Despite the fact I engaged in "disruptive behavior" at the Tuesday, February 7, 2006 meeting of the Costa Mesa City Council, no criminal charges were ever filed against me.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Mayor Allan Mansoor
Office of the Mayor
City of Costa Mesa
77 Fair Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Re: Jury verdict in Acosta vs. City of Costa Mesa, et. al.
Dear Mayor Mansoor:
I read with great interest a newspaper report regarding the decision of a jury yesterday to uphold your decision to have Coyotl Tezcatlipoca (aka, “Benito Acosta”) forcibly removed from the Tuesday, January 3, 2006 city council meeting after he asked members of the audience to quietly stand up.
According to an article entitled “Acosta loses civil case,” written by Joseph Serna, and published at the The Daily Pilot website on the evening of Monday, December 14, 2009, you were quoted as saying that “Today, free speech was upheld, and disruptive behavior was put in its place.”
But let’s get real.
Despite the fact I too, like Tezcatlipoca, asked members of the audience to quietly stand up during public comments at the Tuesday, February 7, 2006 meeting of the Costa Mesa City Council, you never held me the slightest bit accountable for any “disruptive behavior” I engaged in that evening.
In fact, while the Costa Mesa City Prosecutor aggressively pursued criminal charges against Tezcatlipoca in Orange County Superior Court for “disrupting” a public meeting, I never received so much as the courtesy of a letter from him notifying me I could face possible jail time for what I did.
And understand that I did everything I possibly could to notify the city of my “criminal wrongdoing,” including sending you and other members of the Costa Mesa City Council an email containing an article I wrote “confessing” to my “disruptive behavior.” (Please see the highlighted text below)
Although I’m extremely disappointed that Tezcatlipoca was treated much differently than I was for engaging in the same kind of “disruptive behavior,” I’m confident the truth will prevail and “evildoers” like myself will be brought to justice. Dude, I’m still waiting for my criminal charge!
Sincerely,
DUANE J. ROBERTS
Anaheim, California
From Duane Roberts Thu Feb 16 00:06:12 2006
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Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 00:06:12 -0800 (PST)
From: Duane Roberts <duaneroberts92804@yahoo.com>
Subject: DUDE, WHERE’S MY CRIMINAL CHARGE?
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Sunday, February 12, 2006
DUDE, WHERE’S MY CRIMINAL CHARGE?
Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor “thanks” me for asking
people in the audience to stand upBy DUANE J. ROBERTS
duaneroberts92804@yahoo.com
COSTA MESA, CA — At first, I wasn’t planning on
speaking at last Tuesday’s meeting of the Costa Mesa
City Council. But the temptation to do so was too
great for me to resist. So I plucked a pencil out from
my shirt pocket and quickly filled in all the blank
spaces on the little yellow card you must submit to
the City Clerk if you want to speak. After I finished,
I handed it over to her and patiently waited for my
name to be called. The moment arrived much sooner than
I expected.“Is Duane here?” asked Mayor Allan Mansoor.
“Yes,” I responded.
I walked up to the podium, adjusted the microphone,
and began to introduce myself.“Good evening,” I said. “My name is Duane Roberts. I’m
Chair of the Social Concerns Committee of the
Unitarian Universalist Church in Anaheim, which is
located at 511 S. Harbor Blvd. I’m also a member of
the Tonantzin Collective. I want to read the following
statement.”I looked down at my clipboard and slowly began to read
what I had hurriedly jotted down in pencil only a few
minutes earlier:Congress shall make
no law respecting the
establishment of
religion, nor prohibit
the free exercise thereof.
Nor prohibit the freedom
of speech, or of the
press. Or the right of
the people to peaceably
assemble and to petition
the government for
a redress of grievances.“That’s the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights of
the U.S. Constitution,” I said. “And if anybody here
supports the First Amendment, please quietly stand
up!” I motioned with my right hand for people in the
audience to rise up out of their seats. And that they
did. In fact, almost everybody present in Council
Chambers stood up.Mayor Mansoor, looking surprised at what had just
occurred, quickly responded: “Uh, sir, please direct
your comments to the council and …”But before he could finish his sentence, I abruptly
cut him off.“Mayor Mansoor, your time is up!” I said. “Thank you!”
I then walked away from the podium.“Thank you,” he responded.
As I returned to my seat, people began to clap in
unison. But I was confused. I mean, isn’t this the
reason why Mayor Mansoor had Coyotl Tezcatlipoca
beaten, arrested, and criminally charged for last
month: asking people in the audience to quietly stand
up in support of something? And now he’s “thanking” me
for doing the exact same thing?Dude, where’s my criminal charge?
========================
To hear Mayor Allan Mansoor “thank” me for asking
people in the audience to stand up, click on “view
video” feature for the Tuesday, February 7, 2006
meeting of the Costa Mesa City Council at the
following link:http://costamesa.granicus.com/ViewPublisher.php?view_id=4
Jump to “Speaker No. 29″
For purposes of disclosure, I was subpoenaed to testify as a witness on Coyotl Tezcatlipoca’s behalf in the federal civil rights lawsuit that the American Civil Liberties Union filed against Costa Mesa Mayor Alan Mansoor and the City of Costa Mesa.
Nice picture, Duane! What’s a white guy gotta do to get some disrespect in this county, I ask you?
Thanks for the compliment, Vern! I picked the meanest, ugliest, and most unflattering image of myself I could find from the Costa Mesa City Council video footage of the night of Tuesday, February 7, 2006 to prove that exercising one’s constitutional right to free speech and assembly isn’t always a pretty sight to behold!
I don’t know, Duane, at the same exact podium, 3 and a half years later, I think I give you a run for the ugly commenter award:
Duane,
And now Mansoor wants to go to Sacramento! No bueno. Never mind John Campbell, the DPOC needs to focus on taking out Mansoor!
Coming soon for the Minuteman Mayor:
All I’m sayin’ for now…
both u guys are ugly, it’s a tie. Duane has a little too much time on his hands apparently. Why don’t you two join the ACLU and get moving on attacking Christmas. You have lost valuable time with the little brat’s trial and Christmas is almost here. Hurry up!
Been a card-carrying member of the ACLU since the GHWB-Dukakis election. Merry Christmas, Dead White Male! Better run now, I saw a Live Brown Girl! Yuck!
Art Pedroza wrote:
> Duane,
>
> And now Mansoor wants to go to Sacramento!
> No bueno. Never mind John Campbell, the
> DPOC needs to focus on taking out Mansoor!
Although as you know I’m not a Democrat, I do find your point about the “DPOC’s” obsession with Congressman John Campbell to be interesting because anyone will tell you the odds of ousting him from his seat are just about *zero* given the obscenely high numbers of Republicans that are registered to vote in his district.
One race that hypothetically could be very competitive is the 68th State Assembly District, of which Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor is the most likely shoo-in for the Republican Party nomination. I don’t know who the Democrats are fronting against him, but my guess is they aren’t going to offer them much money and support.
If anything, the millions of dollars the Democrats collect will be poured into helping their candidates running for Congress in “swing districts.” There is a good chance Democrats will lose control over the House of Representatives given the antipathy that progressive and anti-war voters have toward Obama and Pelosi.
Well, Duane, my photo above is of course literally the villain Odd Job from Goldfinger, but to me it represents Phu Nguyen, the very progressive and charismatic philanthropist and candidate for the 68th, and Mansoor’s coming nemesis. As usual we don’t expect much help from the DPOC, but we can hope. And I hope all your Green and progressive friends find him acceptable, he could come to one of your meetings. (He’s not officially announcing till January though.)
There is no such thing as a mean Unitarian Univeralist.
Vern Nelson wrote:
> Well, Duane, my photo above is of course
> literally the villain Odd Job from Goldfinger,
> but to me it represents Phu Nguyen, the very
> progressive and charismatic philanthropist
> and candidate for the 68th, and Mansoor’s
> coming nemesis. As usual we don’t expect much
> help from the DPOC, but we can hope.
I don’t know much about Phu Nguyen, but I gather one of his biggest problems is that he lacks name recognition in the 68th State Assembly District.
Mansoor’s name is all over the place because he’s hopped aboard issues that generated him millions of dollars in free publicity from the local mainstream media.
On the other hand, Nguyen apparently is owns a stake in a “money transfer business” that could bring him the cash he needs to overcome this disadvantage.
The fact he is of Vietnamese ancestory could also be instrumental in helping garner cross over votes from pockets of that community concentrated in the 68th.
Being an off year election poses substantive problems to a Democratic Party candidate. Turnout usually is lower if there are no candidates for president on the ballot.
And the grassroots base of progressive and anti-war voters are extremely angry with Obama and Pelosi. They may show their disgust by not appearing at the polls in November.
> And I hope all your Green and progressive friends
> find him acceptable, he could come to one
> of your meetings. (He’s not officially
> announcing till January though.)
That’s a decision for them to make.
I don’t know much about Phu Nguyen, but I gather one of his biggest problems is that he lacks name recognition in the 68th State Assembly District.
Actually the remarkable thing is it’s very hard to find a Viet-American in Westminster, Garden Grove or Fountain Valley (3 of the 4 cities in the district) who are not familiar with Phu, and they all think highly of him. I wish he would hurry up and start making himself better known to Latinos and whites. He has some very good progressive ideas of what he wants to do in Sacramento, and you’re right, the 68th is in play.
So I guess Duanne is unhappy that Mexican citizens who have raped someone (or committed some other felony) are getting deported? Or maybe he just wants brown people to be above the law? Or maybe he’s fighting for all races of people who have committed a felony to stay here illegally? That’s what the issue was about. I can’t imagine anyone more demented than someone fighting for the rights of a child molester to stay here illegally regardless of what country they are a citizen of or what race they are.
I think the Costa Mesa Council took my advise.
It is very important to let all speak their mind. As i said before its what makes this country unique.
Keep yapping on, and do not stop. I suggest that you get a bunch of wackers together, so you can yap on about what ever you need to yap at. Then the Major can get back to doing what he does best -leadership!
Merry Christmas Major, let the wankers keep a coming- it is after all just entertainment:)