By Saeed Shabazz ~

 

  Eric Williams, a Dallas-based filmmaker and anti-bullying activist claims that while he was going about the business of counseling youth in Arlington, Texas, the site for the NFL’s ‘Super Bowl XLV’ he was  “bullied by the NFL”.

  “I had permission from the Best Buy Company to use their parking lot to set up my bus near Cowboys Stadium, but that meant nothing to the police and NFL private security people who told me to move my bus,” Williams argues. He said they asked if he had a permit to be there, he did not; but had received permission from Best Buy, since it was their private parking lot.

  “When I refused to leave, I was handed a $500 ticket for operating within a ‘clean zone’. And the NFL’s private security and later Arlington police officers surrounded him and his bus – hands on their guns, he said.

  Observers say ‘Clean Zones’ have been used recently by municipalities hosting super bowls and other major sporting events, including the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, NCAA tournament games and the College World Series. Local authorities establish the zones through an ordinance such as ‘Prop 188’, used in Indianapolis for Super Bowl XVLI. According to some analysts, clean zone violators can be fined as well as have their goods seized.

  Advocates of clean zones say the benefits are substantial to those attending games and to local communities, because vendors who don’t have NFL permission to hawk their wares might try to confuse game attendees into believing they have a working relationship with the league. Williams says all of that is poppy-cock. “They charged me with “ambush marketing”; and I found out through the ‘Freedom of Information Act’ that all of the people ticketed were Black or Hispanic,” Williams revealed with a note of anger in his voice.

  The Wall St. Journal in a Jan. 2010 article said originally ambush marketing described a brand’s attempt to associate itself to a team or event without buying the rights to do so, in order to detract from a rival that paid to be an official sponsor.

  “That’s my argument, ambush marketing was set up to protect big corporations from each other; not against a guy like me who wasn’t selling anything,” Williams said.

  “When they handed me that ticket, I felt right then that as a Black man I had been violated”, Williams remembers. He said that only individuals were ticketed, not corporations; including Best Buy, whose lot his bus was parked on.

  A sports law professor at the Vermont Law School writing for SI.com notes that Williams’ case may well challenge the constitutionality of the clean zone ordinance and the “so-called ‘pervasive entwinement’ of its implementation.” The case has moved beyond the motion to dismiss, which means in May, the anti-bully activist and the big-bad NFL would end up in a U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Texas.

  Among nine causes of action, Williams alleges violations of First Amendment rights; violations of ‘Due Process’ rights; violations of the ‘Equal Protection’ clause of the 14thAmendment to the U.S. Constitution; violations of the ‘Contracts of the U.S. Constitution – common law and stigma-plus defamation claims, tortuous interference with contract/business relations; intentional intimidation of emotional distress and negligence.

  Williams is seeking compensatory, statutory, exemplary, and punitive damages.

  The NFL is commenting, at least not to this reporter. But, in the SI.com article it is said the league “maintains” that it is immune from liability because of the Noerr-Pennington doctrine, that protects the right of persons(including businesses such as the NFL) to lobby for passage of laws. And so it seems that the NFL believes that even if the Arlington, Texas ‘clean zone’ ordinance is found unconstitutional, it has the right to escape responsibility.

  Williams says he doesn’t buy into the theory that the NFL is God. “The NFL really believes that they have become some kind of quasi-God that steps on the rights of average people,” he said.

 

 

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Comments

  • Caricom

    I forgot to mention:  I wish Williams every success with his lawsuit against those devils.  Further, those non-white persons who were also discriminated against should follow suit.

  • Caricom

    Williams said:  "I had permission from the Best Buy Company to use their parking lot to set up my bus near Cowboys Stadium, but that meant nothing to the police and NFL private security people who told me to move my bus,” Williams argues.

    My comment:

    Verbal consent/permission today does not carry any weight and produces no tangible substance.  Even if Williams had a written agreement, on hand, to show proof of Best Buy's permission I don't think that it would have mattered to the unjust authorities one iota.  Black people must be ever mindful that the white monsters are doing everything they can think of to remove us from the earth.  So, they deliberately fabricate stories and lies against us to justify their reason for harming, maiming, incarcerating and killing us.  They execute these cowardly, racists acts under a uniform and the gun.

    ilofwdt.dwnis.tblsrvsd!

     

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