Mooning the County Commissioners was the direct result of suppression of free speech (Opinion)

Things before the COVID pandemic were such simpler times. I was about to embark upon my real estate investment journey, buying up short-term rentals and setting out with a plan to improve Washington County’s tourism. But then the pandemic happened, and governments across the country shut down all commerce. What was originally touted as “15 days to slow the spread” turned into months, and I knew it would take years for the tourism industry to recover.

Facing this new challenge in building my business, I turned to the digital realm, building the news and entertainment platform Radio Free Hub City which you are reading today. We struggled a lot with social media platforms suppressing our stories in those early years, especially any related to the pandemic. Only years later do we find out that this suppression of speech was not simply a private company doing this on their own, but in fact at the direction of the Federal government. We were in fact the lucky ones, as we did manage to keep our social media accounts, unlike many who found themselves “de-platformed”, including President Trump. Now in 2025, we once again see government attempting to suppress free speech through essentially “de-platforming” of citizen comment at county meetings.

Under the new citizen participation format which has been provided to us under a Maryland Public Information Act request, regular meetings now begin at 8:00 a.m. with an invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by an unbroadcasted public participation session lasting until 8:30 a.m. Citizens wishing to speak must sign up before the start of the meeting, and each speaker is allotted three minutes. The Board President strictly enforces the three-minute speaking limit, with no option to pool or donate time. After the public comment period ends, the board takes a brief recess before proceeding with the live-streamed business session, which includes commissioner comments and agenda items.

These changes of course, are due to recent public incidents from Shaun Porter, a local activist and YouTuber (until he was banned from that platform). During these incidents, Porter has continued to commence personal attacks against the County Commissioners. In response, Washington County has continued to tighten the restrictions on citizen participation, which culminated in the local NAACP being unable to comment during Black History Month, on the date of the Diversity and Inclusion report and Black History Month proclamation.

In their efforts to try and stop these personal attacks from Porter, the county has angered a lot of local residents with their new policy to not broadcast citizens participation. This escalation of restrictions has resulted in Porter escalating his own behavior, including yesterday’s incidents of Porter presenting his buttox, aka mooning, during the meeting. Many people have questioned the legality of Porter displaying his behind at a public meeting, but case law supports the legality of such an act.

In 2005, a Germantown, MD man mooned his neighbor during an argument, and was subsequently charged for indecent exposure. He faced a fine of up to $1,000 and three years in prison. However, in 2006 a Maryland judge ruled on appeal that only exposing the buttox does not count as indecent exposure, citing a 1983 case in which a woman was protesting in front of the Supreme Court wearing nothing but a cardboard sign which covered the front of her body. At that time, the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled that indecent exposure only includes the genitals.

Given Porter’s history to continuously escalate if someone retaliates against his free speech, it’s safe to assume that the escalation to mooning the County Commissioners was inevitable once they started increasing restrictions on citizen participation. And while I certainly don’t condone such behavior and have zero desire to see such behavior, I understand his frustrations. Citizen comment at meetings has long been considered a public forum of free expression, and the County Commissioners have intentionally reduced the reach of that public forum to only those present in the room. I am not an attorney, so I can’t speak to the legality of this move, however I suspect that this is perfectly legal under Maryland law, which to my knowledge does not require that any of the meeting be live streamed, and only that the meetings be open and accessible to the public. Much like the de-platforming of many people during the COVID pandemic, even if the letter of the law allows the action, it most certainly goes against the spirit and intentions of the law.

But, you know, what could possibly go wrong when de-platforming someone who believes strongly in free speech? I mean, it worked with Donald Trump, right?

The de-platforming of Trump, as well as the suppression of speech of many others (including seriously limiting the reach of sharing my own COVID vaccine injury story), resulted in not only the birth of a new social media platform called “Truth Social”, a mass exodus from YouTube to Rumble, and Elon Musk purchasing Twitter (now X), but culminated in November 2024 with the election of Donald Trump as the 47th President of the United States.

To paraphrase the TV show “Billions”, anger is an unlimited fuel source to drive people to act. President Trump was not elected out of love for him, but out of anger towards those who de-platformed him and suppressed the speech of many others. Regardless of your thoughts on Trump as President, this absolutely must be acknowledged and accounted for with future elections and political campaigns. What we’re seeing at the County Commissioner meetings is similarly driven.

I don’t have a solution for how to stop the personal attacks against the County Commissioners, and apparently neither do they. But I do know one thing for sure – increased escalation of restrictions on free speech will only result in like escalation from Porter, and possibly others.

In hindsight (pun only slightly intended), perhaps giving Porter his 3 minutes was probably preferable to what the County Commissioners now face.

Associated documents for this story are available in our Public Information Archive.

Opinion article by Ken Buckler, President of RFHC, all opinions are his own and do not reflect those of our clients or sponsors.

---