Reveles: Don’t muzzle Call to the Public remarks at Pinal County supervisors meetings

Roberto Reveles

Roberto Reveles

The following statement was made at the Nov. 1 meeting of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors:

At the last Pinal County Board of Supervisors meeting, Sheriff Mark Lamb’s hypocrisy and disdain for the Constitution were on full display.

Disregarding his ongoing three years of electioneering as a political prop for the insurrectionist and now criminally indicted former president, the sheriff candidate for U.S. Senate has the unmitigated gall to tell you — the Board of Supervisors and county attorney — to muzzle the three minutes of Call to the Public remarks by me and others.

Three years of electioneering threatened by three minutes of Call to the Public.

How dare we criticize Mark Lamb’s complicity with the leader of the Jan. 6 violent attack against the constitutionally mandated peaceful transfer of presidential power.

To put this disagreement in context, let me remind you of the sheriff’s various intimidation attempts this past year criticizing use of Call to the Public by me and other of his critics.

A campaign that came into focus when he approached me in this room and shouted at me and another member of the public that we were, in his words “destroying our country.”

I welcome discussion of who is destroying our country.

Mr. chairman, everyone’s constitutional right to free speech is a precious right that must be defended against bullying.

I will not submit to Sheriff Lamb’s attempts at censoring my activist speech. And I would hope others, regardless of partisan affiliation and regardless of their vulnerability, will not allow their constitutionally protected speech to be silenced.

If you — members of the board and the county attorney — attempt to rewrite the rules of Call to the Public to accommodate Sheriff Lamb’s electioneering sensitivities, I challenge you to place the topic on the agenda for open debate.

Yes, let’s have the discussion on who is destroying our country.

Which party is refusing to accept the outcome of our elections, submitting false slates of presidential electors, conducting so-called election audits based on contrived conspiracies, promoting physical violence against political adversaries, and who is seeking to limit freedom of speech by, yes, activists committed to painful truth.

On this Dia de los Muertos, may the “big lie” die.

Reader reactions, pro or con, are welcomed at AzOpinions@iniusa.org.