Alaskan Human Rights Commissioners Resign over First and Second Amendment Scandal

Marti Buscaglia, the head of the Alaska State Commission for Human Rights, became embroiled in a scandal involving a contractor, Brad Linegar, because of a political sticker. She and two Commissioners have resigned as a result.
 
 Marti Buscaglia


 On 14 March, 2019, she left a note on the windshield of Brad Linegar's work truck, using her business card, calling a pro-Second Amendment sticker "offensive".  The note was buttressed by the business card of the Chief Probation Officer for Region III in Alaska, Kendall Rhyne.

Then Buscaglia indicated the contractor should not park his truck in the parking lot. It has been reported she sent an email to the owner of the building, who had contracted with Linegar's business, Sage Mechanical, and asked the owner to "do something" about the company. From facebook.com:

Sandie Roach The business card is one issue. The other is the email she sent to his client. As we haven't seen it, here is the jist...
The client had received an email from Marti Buscaglia, the Executive Director of the Commission. According to Linegar, the email implied Linegar was a racist and asked the client to “please do something” about Sage Mechanical. The email also accused Sage Mechanical of performing substandard work and exercising poor judgement.

Alaskans were upset. It was a step too far to claim a pro-Second Amendment sticker was offensive and racist. It was unacceptable that the head of the Human Rights Commission would use her power to push for an independent contractor to be fired over a bumper sticker. 

Governor Michael Dunleavy called for an investigation.  On the 5th of April, 2019, the Human Rights Commission voted to suspend Marti Buscaglia for 15 days without pay, and to require her to write a letter of apology. From tribtown.com:

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The executive director of the Alaska human rights commission has been suspended for 15 working days without pay for complaining on social media about a “Black Rifles Matter” sticker she believed to be racist on a vehicle in the commission’s Anchorage parking lot.

Commission members voted 5-2 Friday to suspend Marti Buscaglia, effective Monday. She must send an apology letter to the truck’s owner, Brent Linegar, after the commission chairman, Brandon Nakasato, approves the wording.

The slap on the wrist did not satisfy Alaskan citizens. Marti Buscaglia resigned as head of the Commission. Two other Commissioners followed with their resignations.  From ktuu.com:

Commission Chair Brandon Nakasato submitted his resignation Tuesday morning, effective May 1, to allow the commission to elect a new chairperson. Freddie R. Olin IV, the commission’s vice chair, submitted his resignation on Monday, also effective May 1.

Nakasato said in his resignation letter that he is hopeful that “new leadership at ASCHR will allow for us to more quickly recover from this recent controversy and restore public trust in our ability to achieve our organization’s mission.”

 Brad Linegar, the air conditioning and heating contractor that Buscaglia smeared and attempted to ruin, issued a statement.  Statement by Brad Linegar, as reported by mustreadalaska:

If A bumper sticker can incite a call to ban one from a parking lot, cost them their livelihood and ostracize them as an outcast. I can only imagine the anger that someone has to be carrying to follow such a path about a total stranger. This is who she is and a slap on the wrist is not going to change her ideology. When she was hired or appointed, she wasn’t even qualified for the job.

She has lied in the past to get hired and has been fired before. From an internal source, she has been weaponizing this department and she will continue to do so. This cannot be tolerated at this level and is a dangerous precedent to set if she is allowed to continue in this job. She has willingly wasted taxpayer money, willingly infringed on my 1st and 2nd amendment rights, she willingly tried to cost me and my employees their livelihood and ostracize me in a small community.

She then went on to speak to the press and continue to lie about her intentions. If she wanted to simply have a conversation with me, then a note to that effect could have been left on my windshield.

Instead, she saw fit to write a different type of note, put my truck on Facebook on the State page and email my client from her state provided email, all the while using the full weight of her title along with her cohort, the chief of parole officers to intimidate me and my client.

She also did this all on tax payer paid time, taxpayer-provided business cards and so on.

The Governor was elected to do many things, and one of those things was to get rid of this type of abuse of position and to stop this type of behavior.

The only way to stop people like this is to get them out of these positions where they can willingly damage others, while pushing their personal agendas and purposefully operate outside of their job scope and directive. This is dangerous and Alaska is watching. The world is watching as this situation has been seen all the way in India. Future voters are watching.

Buscaglia has said she has been considering retirement for some time. Will there be any criminal prosecution?  It is illegal to use a government office to deprive anyone of rights, privileges or immunities under color of law, or to conspire to do any of the above. Marti Buscaglia will be lucky to avoid prosecution or a lawsuit. Fortunately for her, no one in Alaska appears to have acted on her heavy handed request.

Second Amendment supporters are vigorous in guarding their rights. So called "Human Rights Commissions" have been notorious for trampling on First Amendment rights in Canada and other places. Marti Buscaglia has found Alaskans will not stand for it in Alaska.

©2019 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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