Protesting pastors jailed – signs to wide
Pastor Dale Morgan
Protesting pastors jailed – signs to wide*
Police at homosex-fest use girth to enforce free-speech limitations
Posted: June 30, 2007
Florida News Wires
St. Petersburg, Fla., officials made good on their plan to limit free
speech at the city's homosexual festival this weekend by arresting five
Christians for carrying signs "wider than their torsos" outside the
officially designated protest area.
Pastor Billy Ball, Assistant Pastor Doug Pitts, Frankie Primavera and
Josh Pettigrew, all of Faith Baptist Church in Primrose, Ga., were
arrested today after leaving the area set aside by city officials for
protest activities. Bill Holt, of Lighthouse Baptist Church in
Jefferson, Ga., was also taken into custody.
According to Lighthouse Pastor Kevin Whitman, the five men were told by
police their signs were not allowed outside the protest area because
they were wider than their torsos. When the men refused to put them
away, they were arrested for violating a controversial city ordinance
that governs permitted events.
"We had police officers tell us bigger people could carry bigger signs
than smaller people – it all depended on how big your torso was," said
Whitman, who, with several others, returned to the officially designated
protest area rather than face arrest.
"Our signs were just standard foam-poster board," he said. "Nothing big
– maybe six inches wider than our torsos. If we had just rotated them,
the police would have been OK with them. But then, you couldn't read the
message."
As was reported, St. Petersburg officials, following disturbances at a
previous homosexual pride festival, implemented rules governing outdoor
events that set aside "free speech zones," where protesters are allowed.
The resulting ordinance came under fire by the American Civil Liberties
Union and the Alliance Defense Fund for being too broad. It allows the
city to create prior restraints of speech on an event-by-event basis,
with virtually no predictable limits. It also criminalizes certain free
speech behavior around public events and authorizes the police to
enforce breaches of permits – the penalty for such breaches being arrest.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida sent a letter last Monday
to St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker and Police Chief Charles Harmon
calling for changes to both the city's ordinance regarding the "free
speech zones" and event-permit enforcement.
"This ordinance essentially gives the city the power to violate people's
rights on an event-by-event basis. It's especially unlawful to tell
people where they can speak or can't, simply based on the viewpoint of
the speaker or the content of the speech," said Rebecca Harrison Steele,
director of the ACLU of Florida's West Central Office.
"The streets and sidewalks of the entire city should be a free speech
zone for everyone," Steele said.
While St. Petersburg officials dropped the term, "free speech zone," the
final modification made to the permit for the homosexual festival still
retained the restrictive policy.
Demonstrators were permitted to use amplified sound and wave banners of
any size, including in the restricted event area, only during the pride
parade and for a few minutes before and after. During other times, they
could be used only in the set-aside area. The policy for large signs and
signs mounted on sticks restricted their bearers to the restricted zone.
According to Whitman, several of the demonstrators with him heard the
police make several references to the "free speech zone" when telling
protesters where they could stand.
Ball is no stranger to the conflict between homosexual activism and the
First Amendment.
He and four other men were arrested last year at the Atlanta homosexual
pride event for "criminal trespass" after walking, accompanied by
several other pastors, within 300 yards of the Dyke Parade. The
arresting officer, an avowed lesbian, responded to his inquiries about
compelling governmental interest with an angry brush-off: "I'm not
taking questions today, I'm giving orders."
Within minutes, five of the men were handcuffed and locked in a
stainless steel paddy wagon across the street, where they waited in
100-plus degree heat until they were paraded through an Atlanta
precinct. Ball required medical attention after his stay in the
steaming, unventilated paddy wagon, and said the men were required to
remain handcuffed even when they needed to use the restroom.
After a night in the Fulton County jail, the men were released under the
condition that they notify the city of Atlanta of their whereabouts
every month. To Ball's chagrin, the men have not yet been arraigned,
their $2 million lawsuit is hung up in red tape, and a year later, the
case has not even gone to trial. According to Ball's wife, Sandra, the
pastor continues to check in regularly with Atlanta officials.
Ball and other members of his church preached freely at the 2007 Atlanta
pride event, but others who carried signs were threatened with arrest
unless they moved to approved protest sites.
Ball and Pitts are also scheduled to appear in court in Hendersonville,
N.C. on Monday for a March arrest for preaching on the street without a
permit. Since the arrests and pastors' stint in jail, Hendersonville has
rescinded the old law that required the police chief to sign off before
anyone delivered sermons or demonstrated on public grounds, including
sidewalks and streets. The two pastors are hoping their case will now be
dismissed.