[Cross posted at my blog,
LeftinLowell.com]
Let this be a lesson - know your rights, and fight for them, even if it's a pain in the ass. Oh, and boycott Hannafords, if you don't like corporate intimidation to get in the way of the civic duty of citizens.
Your humble blogger was threatened with arrest today by an intimidation tactic which seems common across the state [of Massachusetts, probably across the country].
Susan (from Beyond 495) and I were attempting to collect nomination signatures for Deval Patrick at the Chelmsford Hannaford at Drum Hill today. As many [Mass activists] probably already know, the right to collect sigatures for official state petitions, even on private property like strip malls, is protected by state Supreme Court decision Batchelder v. Allied Stores International, Inc. This joker (the assistant manager of Hannaford's and apparently at the time, the highest ranking person on the premises) tried to tell us that the corporate-wide policy of Hannafords trumps a state SC ruling.
We tried to point him to the ruling many times, telling him these were official petitions protected under the law, but he wouldn't listen and became rather belligerent, threatening to call the police. In fact, he lied later on, when we called the Chelmsford police on him, his manager (who happened to stop by on her day off) stated that we hadn't mentioned these were official petitions and it was all a big misunderstanding. Amazing how the story changes when the police are standing right there.
The end result: though the police were a little belligerent themselves, they "mediated" for us to be able to stay. So we did.
Frankly, I don't shop at Hannafords anyway. Besides being overpriced, they ticked me off during the 2004 presidential race by refusing to even consider pulling their advertising on Sinclair broadcast stations when Sinclair was forcing its affiliates to run the completely propagandized documentary, Stolen Honor, a hit piece on John Kerry's military service, a few days before the election. I stick to my boycotts.
However, if readers decided to also boycott the Hannafords (at least Chelmsford), I wouldn't be upset. Just please let them know why. Make sure you complain to the management.
But the main lesson here is that you must stick up for your rights. You should have seen how quick the turnaround was once the Chelmsford police were involved. This sort of harassment has happened at multiple locations of several different grocery stores. Any wonder why people don't like to get involved in political campaigns? There's nothing worse than showing up do to a civic duty and to be intimidated away.
Oh, and I will be at the Hannafords in Chelmsford tomorrow, at 4pm, if anyone wants to join me in collecting more signatures for Deval Patrick (I have extra sheets). I'm certain that nary a manager will be in sight to tell us not to.
