Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 10/19/2026 9:44:16 AM PDT by lowbridge
An Arizona street evangelist is suing the city of Tucson and challenging an event policy barring religious speech after police officers threatened to arrest him for discussing Jesus at an annual holiday festival.
David Hoffman has been evangelizing at public events for over a decade and views large public gatherings as crucial to his Christian ministry.
“What we do is we share the gospel with people that are most likely never going to go into a church, and we go to events and places where there’s not already a Christian witness, and we have conversations,” he told Fox News Digital.
For nearly ten years, Hoffman regularly attended Tuscon’s Winterhaven Festival of Lights, a free holiday event where thousands of visitors walk through a residential neighborhood to view light displays. But during the December 2025 festival, Hoffman said city police officers barred him from sharing his faith and threatened him with criminal trespassing charges under new event rules.
“Upon entering the event, we were told that we can’t have any kind of religious expression,” Hoffman told Fox News Digital. “They said that you can be there to participate in looking at the lights. But the moment, you know, we tried to talk to somebody or give out a gospel tract, that would lead to a violation of what they were enforcing.”
According to a federal lawsuit filed on Hoffman’s behalf by First Liberty Institute, the city of Tucson adopted an event solicitation policy last year prohibiting “religious, political, or issue-based leafleting” with signs posted at entrances relaying these prohibitions and warning that violators could face removal and trespassing charges enforced by Tucson police.
When Hoffman attempted to speak with attendees, officers approached Hoffman and said he could not be inside “doing the preaching.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
We all know had he had a koran in his hand nobody woulda said a dam thing
The man was just doing what he has been called to do.
He attended an outing known for being peacable, and so was he.
On those merits, I support the man’s lawsuit.
The man was just doing what he has been called to do.
He attended an outing known for being peacable, and so was he.
On those merits, I support the man’s lawsuit.
I’ve been watching “Billboard Chris” on YouTube the last few weeks. He’s not a Christian preacher, but he is publicly addressing the child sterilization and mutilation inflicted by that trans craze and gets a LOT of pushback and sometimes assaulted. He was recently arrested in Spain for doing his sidewalk “evangelism” where he wears a sandwich board that says “children cannot consent to puberty blockers.” He doesn’t make noise or accost people, he just stands there with his board. Somehow, that is “hateful.”
Unconstitutional, Tucson. It’s gonna cost you.
Equal is equal, if you condone one religion then you have to allow any and all religions, including islam or satanism. You can’t allow one and not another, so, don’t allow any and you won’t get the undesirable.
Hopefully some big bucks.
But I bet the reaction here would be vastly different than what it is going to be were it the Koran.
Same here.
I wouldn’t like what was being said, but I would defend the person’s right to talk about the Koran. There is no constitutional right to not be offended. For the world of me, I can’t understand why Tucson is ignorant enough to do this—they are going to lose because the precedent is clear.
A lot of double and triple postings by various Freepers over the last week.
Wonder what is going on....
It is why schools and businesses want to rename it “Winter Holiday” to take Christ out of it. Maybe some should move to a country that is pagan and leave us alone.
Sometimes I get a Gateway timeout and I would click refresh. I discovered that the post was made but the page was stuck reloading and thus a refresh would post it again. I stopped hitting refresh and just close the page and re-open the page.
Hmm, what holiday in December features ‘holiday lights’? And what does that holiday celebrate?
Hannukah?
Hi...I hit the post button, nothing.
I wait, nothing
So I hit the button again, finally it responds.
Tucson can reasonably regulate the time, place, and manner of all speech in the public forum, but the not the content of the speech -- particularly religious and political speech, which enjoys special protection under the 1st Amendment. Tucson will most definitely lose the lawsuit.
The ban is specifically leaflets. And having lived near Winter Haven and seen the mess that gets left behind every single night, I get it. People are freaking slobs. So many disposable coffee cups, and flyers (leaflets), and napkins, and everything. People just toss stuff. Doesn’t matter how many trashcans they put out, people just throw it on the ground.
Remind the cops that carrying out an illegal order is the same thing as issuing an illegal order. With that, I hope he sues his arresting officers individually as well.
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.