Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Journal covers Korte blow up


In the Journal this morning, link, a report on the assault and battery committed by APS School Board Member Kathy Korte on blogger and photojournalist Mark Bralley.

Korte of course denies her misconduct claiming Bralley was pushing his camera in her face.  Security tapes from inside the boardroom would show her closing the distance between them, not Bralley.

Think about it, the "altercation" took place in the front of one of the most secure rooms on the face of the planet; armed guards, security cameras, and witnesses abound.  With all their power and resources, they cannot produce any proof that Bralley ever did anything wrong.

Everything Bralley has done has been recorded.
Everything I've done has been recorded.  Or deliberately not recorded.

We would be happy to have anyone see and hear those records.  We're not the ones hiding the records.  We're not the ones hiding for example; public records of findings of investigations of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators.

Bralley was a cop for 25 years and a journalist for as long.  He knows better than to meet someone in a hallway somewhere; there's a reason they were in public and in full view when Korte blew her cork.

If either of us have broken the law, we would be in jail or on bail, charges would have been filed, reports would have been written.

If Heinz did, as I have done, she would have asked Supt Winston Brooks and the Board to produce the public record of disruptions of school board meetings.  If she had, she would have received conclusive evidence that nothing I or we did, disrupted a meeting ever.

If I ask at a public forum, why board members and superintendents are not honestly accountable as role models of the standards they establish and enforce upon students, the question does not disrupt the meeting.

The employment of a publicly funded private police force to carry off the questioner, does.  We don't disrupt meetings, they do.


The records do not show disruptive behavior.  They show me asking questions the leadership of the APS would rather not answer, and in particular would rather not answer in public and on the record.  The show me pointing their incompetence, they show me pointing to their corruption.

I stand on the record.  I would have anyone examine it.

It's a shame Heinz and the Journal won't actually look at it.
They are comfortable instead, simply repeating unjustified allegations.

Heinz failed to report as well, the banning letter is totally unlawful.  Board members have no authority to write "banning letters" and have no authority to order APS police officers to arrest any one who persists in asking questions though the board prohibits asking them questions.

Kathy Korte doesn't want to explain why she and other board members;
  1. have abdicated from their obligations as role models of the standards of conduct that they establish and enforce upon students, and why they
  2. are denying due process to hundreds of whistleblower complaints, and why they are
  3. hiding public records of felony criminal misconduct by senior APS administrators.
Heinz writes;
APS has a standing ban against MacQuigg, who has been an outspoken critic of the district for years and has unsuccessfully run for the school board several times. 
She should have written, APS has a standing ban against MacQuigg because he has been an outspoken critic of the district for years.

Though I was never elected, I wouldn't say I was unsuccessful.
I brought issues to the table that nobody else wanted to talk about.

I have to say I'm not pleased with the overall impression, Journal Reporter Hailey Heinz creates. 

She writes;
MacQuigg was banned from board meetings in September 2010 after he repeatedly disrupted them and made APS staff feel unsafe, according to the letter the district sent to him.
"... according to the letter sent to him." doesn't quite get to gist of it. She wrote in effect; I disrupted meetings.

I'll bet she hasn't looked at a single videotape, or listened to a single audio tape of me "disrupting" a meeting.   APS has them, why hasn't she asked to see them; why aren't they falling all over themselves to offer them to her?

Heinz failed to point out that the banning letter, whether justified or not, is utterly unlawful.  Heinz knows that board policy specifically prohibits board members from individual action.  Marty Esquivel had no authority to write it.  The board never authorized it.

She never asked, if Marty Esquivel had just cause for a restraining order; why didn't he go to a judge for a signature?  Why is the only other signature on the letter, the Chief of his publicly funded, private police force; accountable to no one except the administration and school board; a Praetorian Guard if ever there was.
MacQuigg recently attended two community forums about bullying without incident, but those forums were held in school buildings, not at APS headquarters. 
Not true.  The meetings were not without incident; I made allegations that made them feel so uncomfortable that Brooks didn't even show up for the second meeting.  I pointed out, for instance, they weren't spending a dime district wide developing the character of children; before they become bullies.

Heinz acknowledges  
"... a community group that has been advocating for APS to establish a citizens advisory council to foster public involvement.
She does not acknowledge that they are called the Citizens Advisory Council on Communication, nor that we seek to foster public involvement by creating venues for open and honest two-way between politicians and public servants, and the community members they serve: a venue where someone like me can ask legitimate questions without being labeled disruptive and then be arrested.
''Korte told the officer that to the best of her knowledge, MacQuigg was not allowed into any meetings at City Centre.
Has Korte not even read the banning letter?  If it is as lawful as they would have us believe, she must have voted to authorize it.  Without reading it?

Does she not know anyway, she has no authority to order police to remove people for their completely legal exercise of Constitutionally protected human rights?  The police freely admit, they take orders from board members; if a board member wants to throw someone out for any reason, even if they have broken no law, the police will obey, using force if they must.

Bralley reports that Korte closed five feet of distance between them to grab his camera.  Korte defends sayss ".. all she had to do to grab the lens was hold up her hand". Like that would make it somehow alright to go ahead and grab the camera; criminal assault and criminal battery.


If not as a veteran police officer, then as a photographer, Bralley is acutely aware of all of the reasons he has no reason to stick a camera in someone's face.

Where is Korte's evidence and proof?  Why in the super secure John Milne boardroom, can no recorded evidence be found to support her allegations?
(Korte) also said she felt threatened by how close Bralley was to her.
Truth be told, Korte feels threatened by the truth being told.

Anyone can claim they feel threatened, and for any reason, justifiable or not.
Other APS staff intervened, ...
Truth be told, "other APS staff intervened" because they chose to, and in violation of Bralley's Constitutionally protected human rights to be where was, doing what he was doing.  The only person with any authority to arrest Bralley would be a police officer, which Bralley himself had requested.

... Bralley eventually left, although not before asking to talk to the most senior APS police officer on staff and questioning whether police had legal cause or authority to make him leave. 

Truth be told. the most senior APS police officer (on duty) freely admitted that he had no legal cause at all, and it made no difference.  He would remove photographers simply because a board member asked him to.  Knowing all the while board members have no authority to order police officers to do anything ever.

The APS Police may have authority, badges, guns, handcuffs;
they haven't legal cause.

A fact that doesn't give them a moments pause.

If ever there was a tip of the iceberg, this is it.

Game on.




photo Mark Bralley

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