US: Retired librarian arrested for distributing leaflets about proposed electromagnetic warfare training in Olympic National Park

[Emily]

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/a...ed-with-assault-after-incident-with-hurricane

Bellingham man charged with assault after incident with Hurricane Ridge ranger



Peninsula Daily News
PORT ANGELES ? A Bellingham man has been charged with misdemeanor assault of an Olympic National Park ranger after an incident at Hurricane Ridge on Aug. 12.

Bruce Radtke pleaded not guilty Aug. 13 in federal court and was released on his personal recognizance.

He faces an Oct. 19 bench trial in U.S. District Court Western District of Washington in Tacoma.

Radtke said he and others were at the Ridge handing out fliers concerning Navy electromagnetic warfare training over the park when he was approached by a park ranger.

?At that point,? Radtke said Tuesday, ?I'm not allowed by my lawyer to talk about what happened because I have been charged with assault of the ranger.?

Radtke's attorney, Linda Sullivan of the Federal Public Defender's office in Tacoma, did not return phone calls requesting comment.

After the incident, the Peninsula Daily News received numerous emails and phone calls from people about the incident.

One person said Radtke was injured in a ?violent takedown and arrest? by the ranger.

Park officials would not comment on the incident because the investigation is ongoing...

http://portocallpublishing.com/2015/08/30/freedom-of-speech-assaulted-on-hurricane-ridge/

[h=1]Freedom of speech assaulted on Hurricane Ridge[/h]

Dale Wilson 2015-08-30 3 Comments
Business


Ellen Murphy submitted this news.
Bruce Radtke, a retired Bellingham librarian, suffered injuries on Wednesday, August 12 during a violent take-down and arrest by an Olympic National Park ranger, who was assisted by two plainclothesmen, one of whom identified himself as a police officer.
Radtke, along with three other volunteers loosely affiliated with STOP (savetheolympicpeninsula.org, an organization which had been given permission to leaflet in the park) had been passing out the leaflets to visitors near the Hurricane Ridge Visitors Center. The leaflets contained information about the Navy?s plans to conduct electromagnetic warfare training in the park.
When Radtke took issue with the Park ranger?s statement that he needed to have a permit and the ranger?s demand that he show ID and surrender the leaflets, he was grabbed, thrown to the ground, and arrested....

In my opinion based on the court decision described below, the courts have decided that small scale pamphleting like this is a free speech right that should not be violated by NPS, (or the Navy if those two mysterious men with the ranger were Navy policemen), and that the group did not need a permit to share information about the Navy's proposal to conduct electromagnetic warfare training in national wilderness lands.

http://bjconline.org/dc-circuit-rules-national-parks-pamphlet-restriction-unconstitutional/

[h=1]DC Circuit Rules National Parks? Pamphlet Restriction Unconstitutional[/h] Aug 9, 2010 | Blog
A unanimous panel of the DC Circuit Appeals Court ruled in favor of plaintiff Michael Boardley, who challenged a National Park Service rule requiring him to obtain a permit before distributing religious leaflets at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. As it pertains to the area in each of our 391 national parks that has already been designated a public forum, the court found the rule to be overbroad, and thus in violation of the First Amendment.
In her opinion (pdf), Judge Janice Rogers Brown emphasized that permit restrictions are especially dubious when applied to small groups and lone pamphleteers, and that the rule as written needlessly threatens protected speech the government has no interest in restricting:

The NPS regulations target much more than necessary. If a Girl Scouts leader musters her scouts onto a pavilion in a ?free speech area? of Glacier National Park and proceeds to lecture them about the effects of global warming, she will have conducted both a ?meeting? and a ?gathering? (perhaps also an ?assembly?) for which a permit would have been required. An elementary schoolteacher who leads eight students on an excursion to the Canyon de Chelly National Monument and, within a ?free speech area,? shows off her best imitation of a traditional Navajo dance presumably has hosted an unlawful ?demonstration.? If a believer in Creationism visits the Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument and, within a ?free speech area,? quietly hands out literature disputing the theory of evolution, he is guilty of ?distribut[ing] . . . printed matter? without a permit. Under a plain reading of the NPS regulations, all of this speech is banned unless a permit is first acquired, even though none of it remotely threatens any of the government?s interests.
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It's chilling to see something like this happen to an American citizen like Mr.Radtke. If you search the Washington Council of the Blind newsletter below for his name you'll see that he is an avid sighted volunteer for the organization.

http://wcbinfo.org/Dec_2014_Newsline.pdf