[Peace-discuss] Fw: Mr. Beckett's attempted interference of my recording Tuesday's meeting

[Randall Cotton]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Randall Cotton" <recotton at earthlink.net>
To: "C. Pius Weibel" <cpiusweibel at hotmail.com>
Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 7:36 PM
Subject: Mr. Beckett's attempted interference of my recording Tuesday's
meeting


: Dear Pius,
:
: Congratulations on chairing an excellent Democratic Caucus meeting last
: Tuesday.
:
: I wanted to register a concern with you as Chair, though, regarding Mr.
: Beckett's attempt to interfere with my recording of the meeting. You may
: recall that as I entered the room just before the meeting and sat down,
I
: placed a small recording device on the meeting table across from where I
: was sitting against the north wall. As I'm sure you know, it is anyone's
: right to record the meeting under the Illinois Open Meetings Act (see 5
: ILCS 120/2.05). The device was probably about 3 feet away from Mr.
: Beckett, having no material effect on his ability to conduct his duties.
I
: think the device was about the same distance from you as well. You may
: recall that just prior to the meeting, Mr. Beckett ordered me quite
: brusquely to remove it from the table. He said "What are you doing?",
: "Keep it over there", "It doesn't belong over here", demanded again,
: raising his voice "What are you doing?", then "Hold it - Hold it!",
later
: "or put it down at the other end of the table" (gesturing toward Mrs.
: Cowart at the east end of the table). Here is the audio I recorded of
the
: exchange:
:
: http://imsahp.chambana.net/~randall/ccboard/Beckett-interference.mp3
:
: I chose not to confront Mr. Beckett but instead moved the device from
your
: right to your left, to which you appropriately did not object.
:
: While Mr. Beckett was not successful in adversely affecting my recording
: of the meeting, in demanding that I remove the recording device from the
: table, Mr. Beckett clearly attempted to interfere. If I had followed his
: orders, my recording would not have been as intelligible and the device
: may have missed some of what was said.
:
: It is clear that Mr. Beckett was not concerned about how the device
might
: adversely affect meeting participants because he directed me to "put it
: down at the other end of the table", which was much more densely
populated
: with meeting participants seated there.
:
: I am partly relaying this to you to get this incident on the record and
: establish you as a witness. I don't anticipate legal action, but if Mr.
: Beckett were to persist with such interference in the future, I might
: consider it (yes, I know Mr. Beckett is an attorney).
:
: Can you tell me how much of the above account you remember witnessing?
:
: I am also contacting you, in part, to ask what responsibility you
shoulder
: for ensuring unimpeded Open Meetings Act recordings of meetings that you
: chair.
:
: Thanks
: R
: