Legalectric

Last week, I heard a story about a confiscated sign at the Wabasha Saturday protest:

Wabasha & 8647 – May 23rd, 2025

After hearing a sign was confiscated at a Wabasha protest, and utterly appalled, I committed to showing up at the next Saturday protest, which was today. The story wasn’t clear, other than the cop took the sign. No one videoed, and eyewitness accounts were vague, not much was heard. Sooooooo…

Off I goes to Wabasha with my sign, as above. Alan got to carry the Ukraine flag.

The furor about and attributions to “86” are so bonkers. Distractivism, but easy to push back.

Driving into town, after going under the bridge there’s a pull off on Pembroke near the trailer park. A cop was there, arm with cigarette hanging out the window. Near Kwik Trip, I found a place to park under a tree for Maisy.

I’d started standing on the Kwik Trip corner, as I didn’t want to intrude on the Veterans Memorial there, or intrude on their protest either, but the folks encouraged me to come over, so I did, wouldn’t want to be anti-social after all. After being there a while, with many supportive honks, and a few “FUCK YOU!” hollers out the window, I see the cop car come down the street, and take a left on 8th and head over behind the buildings. He was back there for quite a while, then came out and headed east on Hiawatha Drive. I was on the NE corner of Pembroke & Hiawatha, right on the corner, a location with good visibility. As he took off from the stop sign, I waved and grinned, as I was with all the traffic there, and he kept heading east. Maybe 10 minutes later, he pulled up, and walked over.

A couple of folks got photos and were there when he first came up to talk to me, lots of support, and it was clear, most were very nervous. It was really good to see the Falkums there, it’s got to have been 20+ years since we were on the National Eagle Center board together, and I’ll have to catch up with them. A few were also butting in though, and I didn’t want that, as it was distracting, as with the prior week, it was my sign, at issue, and dealing with that is my niche. This recap is from memory, and the order of some of this may be off, and I probably forgot some:

The cop wanted my sign, said he’d gotten 3 complaints, and he was responding to those complaints, that my sign it was a threat against the President, that last week it was his partner who’d taken the sign. I said it wasn’t a threat. I pointed out the “86 does not equal 187” and he asked for my sign and I said “NO!” Told him it was unconstitutional for him to take it, there as no basis for it. That this sign was not a threat (and really, little ol’ moi with a painted sign in Wabasha, a credible threat? I don’t think so.). He said “this is not going to end well.” Oh, OK. I asked if he wanted my ID, he said he’d deal with that later. I told him “I’m ready.” He said he’d deal with me and then would also want to talk to the group, and went back to his car.

He sat there… and sat there, 10 minutes, 15 minutes… at about this time, the Sheriff came by on Hiawatha and stopped, took a left on Pembroke going the other way, of course I waved as he went through the intersection, and he went down the street and pulled into the Subway parking lot! The sheriff never did join the party. Meanwhile, cop still in car… 20 minutes… he’s got to be hearing all the supportive honking and waving, and see at least a few fingers out the windows. Some of the folks were coming up asking what was going on, was he going to arrest me, and I sure didn’t know what was happening, but was confident that he’d not do anything, no reason, no basis, and the time delay felt like good news.

… at 25 or 30 minutes he came out.

He said he’d been calling, consulting, and he wanted to know what I thought 8647 meant, that folks are saying it means to assassinate the President, that it’s a threat. I reminded him that it’s all hype, that 86 means to “toss out, eject” and those claiming it means “assassinate” haven’t a clue, haven’t spent enough time in bars. He said he was glad I said that’s what it meant, because last week, the guy with the sign said it meant “8 miles out of town and 6 feet down.” WHAT? HE SAID THAT? I told him I didn’t believe he’d said that, and for sure I’d check. I told him that I’m an attorney, that I am direct in my communications, and that if I wanted to say the President should be assassinated, my sign would say “KILL THE MOTHERFUCKER!” and “Hey, does it say that?” holding up the sign. I swear he had the tiniest bit of a grin at that point. I again pointed out the bottom line of the sign:

Those that think otherwise, those complaining, that’s THEIR problem! Don’t even try to make it mine. And I asked about those who were yelling “FUCK YOU” through their open windows, he said that’s disorderly conduct and you can make a complaint. Naaah, life is too short. He said, a couple of times, “I’m all for the 1st Amendment.” “GOOD TO HEAR” I told him. Anyway, that’s pretty much what went down — I’ll edit if I remember other parts, or the order of things.

It turns out when I asked the guy whose sign was confiscated, he did indeed say “8 miles out of town and 6 feet down.” He set himself up. I asked whatever possessed him to say something like that, and he said he’d just googled it, and said the first thing that came into his mind. WHAT?!?! Good grief… I cannot believe!

So a good time was had by all. I was concerned that the group might be offended at my showing up to press the issue, but taking away a sign, whatever the doofus said, is not OK, and I didn’t want to see that go unchallenged. Overall, the Wabasha protesters were supportive and very glad to see that the cop caved and drove away. Bottom line, I could continue to stand on the corner in the sun and hold that sign. Such a deal.

It might take a couple more Saturdays to get the police in the groove, and guide the protesters on dealing with police, but I’m confident that the 1st Amendment prevails.

It seems that those too many MAGAs have their knickers in a twist about “86 47” which leads to at least 2 presumptions. 1) They’ve not spent much time in West Bank bars… and 2) they’re conflating “86” with “187.” DOH! This is not rocket science, folks.

Last week in Wabasha, the strangest things happened at their weekly Saturday protest. This is all 2nd hand, some verified, some not, some presumptions, and will find out more tomorrow. As I know it: Last Saturday, some MAGAs were harassing protesters in Wabasha who were minding their own business holding signs. At least one was taking photos, videos, ? and shortly thereafter a police officer appeared. He confiscated an “86 47” sign.. it was confiscated or relinquished on demand. The cop said something on the order of “I could write up a citation,” (? for what??), and left with the sign. The protest continued.

No one filmed the interaction; no one objected to demand for sign/ handing it over. Ahem…

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

So tomorrow, head on over to Wabasha, 11a.m., by the Kwik Trip:

25 days in to this May round of camp-hosting, and kinks have been mostly worked out.

For short term, no way, but for a month in one place, it’s all about comfort and function.

We’ve had a lot of rain, lot of cold. The tarp blew down, and has had some pooling since, but no disasters. The wind has blown away chairs, the mat in front of the tent, so the chairs are collapsed in the wind to hold the mat down. In a storm, wind blew a branch down which went right into the tent — thank Dog for Gorilla tape:

For the most part, it’s been too cold to cook outside. I just can’t get interested with the wind and rain, it too literally puts a damper on everything. Maisy is undaunted, tenting is great for her, she’s tent trained!!! She’s also cool in storms, however, one night in the super high winds and rain she did choose to take a time out:

The last few days have been ideal, warm, NOT HOT, and sun, so welcome:

Hosting is cool. There’s not a lot to do, and so much easier than last year when I was gimping around after a snapped hamstring. Have to balance that with a tendency to my not really wanting to deal with people — everyone’s dogs are another matter. We had a run on standard poodles for the first week, apricot (like my Elka), black, and white, and right now, a “parti poodle.” One family on the loop right now has 4 dogs, maybe one for each kid, and they’re all beautifully behaved, the dogs, though one is a bit territorial, oh, the kids too!

Other than a small fire, it’s been pretty… YAWN.

T

Minor issues like too many hammocks, or hung on too small trees, NOISY kids at too-early-o’clock. This year, though, it’s been family oriented, and none of the loud drunks from last year — maybe they were too embarrassed and found another park?!?!

It’s been very dry, though the park was all greened up this year, last year it was brown. The first day here there were 5 deer in the field across the way, since then, none until after all the rain, and now they are back — maybe there was no available water up here. And this cutie, he was chasing a female across the road, couldn’t capture them both. It’s bunny season too, they are all over the roads.

I’ve been taking a lot of time off, getting to meetings in Cannon Falls; candidate meet & greet at Hok-Si-La park; Keith Ellison in Red Wing; and protests in Red Wing, Lake City, soon, Wabasha; and a couple zooms and filings; and of course Sam Miletich and his Clearwater Hot Club at the WideSpot:

Officing here isn’t ideal, the signal won’t let me download or upload the larger files, and that’s a PROBLEM. Oh well… And I’m just not in the mood to work.

Work is possible, though, and it’s not a technology hangup! Have pretty decent phone signal, but not quite enough. I have a small battery/charger to keep the phone, tablet, and lights charged up, and because the fridge is only 42 watts, that’d be workable too. But it’s an electric site, so that’s covered, though I sometimes forget to unplug the fridge and drive off… oops…

Speaking of charging, first weekend there was a Rivian pulling a Bambi, and the next week, a Tesla pulling a Scamp. There also seems to be more tenters this year. Oh, and can’t forget the big honkin’ trailer I had to remove from a tree and back into the campsite!!

Oh, there’s the Aurora Borealis — time to dig into the DEIS for Mankato – Mississippi transmission.

I’m attached to Farmington — when I first opened my office and started practicing (practice makes perfect, will I ever get it right???) 30 years ago, my office was in downtown Farmington, next to the bakery (pro tip — never ever work next to a bakery!), and before that, I drove for Bongard Trucking, also in Farmington. I put my office there just in case I ever needed to jump in a truck to make some money, fortunately, that wasn’t needed.

Anyway, there’s a data center bru-ha-ha in Farmington, and I’ve been downloading the filings in the Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development v. City of Farmington to figure out what’s going on. And it’s not just “Farmington,” there’s land in Castle Rock township that Farmington and TRACT want to annex, so Castle Rock is suing too. It’ll take a while for me to load these, and some documents refuse to download. I’ll publish as I go, and I’ll try to put the more important filings up first, so keep in mind this is NOT complete, there will be updates.

There’s an AUAR in the works for Cannon Falls, but I’m in the park and can’t get this uploaded. The AUAR Scoping document is 70mb and I can’t shrink it or upload it. Here’s the City’s page with a link, but that isn’t working … sigh…

Cannon Falls AUAR page

I sent this Data Practices Act Request, and was asked to fill out this form, which doesn’t seem to be the right form, but oh well, here ’tis:

UPDATE:

City Council Planning Commission Work Session

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 – 5:00pm

UPDATE: The form the City Administrator wanted filled out:

UPDATE: Here’s the “ambitious” rough schedule: