Posted on 06/08/2006 7:32:06 AM PDT by kokonut
Local Police Attempt to Block Collection of Pro-Marriage Petitions Agape Press - June 7 ,2006 A pro-family group in Florida is outraged over the behavior of some police officers last weekend who tried to stop a petition drive aimed at protecting traditional marriage. Last weekend members of the Florida Family Policy Council were at a Promise Keepers conference in Broward County where they were collecting petitions for the Florida4Marriage campaign, an effort to get onto the November 2008 ballot an amendment protecting traditional marriage. The pro-family group had paid a fee to have a booth at the PK event at which it was collecting the petitions in support of the campaign`s goal of gathering 611,009 signatures by July 12, 2006.
Then in what the group calls a "stunning display of unprofessional conduct," several members of the City of Sunrise Police Department arrived at the scene and ordered Council vice president Nathan Dunn to stop collecting the petitions, and then removed the petitions from public view. A discussion ensued, during which John Stemberger -- president and general counsel for the Council -- was summoned to the scene. The group says Stemberger`s request for an explanation of what law or ordinance was being violated was ignored by Police Sergeant Stephen Allen, who it says then began lecturing nearby volunteers on what Jesus taught about homosexuality, claiming that the petition effort was a waste of time and that he was the authority and they should obey him.
Oh, and a nice picture of one officer removing petitions.
Hmmmm . . .
Someone ought to fax the dep't the text of the First Amendment, no interpretation required.
Sounds like this LEO had his head up his most used parts........
I think the "he" the LEO was referring to was Jesus. Poorly written sentence structure.........
My thoughts about this LEO and what I would like to see done to him would get me banned from the FR at best and a visit from the thought Gestapo at worse.
The blow by blow. Anyone that lives in Sunrise should be more than a bit unhappy with the jack booted thug mentality of some of their cops:
In a stunning display of unprofessional conduct, Florida Family Policy Council (FFPC) volunteers were harassed and threatened with being arrested by City of Sunrise Police Officers for peacefully and lawfully collecting
Florida4Marriage.org petitions in Broward County at a Promise Keepers conference this past Saturday June 3, 2006. FFPC Vice President Nathan Dunn was ordered by Sunrise Police Officers to stop collecting petitions. Officers then physically removed the petitions from "public view" on the table at the exhibitors tent. An $800 fee was paid in order have a PK event booth in the parking lot of the Bank Atlantic Center. Two of the male officers mocked the volunteers by kissing each other after they initially removed all the petitions from the area.
After a short discussion with the officers involved, it quickly became apparent that the duty officer, Sergeant Stephen Allen, was a supporter of gay marriage and personally disagreed with the marriage amendment effort. When Florida Family Policy Council President and General Counsel John Stemberger was called down to the scene and learned of the incident he sought further legal counsel from Rick Nelson of American Liberties Institute and then quickly confronted Sgt. Allen. Stemberger asked Allen what law or ordinance that was being violated by the display and collection of petitions. In response, Sgt Allen ignored the request for legal authority and unbelievably started lecturing those present on Jesus` view of homosexuality in the New Testament and that the petition effort was a "waste of time." Sgt. Allen refused to calmly discuss the supposed law that was being violated and then proclaimed that he was the authority and "the Bible says that Christians should obey the authorities".
Allen who was backed up at the site by four other Sunrise officers continued to argue "theology" when Promise Keepers security and event officials arrived on the scene and explained to the police the petitions were authorized to be distributed at the exhibit table. Eventually Stemberger placed the removed petitions back onto the table in public view and demanded that Allen produce the legal basis for his orders. Stemberger tried to explain to the officer what the law was and that constitutional rights were being violated but Allen continued to interrupt with abusive and irrelevant personal remarks. At the height of the confrontation, Sgt. Allen told Stemberger he would be arrested if the petitions were not immediately removed from the table. Stemberger later stated, "I stood in between the petitions and the officer and told Allen he had no legal authority, was in violation of the United States Constitution and he would have to arrest me because the petitions were going to stay on the table".
The incident ended after a civic center official told Sgt Allen to stand down and that there were no laws or rules being violated and the petitions could be distributed at the table. Needless to say, Sergeant Allen and the other officers quickly departed, and the small crowd of about 50 people that had gathered applauded.
Stemberger stated, "I have never in my life seen such unprofessional and bizarre behavior from a law enforcement officer. This man in uniform was abusing his authority and trying to bully law abiding citizens from exercising core first amendment rights simply because he disagreed with them. This is unacceptable and a disgrace to the thousands of good cops in Florida that put their lives on the line every day to protect our families and our liberties. If we do not stand up to this type of abuse of power then our constitutional rights will continue to be violated."
This kind of ridiculous harassment and intimidation was meant to thwart the effort to protect marriage in Florida. It should remind all of us that we are engaged in a culture war, and we need to continue to press forward and support the goal of completing the gathering of the 611,009 petitions needed to place this critical Florida state amendment on the ballot in 2008
http://www.flfamily.org/ffpcnew1.php#67
Even looking at the pics it sure doesn't look like a "misunderstanding" to me. I'd love to know by what reasoning the cops of Sunrise, FL did this.
I hope these folks file a complaint and get a lawyer because this is just beyond the pale.
I think I'll take the one pic of the cops kissing and post it around some of the LE boards.
Christians are the enemy, don't you know?
Do not the police represent the state? Whats with the lecture on Jesus and what happened to the seperation clause in this case?
Gestapo? More like "gaystapo".
Assuming this story is accurate....
Sounds like a load of queer police officers to me trying to protect their ass-ettes...
church and state sepaeration clause anyone?
he is arguing Jesus and he works for the state!
HMM.... something wrong here.
I know what's wrong here....someone gave the wrong dude the badge, but forgot to explain the Constitution to this bully.
I smell a huge lawsuit coming, and hope the city of Sunrise has a big insurance policy to cover it.
With a knick knack paddy whack
Give a cop a peck,
Liberty goes all to heck.
When you can't petition for change without police interference, then you know the War on Drugs has finally overflowed its banks. Intimidation is easy once we've been groomed to accept it. What do you get when you mug a socon?
With a knick knack paddy whack
Give a thug a badge,
Now you're soaking in it, Madge.
I suspect there's more to the story. This report isn't exactly from an unbiased source. Police officers are generally loathe to blatantly violate civil rights laws, as it tends to leave them with heavily garnished paychecks for the rest of their lives, with the people whose rights they trampled on getting the $$. Doing something like this in front of hundreds of witnesses would be both career and financial suicide, unless there were solid justifications not mentioned in this story. Promise Keepers is pretty big outfit -- shouldn't they have filed suit by now, if this really went down just as reported? I note that the police officers in question departed when told to by a "civic center official", suggesting that there may have been some initial miscommunication about whether the petition booth was authorized to be there. And while the focus here is on Sgt. Allen, it also says that he was "backed up" by 4 other police officers. I'm finding it hard to believe that 5 police officers were all willing to risk losing their jobs over this, no matter how strongly they may disagree with the aims of the petition group.
To the people of Sunrise: Who's going to patrol your streets when your entire department is in Canada attending the wedding of those two gay mounties?
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