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July 13th, 2007 3:39 pm
A lot of 'Sicko's out there

By Michael Fitzgerald / Stockton Record

Stockton police gave the heave-ho Tuesday to two people handing out leaflets outside the downtown multiplex. So much for the land of the free.

The dang popcorn's expensive, too.

Carol Bailey and Woody Alspaugh are members of Health Care for All of San Joaquin. HCA, as it is called, supports single-payer universal health care as a remedy for the United States' mucked-up health care system.

They were outside the theater, of course, because Michael Moore's film "Sicko" is playing there.

"Did Michael Moore's 'Sicko' make you sick about our broken health care system?" their leaflet reads. "You can do something about it!"

The leaflet goes on to urge support for Senate Bill 840, the California Universal Healthcare Act.

The theater's manager politely asked Bailey and Alspaugh to leave the area under the dome that covers the theater box office and entrance, Bailey recounted.

Which they did; they stood nearby in adjacent Janet Leigh Plaza holding a "Sicko" poster and handing out the flier to anyone who expressed interest, she said.

A gray-haired retiree, Bailey said she was not aggressive. The encounters were "very positive. ... People stopped and told some of their horror stories about their experiences with the insurance industry."

After about 20 minutes, two Stockton police bike patrol officers pedaled up and - very politely, very professionally, Bailey says - told Bailey and Alspaugh to scram.

They obeyed. But Bailey objects. "We believe we should have the right to exercise our free speech," she said.

Police were wrong, says Michael Risher, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union in San Francisco.

"It's pretty clear in this case," Risher said.

The plaza may be private property, but California's Supreme Court and the U.S. 9th District Circuit Court of Appeals have ruled similar places are public squares, Risher said.

"Core political speech" such as leafleting cannot be banished from the public square, Risher said. It can be regulated, though, as to time, place and manner.

Meaning the theater's manager was well within his rights to shoo the leafleteers out from under the dome, as their presence there might interfere with business.

But the HCA's members have a legal right to leaflet in the plaza.

A second case may apply, too, one rather fun in its way. In ACLU v. City of Las Vegas (2003), the courts ruled that public places converted into private pedestrian malls by cities remain public forums.

Much of Janet Leigh Plaza is built over old Channel Street, a public place. The city closed and redeveloped the 100 block of East Channel as part of the multiplex project.

Ooh, I like that one.

Aside from the law, there are a couple of other good arguments in support of free speech at the plaza.

One is simply that Bailey and Alspaugh were being good citizens, striving to involve the public in an important issue.

Another involves the public tax dollars that subsidize the multiplex and, by extension, buoy the other businesses on the plaza.

Accepting public money should entail civic obligation.

Anyway, all those hifalutin' arguments are redundant. Argument one, public square, is sufficient, said Stockton's city attorney, Ren Nosky.

"It appears the officers may have been in error," Nosky said.

The HCA may resume its leafleting in Janet Leigh Plaza, he decreed.

"I think that's wonderful," Bailey said of the news. "And very appropriate."

She said HCA members will leaflet in the plaza for the rest of the week.

Hey, I hope I wasn't snarky about the popcorn. I love the multiplex. But you know what really gets my goat? The sodas. Sheesh, they're enormous, as big as Doughboy pools.

Why do they have to be that big?

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