The Constitutional Villain Speaks!

Christopher Kairnes, of Warwick, claims — trumpets — responsibility for handing out the pocket Constitutions:

I had nothing to do with the Tea Party float nor did I ride on it. I never talked with the parade committee before the parade nor signed any agreement with it. I am an individual. I report to no one and do not owe anyone an apology for what I have done. If handing out the Declaration of Independence to people who are sitting down on their properties is dangerous, I am guilty of that. …
I walked up and down that parade route with my 11-year-old son twice before the Tea Party float even hit the road, and people were happy to see us. When the float finally did join the parade, I did keep handing out copies of the Pocket Declaration of Independence/U.S. Constitution.
That was when the parade staffer tried to take them out of my hand. I told him I would not let him have them. He tried to grab them again, and at the same time he grabbed my arm. That is when I got loud and told him to back off. He threatened to have the Tea Party float taken off the parade route and have me arrested.
He called a police officer over and I explained to the officer that I was handing out the copies of the Constitution all day and that I was not on the float. He recognized me from earlier and let me go back to it.

With all of the parsing going on about “soliciting” and “entries,” Kairnes clarifies that he was soliciting nothing and was associated only in sympathy with the Tea Party float. He also brings us back to the crux reflected in the title of my first post on the topic: A minor civic functionary attempted to confiscate the Constitution.
Apparently, when the back-roads totalitarian was thwarted in this endeavor, he was so incensed that he lashed out at a group that he and his friends (no doubt) didn’t like anyway. If that assertion of petty authority isn’t corrected, I propose that next year’s parade feature several dozen people handing out the books.

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JohnD
John
15 years ago

Despite having to miss a great family cookout, I will be happy to make the sacrifice in order to make sure that people fully understand what is taking place in Bristol.
This sounds like there will be a float in the Ancient and Horribles parade depicting the Bristol parade committee in a rather bad light! Wouldn’t that be a hoot?

ProvidencePlato
ProvidencePlato
15 years ago

This is completely rediculous…on the day of celebrating independence and freedom, they want to crush the freedom of speech…not stopping some nazi or something trying to start a riot, a dude handing out copies of the declaration of independence and the constitution????…this is completely rediculous…stiffling someone for trying to educate citizens about the actual history of our independence during the celebration of our independence…educating citizens about the rights their ancestors earned for them on that day…its truly stunning…and I keep reading stories about it, and trying to find something I must be missing…like the guy had a locked and loaded musket and was calling the police officers redcoats or something…I can’t find ANY problem with this, and instead of trying to stop it, they should have been celebrating it…really really amazing…

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