Susan Criss Protest Story: A Life Of Its Own

It seems as though the story we brought you earlier this week about the protesters at the Susan Criss fundraiser has taken on a life of its own.

First of all, there now appears to be some conflict between whether or not the protesters were hired or were actually there to protest something. While the protest claims to have had an “organizer,” per the Galveston County Daily News, we stand by our earlier accounts from eye witnesses who spoke with protesters that say they were paid by a temp agency.

First, we want to draw your attention to a story at the Galveston County Daily News, which points to Capitol Annex:

As dozens of supporters filled The Galveston Yacht Club Thursday evening for the kickoff of Judge Susan Criss’ Texas Supreme Court bid, about 10 people across the street showed their opposition.

The group waved placards opposing Criss, who has served as judge of Galveston’s 212th State District Court for nearly nine years.

Isle resident Tom Nazifi, who identified himself as the organizer of the protest, said he opposed the judge’s “creative justice.”

Nazifi declined to provide specific examples and said he had not dealt directly with Criss.

“But I have heard things, and the more I researched, I realized that she does not do things I agree with,” he said.

However, the political blog www.capitolannex.com asserted that the group contained “hired” protestors.

“An event attendee approached the protesters to ask who they were, when they admitted they were hired by a temporary agency to stand there and, in fact, had no idea who Judge Criss is,” blogger and site author Vince Liebowitz wrote.

A woman at the protest told The Daily News she objected to Criss’ handling of several high-profile cases, citing that of Phillip Head, in particular. The woman, who refused to give her name, accused the judge of refusing to address “perjury by the district attorney’s office” that led to Head’s conviction.

In June, a jury sentenced self-described “certified wealth transfer practitioner” Head to 57 years in prison for bilking millions of dollars from an elderly woman.

County Criminal District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk said the perjury allegation was “nonsense.”

“Mr. Head had his day in court, he had a competent attorney who provided a vigorous defense, and a jury of his peers convicted him,” Sistrunk said.

(You probably already noticed that the Galveston County Daily News misspelled the name of Capitol Annex’s Editor and Publisher). Let’s address the person who said he organized the protest: Tom Nazifi. The only mention on the Web we could find on Mr. Nafizi was the mention of his name in an old Worthley’s store ad in a Galveston-area alternative newspaper. While this certainly wouldn’t mean that this person couldn’t organize a protest, an absence of both visible political connections and an inability to articulate “specific examples” of problems with Criss to, in fact, organize a protest against her are quite troubling. The other person who refused to give her name but touted a high-profile case that had been covered extensively in the press also doesn’t add much authenticity to the protest. Normally, protesters don’t have a problem telling you who they are and exactly why they are protesting.

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The nameless woman also accused the judge of issuing excessive bonds against a misdemeanor defendant. However, the only criminal cases in state district courts are felonies.

Typically, protesters are more informed of what they are protesting about.

Check also the photos of the protest here. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a protest where people hide behind their signs from a camera. Or, for that matter, where one woman poses quite like one of the woman shown in the photos. Why? Because that type of thing gives a bad name to legitimate protests. Also, notice that a number of the protesters are just standing there, smoking cigarettes and generally disinterested (one is even talking on the phone). Again, when you are organizing a protest to make an impact, you usually don’t have protesters smoking on the picket line because it makes the group look disorganized and non-committed. In addition, when you are protesting, you usually dress just a tad bit better. There’s nothing wrong with the way these folks are dressed for going to Wal-Mart, but you usually don’t wear flowered swim trunks, hoochie-style halter tops, or cutoffs when you are representing a cause and are likely to be covered by the media.

Second, we want to draw your attention to a comment that was made here on Capitol Annex:

Simply put Mr. Leibowitz, THESE PEOPLE WERE NOT HIRED PROTESTERS AND HAD VERY GOOD CAUSE TO BE PROTESTING SUSAN CRISS’ ELECTION KICKOFF; and any statement made otherwise simply is not true.

SO, let me address the issues… for those who care to read more than one warped side of the story.

1. I was picketing. I was not hired by a temporary agency. I was not paid. In fact, no one that was there was hired by a temporary agency. Please produce the persons name that made this statement. And if you can’t or won’t than don’t dare make statements to the effect that we are hiding our faces if you produce false information to a newspaper reporter.
2. Perhaps we do look like “ROAD RULES REJECTS” and I guess the comment could have been worse. But more importantly, why make the comment at all? Consider this: 5 of the people are Democrats, 3 are Republican and 2 are Liberals.

We have this to say in response: produce your name, and tell us which person you were in the photo, and we still won’t tell you how we found out. Confidential sources remain confidential. But, we do have calls in to a number of temp agencies in the greater Galveston area, so we’ll find out sooner or later who hired them. Second, we didn’t tell any newspaper reporters about our post. If they had, perhaps they’d have spelled my last name correctly. Third, “Liberals” are not a political party.

Now, let’s address more of what you had to say:

1. Susan Criss’ campaign consultant from Boston assaulted one of the protesters. The rental car agency gave us all of his information including where he lives in EAST BOSTON and his phone number. We also have not only 11 witness, but 1 who works for the city and informed Susan Criss and Kurt Sistruck, while pointing the man out to both of them, that he assaulted one of the protesters without provocation or retaliation. During the assault, the man made the following statement: “You do not know who I am and what I am capable of doing to you.” Well, in fact, we were quite impressed by this man’s resume online and we take notice of who you are. But what I can’t possibly understand is why you would harm a person exercising their right to free speech?!?! (BTW… your car was due back to Hertz at 11 am yesterday morning and they would like for you to call and extend your contract if you are going to keep it a bit longer).

Judge Criss is using a Texas consulting firm, so where you got this information from is unknown. Second, if anyone actually “assaulted” a protester, I’m sure it would have been reported. So, perhaps you aren’t telling the truth on that one. In addition, if you were “assaulted,” you should probably report any injuries to the temp service that employed you, as it could be covered under workman’s comp.

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