Posted on 11/10/2013 10:07:21 AM PST by ilovesarah2012
EATONTOWN, New Jersey – A retired police officer was arrested and charged with trespassing this week for witnessing to patrons of a New Jersey mall.
David Wells is a former corporal with the Long Branch Police Department, and over the past year, he has spent time sharing his faith at the Monmouth Mall in Eatontown. Wells says that he likes to engage in one-on-one conversations using materials from Ray Comfort’s Living Waters Publications. This past week, he used Comfort’s trillion dollar bill tract as a conversation starter.
“I simply approached individuals and asked them if I could ask them a question. If they said no, I left them alone,” Wells explained. “If they said yes I simply asked, ‘Are you going to Heaven?’ How I responded was based on how they answered that question.”
Wells states that he has witnessed to mall patrons in the presence of mall security without issue in the past. However, this past Tuesday, things were different.
“The mall security came over and immediately told me to stop what I was doing and to leave the property,” he explained. “They indicated that the mall was private property and [that I couldn't distribute tracts there].”
But Wells noted that the state courts had declared malls a quasi-public venue, and “with that understanding I went to the mall to talk to people about the Gospel.”
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in 1994 in the case of New Jersey Coalition Against War in the Middle East v. J.M.B. Realty Corporation that malls followed the “historical path of free speech,” in the vein of parks, squares and downtown business districts. It allowed citizens to leaflet both inside and outside malls, but did not endorse other forms of expression such as public speeches.
(Excerpt) Read more at christiannews.net ...
I bet someone prospecting for the Amway business complained
If he had handed out jihadi headchopper literature, he’d still be doing it.
or if he were espousing the benefits of obamacare he’d been ok.
I'm sorry his freedom of speech and religion was violated. I'd be more sympathetic if the resource he was using wasn't from a publisher of anti-Catholic mis-information. And, no, I don't want to debate it because debating religion on FR (and the internet in general)is like wrestling a pig and, no, I won't post examples. If you want to see the materials go to their website yourself.
His freedom was violated. Whether you are sympathetic or not isn’t the issue.
On Halloween night a person in another forum that I visit asked if they should call the police on a lady who was handing out religious tracts to children who came to her door for Halloween. I explained that nobody had to go knock on this lady’s door and ask for stuff. This person then posted, “what if she was handing out poison? ...no different.” We are in big trouble, I think.
We are in big trouble. Very. Big. Trouble. I think we are at the point of no return.
Get a life.
FWIW the Free Republic Religion Forum has become pretty much an anti Protestant gathering place these days.
If you don’t like the tracts that someone else is handing out, you are free to hand out your own.
What about the rights of the mall owner, it’s private property.
Agreed. The outfit he is getting supplies from are total merchandisers of a false gospel. Too bad. Got to have the contrast so reality can come out.
A shopping mall is someones private property, with owners that have a responsibility to the general public. If I don’t want you coming into my home peddling malicious materials, out you go. You have no right to violate my personal property. Neither do apostate Christians have a right to violate others’ property rights preaching a false gospel.
The mall is private property. They are perfectly within their rights.
Why does it matter if he is a retired cop?
that isn’t what the state courts have ruled, apparently, as referred to in the article.
100 years ago this could never have happened.An angry mob of citizens would busy him out of jail.
When I was in seminary in Chicago burbs from 1970-74. We had a student arrested in a mall...same as in this article..malls are not PUBLIC property they belong to whatever company owns or manages the mall.So leave or possibly get arrested for trespassing
Best bet is to probably ask mall management to thier policy. They have a right to even keep you out of thier parking areas...
There are plenty of public areas to witness and pass out tracts...so find some and do it!
FREEGARDS
LEX
There’s a difference between a private domicile and a privately owned public common.
I've got one, thanks-- An eternal life in Jesus, my Savior.
"FWIW the Free Republic Religion Forum has become pretty much an anti Protestant gathering place these days."
Yes, I can see how, from a certain perspective, Catholics speaking up to point out mis-representations of their Faith by others can be seen as "anti Protestant". There are a certain subset of Protestants that are used to using Catholics as verbal punching bags and not expecting any blow-back.
"If you don’t like the tracts that someone else is handing out, you are free to hand out your own."
Thanks for the advice, I'm busy doing just that. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to share a couple of my sources:
The NJ high court ruled that citizens are permitted to hand out leaflets inside malls and that a complaint is not enough to stop the right to expression.
The following was in the article:
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in 1994 in the case of New Jersey Coalition Against War in the Middle East v. J.M.B. Realty Corporation that malls followed the “historical path of free speech,” in the vein of parks, squares and downtown business districts. It allowed citizens to leaflet both inside and outside malls, but did not endorse other forms of expression such as public speeches.
“We believe that this constitutional free speech right, thus limited, will perform the intended role of assuring that the free speech of New Jersey’s citizens can be heard, can be effective, and can reach at least as many people as it used to before the downtown business districts were transported to the malls,” the court wrote.
The justices also outlined that a complaint is not enough to force termination of the right to free expression.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.