Some residents at the senior community of Rossmoor in Contra Costa County, California, have complained of an authoritarian crackdown on free speech following a fistfight between two women on the pickleball court over the first assassination attempt of former President Donald Trump.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that the episode at the upscale 55-and-over community serves as a cautionary tale of what's in store for America if people with opposing viewpoints don't start learning how to carry on a political conversation with a modicum of civility.
Tensions have reportedly escalated to the point where Rossmoor officials have placed restrictions on political commentary in the Rossmoor News as well as on public demonstrations on the development's grounds.
"Banning the political columns are not going to bring peace to Rossmoor. They're not," Katha Hartley told the Chronicle. Hartley is the director of the speakers program for Rossmoor's largest club, the 1,240-member Democrats of Rossmoor.
"They are, in fact, exacerbating the problem," she said. "We're being treated like kids in a high school cafeteria where two people had a food fight, and now everyone's on suspension."
Full of academics, professors, and others who reached the pinnacle of their professions before retiring, the 10,000-resident community has changed significantly since opening 62 years ago. Today's Rossmoor is more racially, ethnically, and politically diverse than the predominately white, Republican, demographic that called it home in 1962.
"These are people who've marched, who've been through civil rights, MLK, assassinations, Vietnam," Hartley told the Chronicle. "These are experienced people who, when you say, 'No, you can't talk, you can't come, you can't express opinions,' are saying, 'Oh, yes, we can. We've been doing it all our lives.'"
Rossmoor officials say they are trying to balance free speech rights with the fact that the community is private property and its governing body, the Golden Rain Foundation, controls its news outlets, which includes the Rossmoor News and the public access Rossmoor TV.
According to several residents, the July 13 pickleball brawl was preceded by the first attempt on Trump's life and emotions were running high. One Trump-supporting pickler blamed Democrats' rhetoric for the assassination attempt while an anti-Trump player made a derisive comment about the incident which left the former president bleeding from his right ear.
The two women began pushing and shoving each other before punches were thrown and their quarrel — as well as clumps of their pulled hair — descended onto the hardwood floor of the Tice Creek Fitness Center, the Rossmoor residents told the Chronicle on condition of anonymity.
Rossmoor's internal security called the Walnut Creek Police, who took a report, but getting a clear picture of what happened has proven difficult due to conflicting eyewitness accounts, according to Ann Peterson, director of communications for the Golden Rain Foundation.
Both Peterson and Tom Cashion, director of public safety at Rossmoor, said the county district attorney does not plan to file any charges, but Walnut Creek Police officials told the Rossmoor News that one person was cited in a "pushing-and-shoving match" and released.
Shortly after the fight, Leanne Hamaji, president of the Golden Rain Foundation board, "decided to place a moratorium on the political columns in response to incidents of political discord in Rossmoor and a political climate that has fostered incivility," the Rossmoor News reported.
The newspaper now allows right, left, environmental, and open-ended commentary to take turns weekly, replacing the previous dueling right/left political commentary format.
The death of George Floyd in police custody in 2020 prompted many communities across the nation to host demonstrations in support of Black Lives Matter, with Rossmoor being no exception.
After Rossmoor officials attributed five motor vehicle accidents to an ongoing one-woman demonstration, however, the Golden Rain Foundation's policy committee revised the rules on demonstrations last year.
One-person demonstrations must now take place at less visible locations and people seeking to hold larger demonstrations must be granted permission from the Rossmoor board.
Organizations within the community are limited to one demonstration every two weeks under the new policy, and must confine their gathering to a thin strip of grass near one of the main clubhouses.
Michael Goldberg, a former rabbi and professor of religion, has been leading the challenge against the restrictions.
"We're not anarchists," Goldberg told the Chronicle. Administrators "would we say these crazy things at these hearings like, 'Well, you know, if we allow these demonstrations, then what's going to happen? They're going to be encampments.' Now, the idea of 70- and 80-year-olds pitching a tent overnight on the ground is a little far-fetched."