Mayor Williams and Councilmembers:
I was not present at the December 1st meeting when Amanda Wallace protested during the swearing in of new councilmember, Matt Kopac. I learned during the next regular meeting, on December 15th, that Ms Wallace had been “tresspassed,” or banned from City Hall for a period of two years. Out of curiosity, I later watched the December 1 meeting video.
I don’t know Ms Wallace, but I am very concerned with increasing restrictions on citizen comments in Durham public meetings.
At the beginning of the meeting there was a boisterous outpouring of love and support for departing councilmember, DeDreana Freeman. People were loudly chanting “DeDreana For the People” and bouquets of flowers were simultaneously being brought to Councilwoman Freeman at the dais. No one objected. A break was taken. New council members were then called to take their oaths. When Matt Kopac’s swearing in began, a couple of audience members started calling out criticism of Kopac’s campaign and the amount of money spent for his election. As far as I could perceive listening to the video, the comments critical of Kopac were not as loud, and did not last as long, as the earlier shouts of support for Freeman. Within a couple of minutes a security officer escorted Amanda Wallace out of the chamber.
No one in the chamber, including the manager and the mayor, objected to the louder and longer shouting in support of Freeman before the break. Therefore, it appears Ms Wallace’s speaking out during Kopac’s swearing in was deemed disruptive by the city manager and mayor because the content was critical of Kopac. Allowing speech praising a public official while punishing speech critical of a public official violates the First Amendment. Any restrictions on speech must be content neutral.
By remarkable coincidence, I received today an article from the UNC School of Government entitled, Free Speech and Disrupting Public Meetings: New Developments in State v. Barthel (N.C. Ct. App. Nov 05, 2025). https://canons.sog.unc.edu/2025/12/free-speech-and-disrupting-public-meetings-new-developments-in-state-v-barthel/
In Barthel during a public hearing a citizen was holding a sign with an obscene message calling a county commissioner the c-word. He refused to take the sign down and was forcibly removed. He was charged with disrupting a public meeting and resisting arrest. The Court of Appeals overturned his convictions. “[T]he court emphasized that the government “cannot require citizens to be polite when criticizing their representatives,” noting that “[t]he First Amendment draws no distinction between refined political discourse and coarse personal attacks on elected officials.”’
While it may have been constitutionally acceptable to prohibit all loud comments from the audience during proceedings, in this case speech from the audience supportive of a council member (Freeman) was allowed while speech from the audience critical of another member (Kopac) was restricted and punished. The restrictions were not content neutral and, therefore, violated the First Amendment.
The ban of Ms Wallace should be rescinded.
Sincerely,
Katie Ross
Save Durham 