The City Attorney

Giveth, and The City

Attorney Taketh Away
Michael Rankin First Declares Mexican
Flag Burning Legal, Then Prosecutes
Anyway

CSII Press
February 9, 2010
Tucson Arizona

For the past two years the Tucson City Attorney Mike Rankin has (remarkably)
prosecuted Roy Warden for Burning the Mexican Flag on February 04, 2008 in
front of a New York film crew, in Library Square facing the corner of Pennington
and Stone, where, for the past four years, Warden has conducted the Tucson
Weekly Public Forum to address concerns regarding Illegal Immigration.

Even more remarkable is the fact that the same Tucson City Attorney, Mike
Rankin, wrote an opinion letter in 2006 which clearly stated the Burning of
the Mexican Flag, under the exact same circumstances, was constitutionally
protected by expressive rights secured by the First Amendment.

To maintain Warden’s prosecution for Mexican Flag Burning over the past two
years, in spite of the fact the Tucson City Attorney has written such conduct is
legal, the Tucson City Court has appointed more than 15 lawyers to represent
Warden’s legal interests, as required by law, because Warden is financially
classified as an indigent.

Think this case is unusual? Guess again.

Ever since April 10, 2006, when the Mexican government first declared Burning
the Mexican Flag was “unacceptable,” Warden has been arrested 13 times as a
direct result of his political conduct and opposition to Tucson City Open Border
Policy, resulting in an enormous attorney workload and significant expense to the
City of Tucson.

“If you stack the legal briefs and trial transcripts of all my cases, the resultant pile
is six feet tall,” says Warden.

“One of my lawyers once opined that Tucson has spent more than $250,000
prosecuting me for my lawful political conduct.”

And what has Tucson gotten for its money?

“For two hundred and fifty large the City Attorney and Alan Merritt, the Oaf
who’s prosecuting, got Bumpkis, Zero, Nada, Zip. I’ve not paid one penny in fines
or spent one day in jail,” says Warden.

Moreover; Warden asserts that within the next month or two he’s going to
resume the Tucson Weekly Public Forum down on Library Square just like
before, and use the very same language he’s used in the past to address the very
same issue, which is: for the past 30 years Pima County and Tucson City officials
have had a vested financial and political interest in promulgating Open Border
Policy and stopping the speech of anyone who opposes them.

Along with the Mexican Flag Burning case Warden is currently being prosecuted
for violating several Tucson City Court Orders, which among other things, now
prohibit him from “speak(ing) within 1,000 feet of any public demonstration”
and prevent him from coming within 1,000 feet of the corner of Pennington and
Stone.

“These orders are unconstitutional. They are far, far beyond the jurisdiction of
any American Court to issue. So I’ve intentionally violated them time and time
again, just to kick the City Attorney and the issuing Tucson City Court Judges in
the ass, to rub their noses in the dirt, and to let them know that in America we
are all subject to the Rule of Law.”

The Arizona Supreme Court has said that First Amendment right to criticize the
policies of government, even Tucson City Court Judges, safeguards a freedom
which is the ‘matrix, the indispensible condition, or nearly every other form of
freedom.’

“Tucson City Court Judges and Prosecutors think they are above the law,” says
Warden.

“I’m going to teach them otherwise.”

Roy Warden, Publisher

Common Sense II
roywarden@cox.net