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Santa Ana City Council October 17, 2014 Page 3 abusive and oppressive and should not be commended as they were at the prior City council meeting. Before the meeting was even called to order, however, Mayor Pulido announced to the public that police were going to clear the room to deal with the fact that Mr. Bijan refused to remove his hat. The Mayor subsequently cancelled the meeting without rescheduling it, and other council members and the police chief supported his decision.' By allowing praise and the honoring of police officers while prohibiting criticism of the police officers, the City clearly engaged in viewpoint discrimination in violation of both the federal and State constitutions. The Mayor and Council's interpretation of the rules of decorum is not reasonable in light of the purpose of the City Council meeting and the actions of Mr. Bijan. A restriction can be reasonable if it restricts conduct that causes an actual disruption, but Mr. Bijan's conduct did not cause any actual disruptions that impeded the natural progression of the meeting. In McMahon v. Albany Unified School Dist., 104 Cal. App. 4th 1275 (2002), Mr. McMahon expressed his discontent and criticism with the amount of litter in and around school grounds by dumping trash on the floor of a school room. Id. at 1281. Mr. McMahon was arrested for willfully disrupting the school board meeting. Id. The Court found the School Board's prohibition against dumping trash on the floor of a school room reasonable because Mr. McMahon's activity itself, and not the content of his expression, was being regulated. Moreover, the Court found that Mr. McMahon acted in a way that substantially impaired the effective conduct of the meeting. In contrast, here Mr. Bijan was quietly sitting in the council chambers, preparing his comments for the public comment portion of the meeting, when he was approached by city officials and ordered to either take off his hat or leave the chambers. But, the City cannot banish Mr. Bijan from the council chambers or otherwise punish him for a "silent, passive expression of opinion, unaccompanied by any disorder or disturbance." Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 508. Mr. Bijan was not acting in a way that impeded the progression of the meeting and the city officials' request that he remove his hat or leave was viewpoint discriminatory, unreasonable and, therefore, unconstitutional. Moreover, the fact that Mr. Bijan's hat read "Fuck the Police" does not constitute an actual disruption of the meeting simply because some may have been offended by the words used or found the message to be disrespectful. The City cannot require that public speakers or members of the public who attend council meetings be courteous, respectful, polite, and refrain from using accusatory, inflammatory, offensive, or insulting language. Such restrictions are contrary to well - settled law that "government officials in America occasionally must tolerate 'See "When man wearing anti police hat won't leave. Santa Ana cancels council meeting ", OC Register, Oct. 8, 2014 ( "Why don't you just be respectful and take off your hat and we can resume the meeting. That's all we're asking," [Council member] Martinez said. "It's disrespectful to the chambers. It's disrespectful to our police officers. "); see also "Santa Ana defends cancel in¢ council mectine over hat flan: law dean says mayor `clearly overreacted. ", OC Register, Oct. 8, 2014 C' We want everybody to leave so we could restore order," [Police Chief) Rojas said. "If the mayor doesn't want somebody with that offensive language in the meeting, it disrupts the meeting. ") S T A N D F O R J U S T I C E