"Harris-Dawson Celebrated Rap Lyrics on Official Gov't Social Media That He Wants to Ban at Its Meetings" by Daniel Guss
Hypocritical LA City Council president is no student of City Hall's tortured First Amendment history, either. Will incendiary language soon get much worse?
Is it already game, set and match for the censorship aspirations of LA City Council president Marqueece Harris-Dawson, MHD, whose first year in the City Hall leadership role includes trying to silence critics with everything from physical violence to ending Zoom calls?
On Friday morning, MHD will chair a committee meeting where the agenda includes his motion to ban members of the public from using all variations of two incendiary words, “n_gga” and “c_nt,” during their speaking time at city government meetings, and how to penalize violators of his proposed word-ban.
Specifically, he proposes this addition to City Council’s meeting rules.
But just 62 days earlier, MHD used his official twitter account, prominently displaying his job title and a link that redirects to the city-owned domain for the District he represents, to publicly celebrate the Super Bowl half-time performance of Kendrick Lamar, whose set list for the world-wide event includes songs with dozens of uses of the n-word.
This constitutes an implied government endorsement of the same words that MHD is now attempting to ban at city government meetings and other lyrics of Lamar’s many would consider misogynistic, homophobic and anti-Semitic, that MHD is not trying to ban, all of which are constitutionally protected.
Even if MHD’s motion is amended, he cannot un-ring that bell.
Further, his motion ignores the fact that City Council has celebrated and permanently memorialized the use of the n-word with stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for other artists, including but not limited to the ones listed below along with the address of their stars and some of their lyrics and titles:
Ice Cube — 6752 Hollywood Blvd — “The N*gga Ya Love to Hate”
Pitbull — 6201 Hollywood Blvd — “My N*gga Kaine”
Snoop — 6840 Hollywood Blvd — “N*gga Sayin’ Hi”
50 Cent — 6250 Hollywood Blvd — “N*gga, N*gga”
Harris-Dawson: Not a Student of City Hall Censorship History
MHD’s motion also ignores his predecessors’ costly First Amendment mistakes, including a $600,000 payout to the attorneys of City Hall gadflies Matt Dowd and David “Zuma Dogg” Saltsburg and another $214,000 to Michael Hunt, after Hunt previously scored a $264,000 payday plus $340,000 for his attorneys in a Venice Boardwalk matter.
Upon hearing of MHD’s motion, Zuma Dogg issued the following statement:
In another recent incident, MHD tried to censor a gadfly who goes by the moniker “Three Inch Shrimp,” a humorous and self-deprecating reference to his personal regions.
In the clip, below, Shrimp mockingly lobbies for sex workers on Figueroa.
MHD’s best options were to laugh at the silliness in order to diffuse it or simply remain quiet until the critic’s speaking time expires. Instead, he took the worst option and repeatedly disrupted Shrimp’s commentary by declaring it “not within the jurisdiction of Los Angeles City Council.”
I will see you on the other side of this clip, which should start at 1:51:14. Advance to that point if the video does not start there.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Figueroa is the third-longest street within Los Angeles city limits:
In fact, it runs through or along two portions of Council District 8, which Harris-Dawson represents.
Pointlessly interfering with Shrimp’s commentary further establishes that MHD will do or say anything to unlawfully interfere with the public’s lawful right to criticize and mock.
As I recently wrote in "Marqueece Harris-Dawson Picks First Amendment Fight He Has Zero Chance of Winning,” MHD stunningly told scribe Jon Regardie in the Westside Current, “I’m eager to get in front of a judge and show them a video of what happens in L.A. City Council and committee, and ask her or him if they think this is what is intended by the free speech that we’re granted in the First Amendment and the Brown Act.”
The judge would answer yes, it is.
But MHD is sorely mistaken if he thinks that witnesses get to ask judges questions and that judges base rulings on what they think rather than on what the Constitution guarantees.
City Hall has repeatedly lost on this issue in court, just as the Founding Fathers (they/them) had intended.
As Judge Dean Pregerson (he/him) ruled in the Zuma Dogg / Matt Dowd case:
"In one of the largest cities in the world, it is to be expected that some inhabitants will sometimes use language that does not conform to conventions of civility and decorum, including offensive language and swear-words. As an elected official, a City Council member will be the subject of personal attacks in such language. It is asking much of City Council members, who have given themselves to public service, to tolerate profanities and personal attacks, but that is what is required by the First Amendment. While the City Council has a right to keep its meetings on topic and moving forward, it cannot sacrifice political speech to a formula of civility. First Amendment jurisprudence is clear that the way to oppose offensive speech is by more speech, not censorship, enforced silence or eviction from legitimately occupied public space.” Gathright v. City of 18 Portland, Or., 439 F.3d 573”
Lastly, there are the unanticipated consequences of MHD’s motion.
Even if it survives First Amendment scrutiny, what is he going to do when City Hall button-pushers — whose primary get is getting under his skin — use homophonic words like one which means stingy or parsimonious in the proper context of an agenda item?
It could easily apply to any agenda item.
The gadfly contingent will be thrilled to bits to use it liberally and lawfully.
And what will MHD do when the gadflies see agenda items pertaining to things like vehicle parking and — in context — refer to sources that enable their button-pushing glee like “YouParkLikeACunt.com,” which has more than 32,000 followers on Twitter?
What then, indeed.
Good job, MHD.
Very. Good. Job.
(Daniel Guss, MBA, won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards in June ‘23. In June ‘24, he won its “Best Commentary, Non-Political” award. He has contributed to the Daily Mail, CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)