Posted on 08/12/2012 7:55:55 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Phoenix officials have until next Friday to apologize for the actions of a code enforcement officer after he stopped Christians from giving out water bottles to city festival participants on a day that reached 112 degrees.
A legal team that fights for religious and civil rights is also demanding a commitment that the city will no longer interfere with the Christian group’s acts of charity.
According to a letter to the city from the Rutherford Institute, the case developed in July during a “First Friday” festival when Dana Crow-Smith was giving “free bottles of cold water to passersby” on the public sidewalk “as a means of exercising her Christian beliefs.”
She “was moved” to offer the refreshment “to people at the festival who were braving the desert’s scorching 112-degree heat,” said the letter to city attorney Gary Verburg.
“According to Ms. Crow-Smith, her group was approached by Neighborhood Preservation Inspector Dwayne Grierson, who told them that they were violating the Phoenix City Code by giving away water without a vendor’s permit,” the letter explains. In fact, Grierson insisted that giving water away was “prohibited.”
The ban, however, violates several significant precedents, such as the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and Arizona’s Freedom of Religious Exercise Act, Rutherford officials wrote.
A woman in the city attorney’s office declined to respond to WND’s questions, and phone calls requesting comment from the city’s public information office were not returned at the time of this report.
(Excerpt) Read more at wnd.com ...
“Things like this just make you want to bang your head against the keyboard.”
No, don’t hurt yourself or damage that innocent keyboard.
Yes, I’m familiar with water rights & fights in desert country. But that gave this petty Gestapo tyrant no moral authority to do what he did.
How about “Look, lady, thank you for your kindness to others in this awful heat. But you need a permit. No, I’m not shutting you down, if anyone asks me I’ll tell them you were giving away bottled water with unbroken seals and that’s OK. But next time please go to city hall & get your permit. I might get in trouble for this but at least I’m not some kind of jerk.”
Too much to hope for.........?
Maybe Phoenix should turn illegals over to Sheriff Joe and have them deported.
was approached by Neighborhood Preservation Inspector Dwayne Grierson, who told them that
WTF? Neighborhood Preservation Officer?? I thought the article was about Arizona not China.........
When regulations get down to that level of detail, there are simply too many regulations. Some things should be left alone simply for reasons of pure common sense.
This level of intrusion should not be treated as an isolated incident because, aside from the poignant subject matter, it’s something that happens every day in one way or another.
Does anyone know the total number of regulations each and every one of us are required to follow? Could they even be counted? We all beat our nose against City Hall, the State, the Feds and now the UN is coming.
This is a symptom of a level of government overreach that has been a long time in the making. It’s going to be a nightmare if we don’t tame it. And soon.
But it’s fine to put water stations out for illegals. Something isn’t right.
We Conservatives need to take back our local governments and remove all of the bureaucratic, heavy handed, freedom diminishing, pocket draining rulings.
WTF? Neighborhood Preservation Officer??
exactly, WTH is a Neighborhood Preservation Officer? No wonder Cities are broke; they are busy staffing these worthless feel good positions
Along with the people who decided there should be such a thing as a *Neighborhood Preservation Inspector*. Just saying.
No, Western water rights have NOTHING to do with the interstate commerce of retail water bottles. When you buy a bottle of water sold at retail, that is a commodity you own and “Western water rights” have absolutely nothing to do with the regulation of bottles or crates or cases of bottled water. Nothing.
Exactly!
It’s obviously time to start breaking the law w/r/t giving people water if you want to. If you are not selling anything you don’t need a vendor’s permit.
Feds would say it’s required.
Sure he can. He can choose not to pay attention to a certain situation. Happens all the time. Too busy, already working somewhere else. They can prioritize what they will allocate time on and what they will let slide.
Who knew a bunch of fatherless teenage boys posted on FR, LOL.
Well since you posted to *all* of us, just keep defending comrade Dwayne Grierson of the Neighborhood Preservation Police, I'm sure the politburo approves of your efforts Little Natasha.
Got to help guard *The Peoples* water.
Many moons ago, I worked for the government. I was not a mindless robot. If you were a mindless robot, and did what made no sense to do standing on some regulation, you would not go far.
Christians passing out water to people at a festival in that extreme heat, would have been over looked by anyone with half a brain - even a government worker. They have an IQ cut off at 80 in Pheonix?
Yes, it does.
And sadly, a lot of people who call themselves Christians can’t seem to tell the difference between the real God and the wannabe.
So even if you buy a bottle of water it’s not yours but the government’s?
What if you buy bottled water in a different state, that has no water rights law? Can that water actually be yours and not the government’s?
Does the government own everybody’s sweat and urine too, or could that be purified down for drinking purposes?
Fatherless teenage boys?
That has to be one of the most classless comments I’ve ever seen on Free Republic.
I looked at your profile, and it seems to me that what you’re saying here doesn’t fit what is in your profile, which talks about personal morality. Recognizing the problem with this nanny-state regulation that defines EVERYTHING freely given from one person to another as “commerce” isn’t a matter of “growing up”; it’s a matter of recognizing that the government wants to FORBID you from being able to live a personally moral life.
When government does not allow you to give a cup of cold water to someone thirsty, just out of the goodness of your heart, make no mistake - they are not going to allow there to BE any goodness in your heart that finds a way to express itself. Want to smile at somebody? That’s commerce. Want to talk to somebody? That’s commerce. Want to give a hug? That’s commerce? When government gets to that level of control, there is no such thing as freedom. Everybody is a robot of the government.
And if recognizing that makes somebody a “fatherless teenage boy”, then I’d say they’re better off than either you or the children that you might be teaching to accept the idol of government, trying to do what only God has the authority to do.
Giving away sealed bottles of water doesn't fall into those areas, though, does it? If she had a giant cooler and was passing out cups of water from that, it might equate, but presumably, bottled water has already been approved by the regulators.
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