Greensboro City Attorney buffaloes council, public

GREENSBORO, NC -- At last night's city council meeting, Mayor Robbie Perkins recognized city staff for a period of speeches not, for some reason, on the agenda. (The public is allowed to speak on agenda items, so maybe that inconvenience was to be avoided.)

The City Manager, Police Chief and City Attorney Mujeeb Shah-Kahn spoke, each taking on a slice of the controversy surrounding the recent Yes!Weekly police surveillance story and the failed attempt by the city to stop Yes! from publishing its story.

Shah-Kahn's presentation was less than genuine.

Deception #1

"The city did not wish to prevent a media outlet from publishing, rather the City sought delay so that it could determine what information had been disclosed and take steps to protect those citizen involved." -- Mujeeb Shah-Kahn, Greensboro City Attorney*

That the City only sought "delay" is false.

As the complaint filed by the City with the court clearly states, the City sought from the Court "an Order permanently restraining and enjoining Defendants from using, publishing, disseminating, or otherwise releasing said criminal intelligence information to the public."

"Permanently."

Shah-Khan told City Council and the public that the City only wanted to delay publication. That explanation does not align with the actions the City undertook,

Deception #2:

"Some have suggested that the City requested a restraining order to protect the police department from having its lawful criminal intelligence activities from being disclosed to the public. That is not the case. The city's goal was to protect the citizens named in those documents from harm." -- Mujeeb Shah-Kahn, Greensboro City Attorney*

The city's own court filings say that one of the reasons it sought a temporary restraining order was because the emails provided to Yes! contained "confidential" information including: "Methodologies of gathering information not generally known to the public" which, if released, the City contended, would "significantly impair or impede the ability of the Greensboro's law enforcement [sic] to anticipate, prevent, or monitor possible violations of law."

Shah-Kahn told City Council and the public that the City was not trying to keep secret police intelligence activities. That explaination does not align with the pleading the city made to the Court.

Deception #3:

"The city did not wish to prevent a media outlet from publishing, rather the City sought delay so that it could determine what information had been disclosed and take steps to protect those citizen involved." -- Mujeeb Shah-Kahn, Greensboro City Attorney

Yes, there are two deceptions here. The second is in Shah-Kahn claiming that the city needed a restraining order to determine what had been disclosed. Just a minute earlier, he said that the city needed to persue a restraining order precisely because it already knew what had been released.

"[M]y office sought a temporary restraining order from Judge Ronald Spivey to delay the publication of the story by Yes!Weekly which the the city understood would disclose the identity of confidential informants and disclose criminal investigative information obtained by the city."

"... [I]t was clear that sensitive information had been released inadvertently and there was the possibility that publication of this information could create the risk of serious injury or death." -- Mujeeb Shah-Kahn, Greensboro City Attorney

So, which is it? Did the City seek to restrain Yes!Weekly's publication because it knew what information had been released or because it needed to determine what information had been released?  Shah-Khan is at odds with himself and cannot be correct on both counts.


* All quotations from Mr. Shah-Khan herein are from the February 19, 2013 city council meeting (video here, comments start at 26:45)