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 |  Subject: Lawyer for UR student: Citations for Identity Evropa fliers 'selective enforcement' of town code  Tue Mar 05, 2019 10:26 pm | |
| By using a town code violation as a way to penalize an individual for posting fliers on behalf of a pro-white, anti-immigration group, a Rochester attorney said the Brighton Police Department violated his client's First Amendment right to free speech.
"The problem is there's selective enforcement here of the town ordinance based upon a constitutionally-protected exercise of speech," said Donald Thompson, an attorney who specializes in cases involving civil rights violations. "This is not anywhere close to the line. It is really equivalent to a lost dog poster."
Brighton police cited 23-year-old Christopher Hodgman, a senior at the University of Rochester, with three separate violations of the town code for posting the fliers to public utilities and property last fall. The violations each carry a $250 fine and up to 15 days in jail.
Thompson, Hodgman's attorney, said if the ordinance prohibiting the posting of fliers to public spaces was uniformly and constantly enforced, there would be no issue. But in this situation, he said, that is not the case.
"Why, in this particular instance, is that violation being enforced?" Thompson said. "Well, it’s because of the content of the speech, as they perceive it, and that’s the problem. It's an attempt to chill speech based up on constitutionally-protected content."
Police were able to pull fingerprints from adhesive tape used on three separate fliers to identify Hodgman — an endeavor that Thompson said seems largely out of proportion to the retaliative mildness of the violation itself.
"(This is) an investigation heretofore never seen for a town ordinance violation," Thompson said. "I've had murder cases that were not investigated as thoroughly."
Thompson said that the fliers, which featured the name and logo of a white nationalist organization called Identity Evropa, were no more unconstitutional in nature than a lost dog poster or a flier advertising an apartment for rent.
"If you research the group that’s represented on the posters, you might agree with their stand, you might disagree with their stand, but it's not inflammatory," Thompson said. "They just really like white people. ... Some people translate that, probably appropriately, as white supremacist-type messaging. But you’re like two steps away from speech that would fall outside of the First Amendment where you're calling for some type of violence or some kind of targeting of a particular group."
On Tuesday, Jose Fernandez, the president of the University of Rochester College Republicans chapter, released a scathing statement condemning Hodgman's alleged actions.
"It would be irresponsible for our chapter to do anything but assert in the most certain, forceful possible terms that we fully repudiate Mr. Hodgman’s actions and beliefs," Fernandez said in the statement. "Just as important, however, on behalf of our chapter, I deeply apologize for the harm done by our previous president."
Hodgman briefly served as the chapter's president during the 2017 fall semester, according to a separate Facebook post, but had "entirely abdicated his duties" by the middle of the semester.
In the statement, Fernandez said he felt disgusted to learn of Hodgman's alleged actions and felt compelled to make clear that his actions do not represent the beliefs or morals of their College Republicans chapter.
"Rather than implicating us, he obligates us to openly and forcefully reject the ideals he cowardly promotes," Fernandez said in the statement. "We hope the Republican Party chooses to purge itself of the Christopher Hodgmans of the world, just as our chapter has."
https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/2019/03/05/christopher-hodgman-identity-evropa-university-of-rochester-college-republicans-brighton-fliers/3065765002/
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