TWENTY PICKETERS TARGET WAL-MART OVER FREE SPEECH

Twenty sign-toting, free-speech advocates picketed Wal-Mart Monday to
protest the store's arrest of a marijuana initiative petitioner last week.

Wal-Mart arrested eight of them.

"You're under arrest for trespassing," store manager Don Estes told each of
the eight as he placed them under citizen's arrest.

Police, who said they had no choice but to follow through with Wal-Mart's
arrest request, took the demonstrators to the county jail, where they were
booked and released.

They included: former Congressman Dan Hamburg; Lynda McClure, of the
Mendocino Environmental Center; and David Drell, of the Willits
Environmental Center.

The peaceful protest was in response to the arrest last week of Richard
Johnson, who was collecting signatures for an initiative to decriminalize
personal marijuana use.

They say Wal-Mart violated his, and now their, constitutional right to
petition.

"I'm just outraged when democracy gets stepped on," said Marilyn Mooshie,
who was later arrested.

"For them to not be willing to support the Bill of Rights does not reflect
well on a company that claims they believe in American values," Drell said.

Protesters said the store doesn't have the right to limit petitioners to a
small rectangle outside the store that is away from the store's entrance.

While it's private property, they noted California courts frequently often
have deemed shopping centers to be public places for petitioning and
picketing purposes.

The landmark 1979 California Supreme Court case Robins v. Pruneyard
Shopping Center stated shopping centers must allow petitioning and
protected speech because they have, in essence, taken the place of town
centers.

There is, however, disagreement among lowers courts as to whether the
ruling applies to stand-alone stores like Ukiah's Wal-Mart.

Stores can place reasonable restrictions on petitioners, but the protesters
say the small yellow rectangle at Wal-Mart is insufficient.

It also was already taken by a group distributing information on child care.

Petitioners also can't block doorways or harass people.

Monday's group did neither, though harassment is all in the eye of the
beholder.

"Arrest 'em all," muttered an older woman pushing a shopping cart who
apparently disapproved of the effort to legalize marijuana. Another woman
commented, "stupid people."

While some people may disapprove of the content of the petition, it's
illegal to forbid signature gathering based on the subject material.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Laura Pope said the store, while it requires that
people notify Wal-Mart they'll be petitioning beforehand, does not
discriminate based on content.

While some people going to Wal-Mart Monday didn't like the idea of
decriminalizing marijuana, others were happy to sign the petition to put
the initiative on the ballot.

"It works better than Ativan," said one woman who signed.

Others passing by were less interested in the petition than the free speech
issue.

"Isn't that one of the last rights we have?" Gerald Bond, of Ukiah, said.

He said he doesn't understand why Wal-Mart would be so touchy about the
petition issue.

By arresting the petitioners and protesters, Wal-Mart has inadvertently
given a boost to the petition efforts.

Hamburg and others said that, while they supported the initiative in
theory, they wouldn't be out gathering signatures if Johnson hadn't been
arrested.

"It's specifically because Wal-Mart decided to do a citizen's arrest,"
Hamburg said.

He said more arrests would likely result in more protests - and more
signatures being gathered.

Johnson said the effort has collected enough signatures to qualify, but
barely. To be sure it has enough qualifying signatures - those of
registered voters - it needs another 1,000.

The arrests were cordial, as was the demonstration, and, in some cases,
nearly jovial.

While Wal-Mart employees were grim, the protesters and police were amiable.

In fact, Police Chief John Williams devoted at least an hour to trying to
prevent the arrests by acting as a negotiator between the two sides.

"Is there some way we can sort of kind of...?" he asked as he walked off
with local Green Party spokesman Bruce Hering to try to work something out.

But the petitioners declined to submit to a two-page list of restrictions
sent out with police by Wal-Mart managers, who largely stayed inside the
store during negotiations.

Hering said the group plans to attempt to have further negotiations with
Wal-Mart, perhaps by using a third-party mediator.