What is a Kansas resident supposed to make of this?
The immigration reform group Sunflower Community Action staged a protest this weekend at the home of Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach. The protesters chose the location after Secretary Kobach refused to meet with them earlier this year at the state capitol.
Although Secretary Kobach was not home, the protesters posted video of the event (posted below) and were greeted today with a response from Mr. Kobach himself:
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach said today he is considering filing criminal charges against immigration reform advocates who protested on his home's porch over the weekend. Those who helped organize and participated in the protest said nothing improper happened.
Although a former constitutional law scholar, the Secretary was unable to list specific laws that had been violated. He instead chose to lob vague threats, including the dreaded T word:
"We are looking into what charges will be filed," he said. "There are a variety of charges, a number of statutes that apply," he said, mentioning criminal threat, criminal terrorism, and littering.
Terrorism! For staging a peaceful protest at the Secretary's law office! Surely this is legal, no? According to protest organizers, Secretary Kobach lists his home address as the business address for his law firm. Mr. Kobach has stated repeatedly that he uses personal time, outside of state business, to lobby nationally for immigration "reform" such as the
just-overturned-by-the-Supreme-Court voter ID law in Arizona.
As the Secretary notes in an interview with Fox News, "They have a right to protect at my office or at public places – that’s fine.". Which is what they did. Right?
In any event, none of this is surprising. What is surprising is an elected public official threatening peaceful protesters with gun violence.
The secretary of state is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment – and he said the incident at his home is an example of why Americans should bear arms.
“If we had been in the home and not been armed, I would have felt very afraid – because it took the police 15 minutes to show up,” he said. “It’s important we recognize there’s a reason we have the Second Amendment. There are situations like this where you have a mob and you do need to be able to protect yourself.”
Mr. Kobach later
confirmed to the Lawrence Journal World that he did not intend to imply he would have used a gun against the protesters.
So as I asked at the beginning, What is a Kansas resident supposed to make of this?