Sign the citation, or I take you to jail for failing
to sign the citation.
Oh no, no.
Then he comes to, he comes with me to jail.
The police came after my truck simply because
I was supporting the mayor's opponent.
William Fambrough is a longtime resident and
activist in East Cleveland.
When he was campaigning for the challengers to
his city's incumbent mayor, police use obscure
ordinances, they rarely are never enforce, to target,
tow, and severely damaged his truck, based solely
on his political activity.
Sign on the X for me, please.
I supported a candidate against the incumbent mayor.
Her name is Juanita Gowdy.
Because William already had a truck equipped with
speakers, Gowdy hired him to broadcast campaign
messages throughout East Cleveland's neighborhoods.
People really would come to the truck as though
children come around an ice cream truck to, uh,
give well wish, shake hands and, and, uh, support us.
Using trucks to advertise for political campaigns is
nothing new in East Cleveland.
In 2019, we drove the same truck for his campaign
for school board without incident a sound truck will
get the attention of people in the summertime in the
time when they're sitting out on their property
or on the porch or yard.
But when he used his truck to campaign against the
mayor in 2021, William started to receive unexpected
attention from police.
An officer issued William, a warning ticket under an
ordinance that city never enforces for simply parking
his truck outside his home, even though his neighbors
parked similarly sized vehicles at their homes.
I had just received a warning and I asked the
officer, how long did I have before I had to move it.
And he answered three days before the three days were
up William to re park.
However police arrived at his home with a tow truck.
By the time I got outside, the tow truck had lifted the
front end of my step van up off the ground, the tow truck
driver finally came over to the police car and said that
his tow truck was just not big enough to handle my step van
and upon him saying that the officer relented and, my truck
was put on the ground and I immediately drove it away.
I thought it best to just park my truck outside of the city
of East Cleveland and out in that area requires a drive of
at least 45 minutes one way.
It's quite a hassle.
On the morning of August 18th, 2021, he retrieved
his truck for late afternoon campaign event.
When I came outside, uh, to respond to officers
on my property moment, by moment more police cars
were beginning to arrive.
Eventually they were, had to be eight or nine police cars
that did arrive on the scene.
I am telling you this is coming from my boss.
Okay.
Who's about mayor.
Who's your boss.
The mayor is not my boss.
Who's your boss.
It is.
Who's your boss.
This is coming from, is coming from the brass on, on station.
They were intent on towing my truck.
And an hour's time passed before that third truck
arrived to pick up my truck and tow it away.
It's my truck.
I'll just move it right now.
Set it down, set it down.
It's it's getting towed.
It's unconstitutional for cities to retaliate against
their citizens for engaging in political speech, such
as campaigning for a local.
By selectively enforcing city ordinances against him and
towing his truck, the city not only punished William
for exercising his First Amendment rights, but also
prevented him from campaigning in the crucial weeks,
leading up to the election.
I went to city hall, East Cleveland, to find out
what I had to do to get possession of my truck again.
I paid the, the fine, it was 400 and some odd
dollars put the key in the ignition turned ignition.
My truck would not do anything.
It was just dead.
My truck needed to be repaired.
And that effectively knocked me out of being
able to campaign any, any longer for Juanita Gowdy.
The city's attorney later removed any doubt
that the citations and tow were retaliatory.
She told William's lawyer that although the city is
typically willing to resolve minor issues like William's
case, they might treat him differently because
he needs to stand down.
She made it clear to William's attorney, that
she was concerned about his involvement in the
election, and even said that they might be able to
reach a deal now that the mayor had won reelection,
she also warned that William would not be treated as
leniently in the future if he continued to cause
problems downtown and said that he needed to mine, his
own business, going forward.
Now represented by the Institute for Justice,
William sued the city of East Cleveland to hold
the city's officials accountable for violating
his constitutional rights.
The First Amendment protects everyone's right to criticize
government officials and advocate for political change.
This lawsuit will help ensure that East Cleveland
will not serve as a model for other governments
that want to punish their political enemies.
Selective law enforcement is extremely discriminatory.
And every citizen in the United States has the
right to freedom of speech.