Commander Mike Hamel's Response to Banner Event

I spoke with Irvine Commander Mike Hamel this morning regarding the confrontation we had with the police officers who told us we had to remove our banner shortly after displaying it a few weeks ago.

Mike seemed genuinely concerned that our free speech rights were trespassed upon and he assured me he would speak to the officers involved and re-educate his force on the regulations relevant to free speech rights. He said it would not happen again, but if it did, I would need to request to speak with the Supervisor who would sort it out for us.

Surprisingly, I was not questioned about the nature of the banner nor the ZMOC group.

He confirmed that as long as the banner was not affixed to any fence or edifice, we are well within our rights. He did say there was a caveat relating to a traffic safety issue, but that it would be very unlikely that this restriction would apply to our circumstance.