BLM activists convicted, face fines
Judge cites “abusive, obscene language” at community event
A judge convicted two Black Lives Matter activists of disorderly conduct, a violation, for their role in a profanitylaced confrontation with police last summer at a city community-building event, which one of the pair streamed live on Facebook.
Before rendering his decision Tuesday, City Court Judge Carl Falotico urged activists Mikayla Foster, 22, and Shaqueena Charles, 29, to reconsider “the effectiveness of their tactics” toward bringing about change before sentencing them to time served — although they never spent time behind bars — and ordering them to pay court surcharges.
The activists had turned themselves in to authorities in September after a warrant was issued for their arrest. They faced 15 days in jail.
“Their offense, at the most basic level, constituted going to a community event to vigorously make their beliefs known,” said Falotico. “They did it in a way that was abusive and obscene, but they did not threaten violence, make physical contact with anyone or endanger anyone’s welfare.”
At the same time, Falotico used the opportunity to praise the police for showing “significant discretion” giving the defendants “many more warnings than they were required to before charging them.”
He detailed the sequence of events that he said began Aug. 26 sometime between 5:30 and 6 p.m. when the defendants were among four occupants in a passing car that “shouted at the police chief and displayed their middle fingers” before eventually parking and attending the event that had attracted between 20 to 30 people, many of them young chil
dren, to the parking lot of the Trustco Bank at State Street and Brandywine Avenue.
The diatribe, said the judge, included shouting racial slurs like “white trash” and “honky” directed at GOP congressional candidate Liz Joy, Mayor Gary Mccarthy, Police Chief Eric Clifford and a television camera person as well as the use of profanities, which was captured by the body-worn camera of one of the police officers.
“For the first 13 minutes of their recording, defendant Foster used over a dozen profanities while traversing the parking lot,” Falotico added.
Charles cursed out Clifford, confronted him and Mccarthy, and defended Foster’s right to use profanity, at one point proclaiming “you cannot police somebody’s speech,” Falotico said.
“They also loudly shouted to all the attendees about issues such as police chokeholds and how the officers don’t live in or know the community,” Falotico said.
The judge also cited the law and case law before focusing on the laws applicable to the case before him.
“While I have no doubt that the defendants honestly thought that their actions in disrupting the event were serving a legitimate public purpose, it is clear that they intentionally meant to cause public inconvenience, annoyance, and alarm,” Falotico said while reading his decision. “While they continue to raise legitimate issues regarding race and our society, the periods of protected constitutional speech were interrupted by at least five instances of impermissible abusive, obscene language.”
Among them were when they first shouted at Joy and when they shouted twice at the camera person.
Outside court Tuesday both activists said they weren’t surprised by the ruling and defended their conduct, with Foster insisting they didn’t know if they would act differently if they had it to do over again.
“There’s nothing shocking, astounding, new, innovative or creative about anything that happened here today,” they said, adding that the Black Abolitionist Directive, a Schenectady-based coalition of which Foster and Charles are members, “will continue to interrupt white supremacy,” adding, “you can’t dismantle things without making people uncomfortable.”
Charles said “part of the freedom of speech is that I’m going to curse.”
They downplayed the cursing and accused Joy of threatening protesters.
Afterward, the activists’ attorney, Adriel Colon-casiano, said “it’s important to preserve the right to free speech” and that activists and constituents should be able to approach politicians and those running for elected office with criticism.
“When there is a precedent like this, the concern is not necessarily the instance here, but what that means for every person of color and every person ... to be able to move on with their lives to express displeasure with government without fear of going to prison,” Colon-casiano added.
Clifford released a statement Tuesday that said, in part, that Falotico’s ruling “sends the message that we all need to treat each other with dignity and respect.”
Falotico presided over a oneday trial last week before rendering his decision Tuesday.
The defendants did not take the witness stand at trial.
Michael Dematteo handled the case for the Schenectady County district attorney’s office. On Tuesday, he declined to comment.
The verdict comes weeks after Saratoga County District Attorney Karen Heggen dropped a disorderly conduct charge against a Saratoga Springs Black Lives Matter leader, Lexis Figuereo, in an unrelated case. Charges against other activists in Saratoga County Court have been dismissed recently too.
Foster, Charles and other activists have argued that law enforcement, particularly in Schenectady, Saratoga Springs and Albany, has targeted those tied to Black Lives Matter and other social justice groups as well community members who join protests.