Resident alleges politically motivated ticketing at protest and reports unaddressed threat to rally-goers

During the public-comment period, Carolyn Gatto described an incident in which a fellow rally volunteer was issued a parking ticket while briefly stopped to unload American flags. Gatto said the driver was at the curb for less than three minutes and had not abandoned the vehicle; she said she believed the officer could have issued a warning instead of a ticket and called that conduct politically motivated against peaceful protesters exercising First Amendment rights.

Gatto told the council she had called Captain Jason Ivins and left a voicemail six days earlier seeking assistance and had not received a response; she also placed on the public record a separate reported incident at a prior rally in which an attendee told Captain Ivins that a driver on a nearby corner had yelled, “if I had a gun, I would shoot all of you.” Gatto urged consistent police protection at rallies and said her group intends to continue protesting. Council did not provide a substantive response to the specific parking-ticket allegation during the meeting and Captain Ivins did not offer a reply on the record during the public-comment sequence.

The record preserves the resident’s request for better protection and a reply from law enforcement; the claim that the ticketing was politically motivated was presented as the speaker’s conclusion and was not verified or rebutted in the meeting.