Biker noise at protest not free speech

Walla Walla Police Chief Scott Bieber said this morning the department’s action during a raucous political protest Feb. 24 could have been handled differently but he’d “rather err on the side of allowing expression rather than suppressing it.”

The “Where’s Cathy” event, organized by the local chapter of a national grass roots political activism group, Indivisible, was intended to be a peaceful protest against McMorris Rodgers for not meeting constituents in person while in the area during a weeklong congressional recess.

During the event, a number of counterdemonstrators — many of them members of two motorcycle clubs — showed up. The bikers frequently revved their engines to drown out speakers for about half an hour.


The police department had officers in plain clothes at the protest outside the Walla Walla County Courthouse but did nothing to stop the noise.

In another incident, a counterdemonstrator destroyed a protest sign and tore up a copy of organizer Sarah Koenigsberg’s speech.

After receiving numerous complaints and concerns from people at the rally and ensuing march to Heritage Park, the City Council asked Bieber for a report, to be discussed when Council meets next week.

Bieber said this morning he planned to meet with city officials this afternoon to lay out his preliminary thoughts, based on a report of the situation by City Attorney Tim Donaldson.

As Bieber and Donaldson have dissected what happened during the rally, it has become clearer the bikers’ intentional interference at the rally is not protected as free speech, they said.