Heck, Jens, it feels like a bad farce to me, too! Please write a letter to the Mayor and let him know how you feel about this situation:
Mayor Francis Toscana
102 Sherman Street
Deadwood, SD 57732
Phil, thanks…I did discuss this with the Chief of Police, I like and respect him, he’s personable, knows his stuff and is articulate as hell. We both know he works for brainless idiots…the offical policy of the department is to roust me, but not arrest me. It felt almost Japanese when we were aplogizing in advance to each other. His job is to enforce these idiotic ordinances, and mine is to break them, which is very sad.
The point is to challenge this incredibly idiotic demand for a permit and insurance, both of which are violations of the First Amendment. There have been many case precidents about this in the US, but never in South Dakota, which is infamous for the denial of Civil Rights to Native Americans. The American Civil Liberties Union will handle the case, if I get arrested. This is starting to feel like Deadwood may enter the 1960’s, albiet kicking and screaming.
I’m now doing a letters to the editor campaign, asking a few friends here and there around the world to write to the mayor so they may get the hint that the world is watching. I am also contacting the major TV networks news magazines and lining up my press ducks. Not that I have a taste for this kind of confrontation…ya unnerstand.
This town is a tourist destination, but there’s absolutely nothing here for kids to do while the parents gamble. (Well, there is one, but it’s horribly expensive, and the local kids can’t afford it, but Kevin Costner tips the staff in hundred dollars bills because “We locals leave them alone”). I will not pay the city to be one of the world’s niftiest babysitters. My chaining myself to the steps of City Hall will make it much easier for the moderate people, like the Musicans Guild to get in there and make some changes, or at least make some inroads into re-thinking the street musician’s policy, maybe even work something out so people can get a cheap license so the city can put street musicians on the city insurance policy. A couple of years ago, a local musician who was a favored son of a very wealty casino was roller skating up and down Main Street playing a banjo, and yep, without a permit! He got run out of town a few years ago when he fell out of favor.
Rapid City 50 miles down the hill, finally made a ruling that music is something of value, and allow people to busk on the street, but the buskers sill carry the ordinance with them in case they get rousted or hasled by the police. Here, if such a ruling would happen, we would be required not only to get insurance, but to pay for an annual license which costs $800.00. Not that street musicians last around here, there’s no money for them, just the slot machines.
Think of it this way, between Uncle Tom, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, who got the job done? The worst that can happen would be a two hundred fifty dollar fine, which they can collect in Megs! Making music in the park should be free. The City bad daddies and b**ch mothers declined to put up a skate board ramp, because they were afraid it might cause unsightly graffitti, so most of the nifty skate board kids used the the Main Street. Funny, twelve year olds love this notion of what they consider radical Yippie political action. Heck, I watched Cindy, my favorite cop, bust a five year old last summer, for riding his trike down Main Street early one Sunday morning. Tourists kids can go into a saloon and watch Wild Bill Hickok get assassinated four times a day, which is a real shock for them, because they insist the actors uses real guns with blank charges. I’ve seen the reactions of these kids, especially the little ones, and it’s hidious. I could post some pictures of this, just so you can see how horrible this so-called entertainment is for kids. Every summer the old west re-enactors jockeying for position, which is a nasty gossip campaign, and they all try to run each other out of town. Funny, the police are getting called constantly when a great Deadwood character strolls down the middle of the street with a bullwhip…good Old Calamity Jane…I took my hint from her, she shows up at the police station every year and thanks the Chief for letting her shoot the street up. She’s lasted three years, which is very good for these parts.
It was a real Irishman, Sean Cleary, from Dublin that got this ball rolling! He was so delighted to hear a whistle instead of gunshots on the streets of Deadwood, that I decided to become modern Deadwood’s answer to Calamity Jane, without a costume and without a gun. The woman who has such a big stake in keeping everybody off the street, except for her people, is now the Historic Preservation Commissoner, and a casino owner.
Anna Martinez, Clown Princess of Deadwood politics. (and not looking forwrd to a night in jail) Yippie!
