Left In Lowell

Good Thing I Already Boycott Hannaford’s

9 Responses to “Good Thing I Already Boycott Hannaford’s”

1. Greg Says:
   April 11th, 2006 at 7:59 pm

   Just a clarification of “the right to collect signatures for official state petitions, even on private property like strip malls”. Under the case you cite, the SJC clearly states that its ruling does not extend to solicitations in stores. The Court states: “We are not discussing signature solicitations in stores but only unobtrusive and reasonable solicitations in the common areas of the mall, areas that have been dedicated to the public as a practical matter.” Batchelder v. Allied Stores International, Inc., 388 Mass. 83, 92 (1983). Thus, a generalization to actual solicitations within a store is off-base.

   Certainly, solicitations outside of the store in “common areas” is acceptable, I would put the cautionary word out that going into stores might lead to a trespassing charge if one pushes the limit. Perhaps the best way to collect signatures is to simply do it amicably with a store, if one wishes to go onto private property, away from “common areas” of a mall or municipality. This is not to say that I don’t think soliciting signatures is anything less than an exemplary endeavor, I am only saying doing it consensually may be the best way to go.

2. Mister Goat Says:
   April 11th, 2006 at 8:10 pm

   Glad you weren’t intimidated. Managers love to threaten to call the police for various kinds of political speech, and half the time, even if they WOULD have legal grounds to throw you out, they don’t make the call. Always best not to be belligerent, but to let them call the cops and sort it out with them. No need to give up your rights without a legally binding order.

3. Lynne Says:
   April 11th, 2006 at 8:16 pm

   Yes, it must be outside the store in the common areas, and in an “unobstructive and reasonable manner.” Of course, anyone can change the definition of obstructionist or reasonable, I suppose…

   We knew that, and were acting accordingly. We stood apart from the doors to not be in the way of shoppers, and I felt we were polite to the customers (I mean, it would be pretty stupid to be rude when we want people to vote for our candidate in Sept!) In fact, there were quite a few people who were happy to stop by and asked how they could get more info, and there were some witnesses to the manager’s intimidation who were angry at his inability to even listen or read the paperwork we brought with us in the case that this sort of thing occured. As someone who collected sigs for some ballot inits last year, I was already privy to that sort of treatment by store managers in other locations.

4. Ryan Adams Says:
   April 11th, 2006 at 8:32 pm

   May I suggest getting ballot drive papers to legalize selling liquor in groceries, then hiding the Deval Patrick form underneath? Oh, people already did that? lol sorry, I had to throw that one out there (for a joke).

   In any event, I can relate to this entire story. I was exit polling out of New Bedford for as a project for my elections seminar… which was perfectly legal… and all of a sudden a *cop* starts harassing me and the person doing it with me, even though we were across the street and hadn’t truly bothered anyone - being entirely polite and staying within the parameters of the law. My professor, who happenened to know a thing or two about con law (that’s his specialty, after all) insured us that we were doing everything fine… but suggested we leave anyway. Standing up to a grocery manager is one thing… a new bedford cop? Completely different story.

5. Lynne Says:
   April 11th, 2006 at 9:33 pm

   Well, we got the jump…calling the police ourselves. Therefore, we had the upper hand, though I guarentee that this pissed the two officers off no end. They weren’t exactly nice to us and a tiny bit deferential to the story the managers told. (Even if it was a damned lie.)

   Like we’d be stupid enough not to mention to Mr. Bellicose the first time that we had official petitions, see look, and the SC ruling to protect it. He insisted it didn’t matter and he didn’t want to hear it, there was a corporate-wide policy in place, etc.

6. Susan M. (aka Mariposa) Says:
   April 12th, 2006 at 7:04 am

   Ugh - Lynne I mananged to catch a major case of the oogies. My voice is completely gone now. Some say that’s a good thing…

   Just wanted to clarify one thing: Before Barney Fife Aggressive Asst. Manager Man tried to toss us, I was approached by a Hanneford employee who asked to see my nomimation papers to confirm that they were legal. I showed him the papers and he confirmed that we were there legally and he left. About 5 minutes later Aggressive Asst. Mananger Man showed up and got all pissy with me. If he wasn’t such a bastard, maybe we might have moved to a different part of the strip mall, but he was a jerk, so it was “on” as the kids say.

   Aggressive Asst. Manager Man told us that he was calling the police. No problem. We waited. No police showed up, so we called Chelmsford PD on the non-emergency line, just to verify that we were not in violation of any city ordinances. They decided to send a cruiser out. It’s not like we were calling in for back-up.

   I’ll also just echo what Lynne said about Hannefords quick turnaround once the police showed up. Suddenly it was all a big misunderstanding. Yeah, no kidding.

   Ryan - yer funny. Seriously though, the nut-bags who collected siggys against SSM have made our jobs as volunteers much harder. Many people are suspicious of anyone trying to gather signatures for anything. Always a good thing to read what you’re signing though.

7. Mimi Says:
   April 12th, 2006 at 8:24 am

   Lynne and Susan:

   Next time you two go on another adventure, let me know so that I can have the bail money ready.

   On a serious note, Susan you are right, people have become suspicious of those who are collecting signatures; once it was the domain of volunteers, amateurs in politics who believed in the cause they were supporting, now it seems to be dominated by professionals who know little about the issue and have no a passion for the issue.

8. paul@01852 Says:
   April 12th, 2006 at 9:10 am

   Count me in this afternoon Lynne! (And Mimi, bring enough cash to bail THREE of us out!)

9. Paul@01852 Says:
   April 12th, 2006 at 6:01 pm

   Just an update — Lynne and I spent a very productive hour this afternoon outside the same Hanniford’s and not a soul even questioned us. I suspect that the very same manager/assistant manager was on duty!

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