventually after two years they finally got their wishes, I was included in a layoff due to several “notes” in my personnel file. I moved across the country and bought a home OUTSIDE city limits. I haven’t had any trouble since. Since the sheriff here doesn’t report to the rest of the county officials they tend to leave people alone for such as this. The city nearby has executed 11 so far this year, just to show a comparison.
I sent Joel the following email.
I can call you Joel, can’t I? After all you are a government employee and I am a taxpaying citizen, so I should be able to call my employees by their first names. Don’t you think?
I see you made this statement.
“People and individuals have an absolute right to free speech,” said Pile. “But however, when they do it and continue to do it within the realms of what we believe is actual malice for the purpose of holding me accountable to the public we believe that crosses a line.”
Why should you, a government employee and a PUBLIC servant, not be accountable to the public? If you don’t like being accountable to the public, maybe you should find productive work. After all as a city administrator I am sure you are qualified for many many jobs. Jobs such as picking up cans on the side of the road or mucking out stables.
It is because of so called “public servants” like you that this country is in the bad shape it is in now.
Sincerely,
Chris Mallory
Even if there is actual malice, if the statements are true, you don’t get to arrest them for criticizing you. Also, public officials can’t sue based on calling actual malice, holding them accountable. In fact, they can’t sue at all if they are public officials unless actual malice has been proven before hand if i’m not mistaking. I actually think it is also unlawful to arrest people for libel in most states. What couple states you could, it was ruled unconstitutional.
This is a rather silly request. Take a look at the statute:
(b) In all prosecutions under this section the truth of the information communicated shall be admitted as evidence. It shall be a defense to a charge of criminal defamation if it is found that such matter was true.
The only way Jarrod West will get prosecuted for this is if he lied on his sign. In other words, the prosecuter will need to prove that perhaps West did buy lake front property, or that he doesn’t pay his taxes, or that he pays his taxes in the hope that government would be incompetent, or that he didn’t really mean Joe. In other words, Joe and the police, on the reasonable expection that they like me can read, should have been able to figure out the charge is bogus. That they charged West anyway makes it appear, pretty obviously, that this is nothing but an abusive prosecution in order to intimidate West.
I sent Mr. Pile an e-mail letting him know he is a coward and needs to grow a spine. Using the police to silence criticism is cowardice and insecurity–not to mention a violation of civil liberties.