To the editor:

To the Saranac Lake Village Board of Trustees:

Last night (Thursday, Aug. 27), Mayor Clyde Rabideau hid three comments from a Facebook post on his “Mayor Clyde Rabideau” Facebook page. Several people sent me messages containing screenshots of the original posts, noting they had been hidden. When I looked at the mayor’s page, I saw that those people were correct — three comments in the thread had indeed been hidden — so I left a comment on the same thread with a link to an American Civil Liberties Union article, reminding the mayor that “when a public official blocks critics from the page because of their viewpoints, she violates the Constitution. Indeed, the right to criticize the government is at the heart of the First Amendment. The court specifically recognized blocking as infringing on that right, noting that blocking someone in order to silence criticism of government work is itself evidence of government action.”

This morning, at about 5:45 a.m., the mayor responded to my comment, appearing to claim that his Mayor Clyde Rabideau page does count as being the page of an elected official, even though the mayor’s posts on this page are often about Clyde Rabideau acting in the capacity of mayor. Within minutes of posting his rebuttal, the mayor deleted all comments under the post, including his own, then turned off the comments for his Mayor Clyde Rabideau Facebook page, then deleted the post in question. Although, it is possible the mayor is only blocking me from seeing the post. Either way, this behavior is at best highly unethical, and at worst it violates federal regulations and the U.S. Constitution.

This is certainly not the first time the mayor has acted in this way — many of my peers have diligently documented this behavior. Dozens of times now, we have watched Mayor Clyde Rabideau call people names, disparage them for disagreeing with him, accuse them of not being real people. We have watched breathlessly as the mayor has taken his page down, changed the name to “Citizen Clyde Rabideau,” put the page back up, taken it back down, deleted comments, hidden comments … it goes on and on and on. 

I am writing to ask this board: Do you condone and stand by this kind of behavior from our mayor? Do you condone this censoring of public discourse, this shaming of your constituents, this bullying behavior that seeks to discourage people from being involved and engaged in participating in a public forum? Will you stand up and speak for your constituents, whose voices the mayor seeks to silence, by condemning the mayor’s behavior, or will you condone this behavior by remaining silent?

Here is the link to the ACLU article for reference: https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/internet-speech/court-rules-public-officials-cant-block-critics-facebook

Please stand with those who elected you by doing the right thing and condemning the mayor’s unethical behavior. Thank you.

Shaun Kittle

Saranac Lake