Mayor Denis Law of Renton, WA (Mr. Fiddlesticks’ boss) spells it right out in this interview from the Renton Patch:
Patch – What if the [Mr. Fiddlesticks] video’s [discussing police misconduct] creator is not a City Employee?
Mayor – The big issue with the public is the perception that if ‘Joe Q’ citizen takes a shot at the police, or takes a shot at public officials that we’re going to go after them on a First Amendment basis, that they don’t get to be critical of us. That’s so far from the truth, its almost silly. … We never would have gone after a private citizen, they have the right to say anything they want.
Honestly, I have no idea what causes police officers to snap.
Xavier Onassis
September 7th, 2011 at 13:39
[...] who would make it public. If he hadn’t, this would have gone a very different way. I believe the permanent gag order public safety people live under is a little-understood social problem with wide-ranging ill [...]