Connecticut Visibility Brigade Leader Arrested for Exercising Free Speech RIghts

We’re highly aware of what’s called the distraction issue, which is always, people always say, but aren’t you distracting? And it’s like distraction is in the eye of the beholder. It’s up to the driver to pay attention to their driving. And that’s kind of been proved out by the research that’s been done specifically around digital billboards, so that traffic could see us. And this is a phenomena that’s been happening across the country. Started in New Jersey and I’d seen it in New Jersey and talked to the guy who was organizing it there.

His name’s Dana Glazer. He gave me a lot of tips and a lot of framing of the legal or regulatory issues, and we felt really comfortable in Connecticut going out and doing this. So the very first time we went up, we were interrupted by a state trooper, Joshua Jackson. Trooper Jackson came up and said, “You can’t do this.” And we said, “Well, we cleared it with the Branford Police Department. We feel that we can do this.”

And he said, you can’t because you can’t fix the sign on the fencing. And I asked, “Well, if we hold the signs, would we be okay?” And he said, “Yes.” We weren’t deterred because we felt like, okay, this is a one-off. This is one trooper. And so we kept going up on the bridges, both in Branford and West Haven during rush hour in the morning and the afternoon, and we cleared it with both town police departments and we felt that our messaging was being received by both sides of any aisle or any geographic lines.

People are angry too. And seeing us on the bridge waving with the signs was reinforcing that people aren’t alone. And it really helps people feel more empowered and more hopeful, and that’s what we were aiming for. We very rarely mention Trump’s name. I don’t even like saying it. We talk about the issues. We’ve used a lot of Timothy Snyder quotes and people get it. And if they don’t get it, a lot of them will stop on the bridge and say, “What does that mean, No kings?” And so we’re educating as well and we are very respectful. We’re not getting in the way of traffic. The town cops, again, would drive by and wave. A lot of the troopers would drive by and wave.

And this was directly on point with those principles. So what I saw sort of looking over just the very basic facts of the case was somebody who was part of a group engaging in what is core protected speech, right? This is the 1st Amendment. The courts have said is at its zenith when you have groups that are protesting on political matters, peacefully protesting and having the exact effect that Katherine just outlined, right? Like you are speaking to the public. That is the purpose of a protest.

It is a successful protest. It is a successful form of political speech if you can actually have that effect and that influence on your audience. So that’s what I saw happening. And then she gets hit with criminal trespass, two on unauthorized signs on a highway and breach of peace, too. All misdemeanor charges. Unauthorized signs is actually a violation. So low-level charges, obviously. Ms. Hinds has no criminal history. This is not really a case that I think most prosecutors would want to sort of throw the book at her, right?

Then I got a call at 6 in the morning on Aug. 8, and it was from Katherine, and she was telling me that there was a state trooper at her door, pounding on the door, and I could hear in the background, I was on the phone with her. It was Trooper Jackson, spoiler alert, she had not let him in yet.

I could hear him pounding on the door and he had come to arrest her, again for the exact same offenses that I had just appeared in court for her just days earlier. That was Trooper Jackson trying to have a show of force against a peaceful protester and that should be ringing alarm bells for everybody. Not because she was back out protesting, not because she had committed new crimes, but because he had spent basically several weeks looking through her Facebook page and trying to stick it to her.