Arrest of sign holder not shown in Douglas County Commission video

At the Douglas County commission meeting held on Wednesday, Dr. Justin Spiehs was arrested for holding a sign that targeted county commissioner Patrick Kelly (D-District 1). His arrest was under the guise of “interfering with the conduct of public business” and “preventing entrance or exit”. 

About a half hour before the arrest, Dr. Spiehs tried to make a public comment, but was interrupted by the commission and had his microphone shut off. Michael Eravi of Lawrence Accountability decided to speak next.

“What is being taught here is the First Amendment reigns supreme. You’ve created a public forum where you’ve invited public comment, and now you’re limiting people based on the content of their speech–their chosen words. These are things our Founding Fathers gave their lives for, folks. And we have three very sensitive individuals up here who can’t handle a little free speech,” Eravi said after having been interrupted by the commission twice.

Eravi, who was holding a sign that said, “Patrick Kelly is a Pussy” said it was not his “norm” but was doing it because he knows he has the right to after being told he couldn’t.

“You guys are infringing on the First Amendment and you can’t continue to do that,” Eravi said. “So, I’m going to stand over there with that sign for the remainder of the evening. I might even try to get it on camera a couple of times because we’re going to show you guys that the First Amendment rules.”

Just over 40 minutes in when the commission is about to have the deputies make the arrest, there becomes a real question of video tampering for the official government video recording of the meeting as the audio goes in and out. Douglas County does not livestream their videos to YouTube, but rather records them and uploads them later, making such tampering possible. We know that we can hear people in attendance whether they have a microphone or not because we can hear people protesting against the removal of Dr. Spiehs as well as when the people condemn the commission for delaying the meeting to have the arrest made. 

Furthermore, we never see the arrest. There are two recesses that happen in quick succession with Dr. Spiehs being arrested on the second recess. However, the second recess was solely for the arrest of Dr. Spiehs. We know this thanks to Lawrence Accountability who filmed the arrest. The government’s video picks up immediately after Dr. Spiehs’s arrest where we then audibly hear the condemnation of the arrest by the crowd.

This is important because this means that the people of Douglas County cannot go to the direct source to see exactly what happened. Instead, they have to rely on biased reporting from their local media outlet, which justified the arrest and painted Dr. Spiehs in a negative light. 

It is due to this type of corruption in the government and in established media that makes alternative media like Lawrence Accountability so important. Without Lawrence Accountability, we would have never seen the actual arrest take place as we did. 

Despite the questionable audio and the missing footage of the arrest, the video that the government published for the public did garner one comment as of this publishing regarding the incident.