From the other side of the desk

Joseph S. Larisa, Jr.*
February 2011

Protecting Your First Amendment Rights

I recently received a call from a long time Townie who was very
upset. She had received a phone call from former councilman Coogan.
Turns out he did not like this person expressing her opinion on the sorry
state of East Providence City government. She was upset, among other
things, with Coogan's role as kingmaker for the new council majority and
the firing without cause of the professional city manager. (It now turns
out that taxpayers will have to pay $109k in salary and $10k more in
benefits as the price of the city manager political firing).

What did speaking out get her? A phone call from Mr. Coogan
threatening her with a lawsuit if she did not shut up. Moreover, Coogan
told her that he was recording the call. I later found out that Coogan
has also harassed other EP residents who have spoken out against him and
the new regime.

Outraged? So am I. Both while on the council and in
orchestrating local elections, Coogan was a major beneficiary of the First
Amendment, allowing him to help engineer the election of the new council
majority. With that done, however, he is now seeking to prevent opposing
voices from exercising their First Amendment rights to speak and write
against what is happening to our City.

When a former councilman, who is now more powerful than ever in
East Providence, personally calls and threatens EP residents with a
lawsuit, that sends a powerful negative message against public
participation. It is a message directly contrary to good government. I
told the person who received the harassing call not to worry about it. If
it happens again, tell Mr. Coogan to call your lawyer - me. I make the
same offer to anyone else who is expressing their opinion and told to shut
up or be sued. As long as you do not make up facts, you are entitled to
express your opinion. If threatened, contact me. If sued for expressing
your opinion, I will represent you for free to protect open discourse in
our City. It is that important.

Fortunately, Coogan's threats are more bluster than reality.
Rhode Island law now expressly protects such speech and can award attorney
fees against anyone bringing suit against a citizen for expressing their
views. In the words of the General Assembly: "The legislature finds and
declares that full participation by persons and organizations and robust
decision of issues of public concern before the legislative, judicial, and
administrative bodies and in other public fora are essential to the
democratic process, that there has been a disturbing increase in lawsuits
brought primarily to chill the valid exercise of the constitutional rights
of freedom of speech and petition for the redress of grievances; that such
litigation is disfavored . . . ."

The recent attack on the First Amendment in EP is not limited to
Councilman Coogan. Recently, former City Solicitor Jim Briden was
censored by Mayor Rogers while speaking to the council and public at a
recent council meeting. What for? He dared to speak out against Pond
View expansion and in favor of the law suit he filed on behalf of the
prior council, and he spoke against the position of Councilwoman Kleyla on
the issue. At press time, the ACLU was looking into filing suit.

Good government cannot exist if the right of the governed to speak
for or against the actions of elected officials and their backers is not
vigorously protected. Goodness knows, the last council and school
committee heard from many exercising their free speech rights. We
disagreed with their message, but nonetheless ensured that they had the
right to express their opinion. It is the obligation of all citizens
elected or not to defend the right of everyone to express their opinion on
the issues affecting us all.

Questions or comments? Email me at mayorlarisa@verizon.net.