Oklahoma County Courthouse Protester Kathy Doyle.

[BBatesokc]

From those I’ve spoken to, the biggest issue to addressing her ‘protest’ is the fact she is on county property and not city property - and the county claims they have no rules/laws that address this specifically.

To me, I simply feel she should be required to man her signs and they should be positioned a reasonable distance from her. Beyond that, go for it.

[Magic's Immune System]

While you question the mileage and age of her car you seem to know that she is employable. How so?

I damn sure wouldn't hire her, but she is physically capable. Saw her dragging sandbags, climbing on top of her SUV, and dragging signs all over the place.

[Jersey Boss]

I damn sure wouldn't hire her, but she is physically capable. Saw her dragging sandbags, climbing on top of her SUV, and dragging signs all over the place.

Ok, that's fine but does not answer the question. Can she do that for 4 hours? Is she a convicted felon? Mental health?There are a lot of factors that determine employability.

[BBatesokc]

Ok, that's fine but does not answer the question. Can she do that for 4 hours? Is she a convicted felon? Mental health?There are a lot of factors that determine employability.

She is 100% employable. She simply chooses to do this instead - which is completely her business. I just think there is a much bigger issue at hand and her activities simply highlight that bigger issue - what are the boundaries of ‘free speech’ in situations like this? Does she have to keep her posters in her hand, next to her or can she line them up around the entire building? Should she be required to man her posters or can she set them up and simply walk away? What if someone else wants to do the same thing? Are they allowed to set their posters up in front of hers? There is just a lot of issues at play and simply calling it it ‘her right to free speech’ is overly simplifying those issues.

[Magic's Immune System]

Ok, that's fine but does not answer the question. Can she do that for 4 hours? Is she a convicted felon? Mental health?There are a lot of factors that determine employability.

Is she related to you? Or just typical internet white knighting?

[CloudDeckMedia]

The County could draft guidelines (I’m not sure that “ordinance” is correct) for protests, allow for a comment period, and then implement them. They would define permissible things such as designated areas & hours, and prohibited things such as unattended items, cooking, amplified sounds, etc. This would require coordination between the county legal staff, district attorney, OCSO and perhaps OCPD, which probably is why guidelines haven’t been established. Who has the time & resources?

[Midtowner]

From those I’ve spoken to, the biggest issue to addressing her ‘protest’ is the fact she is on county property and not city property - and the county claims they have no rules/laws that address this specifically.

To me, I simply feel she should be required to man her signs and they should be positioned a reasonable distance from her. Beyond that, go for it.

And this puts the county in a pickle. Any rules they adopt now, it will be argued were done not as neutral and uniformly applicable rules to restrict the time, place, and manner of political speech, but adopted as a direct result of this individual's actions. The government can adopt reasonable time, place and manner restrictions, but it can't adopt rules targeted at one individual.

When I got to the courthouse this morning about 10 til 9, all of her signs were out and blocking access to all of the covered walkway, forcing everyone to get rained on. No doubt this protest is a nuisance. I'll visit with some folks at the courthouse about this.

Edit to add:

I did visit with a deputy about this. The county's zone of control begins at the doorway. The city is technically supposed to police the sidewalk according to the unwritten rules. Also, the sheriff doesn't really have the ability to enforce the municipal ordinances, i.e., obstructing traffic, having an unlicensed assembly, which would be more applicable to the situation. No one is doing anything without the commissioners acting and the commissioners probably won't act until after the November election if she hangs around that long. The city could act, but they won't. She does not store the signs there, she just gets there early every day and packs things up at the end of the day.

[Jersey Boss]

Is she related to you? Or just typical internet white knighting?

Neither. It Just struck me as a tad absurd that you first take issue with the mileage and age of her vehicle and then say she should just get a job. It seems she has some mental health issues so I question her employability. I do agree that she should not get carte blanche to impede pedestrian traffic into the court house.

[OKCRT]

And this puts the county in a pickle. Any rules they adopt now, it will be argued were done not as neutral and uniformly applicable rules to restrict the time, place, and manner of political speech, but adopted as a direct result of this individual's actions. The government can adopt reasonable time, place and manner restrictions, but it can't adopt rules targeted at one individual.

When I got to the courthouse this morning about 10 til 9, all of her signs were out and blocking access to all of the covered walkway, forcing everyone to get rained on. No doubt this protest is a nuisance. I'll visit with some folks at the courthouse about this.

Edit to add:

I did visit with a deputy about this. The county's zone of control begins at the doorway. The city is technically supposed to police the sidewalk according to the unwritten rules. Also, the sheriff doesn't really have the ability to enforce the municipal ordinances, i.e., obstructing traffic, having an unlicensed assembly, which would be more applicable to the situation. No one is doing anything without the commissioners acting and the commissioners probably won't act until after the November election if she hangs around that long. The city could act, but they won't. She does not store the signs there, she just gets there early every day and packs things up at the end of the day.

What a life. At least she's committed to the cause. I wonder if someone tripped over one of her signs and fell and hurt their shoulder or something who would be responsible? The City?

[OKCbyTRANSFER]

The news channels have stories on scooters blocking the sidewalk (as mentioned in another thread) but her signs blocking pedestrians is ok. Let's add some sandbags and orange cones too

[billokc]

Would love to watch the fallout of this if.....

Suppose late one night some anonymous person(s) with an unmarked truck of appropriate size and covered tag would load up everyone of her items--signs, desk, etc., and haul it away so that when morning came around, there would be no indication she was ever there to begin with.

Probably lots of finger pointing and name calling to start with.

[BBatesokc]

When she originally setup she was well into the sidewalk - actually, her preference was closer to the street. At that point her protest was much smaller and she was getting push back from the city. Somewhere along the way she learned if she moved closer to the overhang of the building then she was most likely technically on county maintained property and thus the city police would leave her alone.

Also, while she does often pick up her signs at the end of the day (I usually see her do that between 7:30pm and 10pm and she sets up around 6am or earlier) - that is not always the case. There have been several days where I know for a fact she left her signs in place overnight and unattended. She has even unsuccessfully complained to deputies because other's took that opportunity to vandalize some of her signs.

This protest has been brought up to DA Prater (not that he could miss it, he passes it every morning) and he refused to get involved - stating it's a free speech issue he doesn't want to get in the middle of. Additionally, the sheriff has made similar comments. That said, conveniently enough, neither individual's name appears on any of the signs. Perhaps if it was, they would take a different tone. I remember when I protested outside the courthouse and then DA Wes Lane dismissed an entire jury pool of hundreds of people claiming my protest was tantamount to 'jury tampering.' That nonsense stance was however shot down.

As a side note; Ms. Doyle is also getting her information and encouragement from a handful of local attorneys who feed her courthouse gossip regarding some of the elected judges - she in turn regurgitates that information on her signs.

[OKCRT]

Does she have a tip jar or bucket?

[BBatesokc]

I personally think she's approaching hate speech with her most recent signs.

I also think is embarrassingly obvious that candidate for Oklahoma County Judge Chris Sloan is egging her on and providing her with information and 'dirt' on judges.

Kathy Doyle's latest sign....



And what do you know, a pro-Sloan poster right next to the one bashing Mai.



If he is feeding her information to better his candidacy and not reporting it, then an ethics complaint is in order. If Kathy is getting information from others to further an overt attempt to impact an election then she needs to form a PAC and do the proper filings. I knew Sloan was acting like a bitter child over this race, but I never thought he'd stoop to this. If he's not involved, then I'd be down there asking her to not display support for him. Mai needs to call Sloan out to either support or not support the message Kathy is putting out there.

*Don't know why the thumbnails are sideways in the post, but they appear to rotate properly if you click them.

[OKCretro]

what is weird is I was there last thursday morning and didnt see her signs up.

[BBatesokc]

what is weird is I was there last thursday morning and didnt see her signs up.

She disappeared for a few days after a homeless guy threatened her and vandalized a couple of her signs around 6am one morning.

[BBatesokc]

Some additional evidence Chris Sloan is either working in concert with Kathy Doyle or greatly influencing her rhetoric....

Weeks ago Doyle was wearing a Chris Sloan for judge t-shirt. It's a pretty safe bet she only got that directly from Sloan.....



Then, this photo was taken very recently.... It shows Sloan and Doyle leaving the courthouse property together...




Sloan has gotten the message that some people are upset about Doyle's latest signs and their association with his running for judge. He claims (at least privately for now) he is not in support of them.

[BBatesokc]

Never could figure out why the photos uploaded sideways. The were straightening back out when you clicked on them, but then even that stopped working. I re-saved them again and cropped them slightly and now they seem to post fine..... Here they are again....

[BridgeBurner]

Yikes

[Thomas Vu]

Keep up the awesome work, Bates!

[BBatesokc]

Chris Sloan has told me personally that he's not involved in this, didn't have Doyle put the signs up and doesn't approve them.

I call BS.

This morning Doyle continued her attack on Mai with the following signs. Amazingly she knows all the details of the allegations Sloan has made against Mai - allegations he LOST when he formally presented them! Yes, he still claims he's not feeding her info. Regardless of what anyone thinks of Chris Sloan personally, this is not a temperament and character we need wearing a robe as judge....

[TheTravellers]

Can Mai file a complaint with somebody and get this clown (Doyle and/or Sloan) to stop the stupidity? Or does she know what's going on and is going to let Sloan dig his own grave (not smart, considering how many people probably would side with Doyle/Sloan)? This is embarrassing.

[YeahIKnow]

UGH!!! What a racist POS! And, before the poindexters come at me saying, "racist where?", she had to preface both Mai and Truong names with Asian? And, "Japs"? Really?

[BBatesokc]

Also, in support of the idea that Chris Sloan is behind this racist attack on Mai; for months Doyle has lined the entire west side of the courthouse with dozens of signs ranting about this and that. However, the moment Sloan returns from his extended overseas vacation and the pro-Sloan signs are created by Doyle, she conveniently has removed all her other signs so that foot traffic only reads the pro-Sloan, anti-Asian signs. I firmly believe Sloan has asked or paid for her to have a solitary message that he thinks benefits him. Can you imagine this mindset as a judge?

[HangryHippo]

That's f**king ridiculous. What an embarrassment.