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Lazamataz’s fate is hanging in the balance!
Posted on 04/28/2011 9:35:21 AM PDT by WalterSkinner
Video of a member of Hemet Calvary Chapel being arrested for reading the Bible to people standing in line at the local DMV office by a CHP officer.
“Shortly after the men arrived at the DMV and began to simply read the Bible out loud, a security guard approached Mark Mackey as he was reading the Bible and told him to stop. The men believed that they had a First Amendment right to free speech as they were standing in a planter within the parking lot and were located on public property. Further, they were not interfering with any business of the DMV and were not yelling or disturbing the peace.”
http://www.faith-freedom.com/news/press-release
Like I said before, freedom of speech, or religion for that matter, doesn’t give one license to violate the law. That’s a well established legal principle. The parking lot of a government office is not a public forum that he had a “right” to be preaching in. It’s private property, owned by the state, and they can dictate what activities are allowed there. There are any number of laws that they could rightfully arrest him under, for example, disturbing the peace, creating a public nuisance, loitering, trespassing, etc. The lawsuit won’t go anywhere, thankfully, since it would set a very bad precedent if it did.
How about the laws of the state of CA that demand that they renew their driver's licenses or register their vehicles?
After their arrests, these men were released, and the District Attorney has not at this time pursued any criminal charges. Prior to the arrest and during the arrest, Pastor Coronado and others videotaped the actions of the CHP, and a link to the edited footage can be found below. Advocates for Faith & Freedom has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of these three men for violation of their right to free speech and for unlawful arrest.
http://www.faith-freedom.com/news/press-release
The pastor will probably be able to build a new church when this is over. Good for him. They obviously didn’t violate any law since the DA never prosecuted any of them.
Hey does this mean I never have to listen to someone else with rap music in public.
I believe the Westboro people are savvy enough about the laws to actually stand in the public way when they do their schtick, unlike this guy, who was on state property.
The only thing worst than standing in line at the DMV .. Dude never heard of the interwebby?
“The pastor will probably be able to build a new church when this is over. Good for him. They obviously didn’t violate any law since the DA never prosecuted any of them.”
Just because the DA declined to prosecute, doesn’t mean they were in the right. They were not, it’s plain as day, and any lawyer who advises them that they were and takes their case is either incompetent or is deliberately misleading his clients.
I went to the video thinking it was going to be an incident taking place in China.
Wow, who is holding all those people in line hostage?...................................................................They are in line waiting to do personal business with the state.They should not be forced to listen to anyones religious views.
The whole point of public reading is for public hearing and for the purpose of a positive response to that reading--a cursory reading of the Old Testament prophets will show what God's intent was and is concerning the public proclamation of His Word...
Are you suggesting that outranks the authority of the Constitution?
(c) This section shall not apply to any of the following persons:
(1) Any person engaged in lawful labor union activities that are permitted to be carried out on the property by state or federal law.
Do the laws of CA specify that the people have to do that on one particular day and time, or only that it be done before a certain date? If it bothers you, come back another time when the pastors are not there.
But don’t expect the government to do what the Constitution has forbidden them to do, just for your convenience.
“There is a MAJOR difference between personal reading of the Bible to yourself and preaching to people at the DMV.”
Both are legal.
>>I don’t see how there’s a right to inflict any sort of “reading alound” to people who are already having a bad enough day standing in line at the DMV. Exploiting them as a captive audience is unfair and just plain annoying.
How about if he reads the Communist Manifesto aloud to people? Or one of Barack’s books? Freedom of speech, baby!
This one falls under the right to swing your fist ends at my nose.
Wow, SB should we try to have EF banned because we do not like his writing, he thinks it would be ok. He is preaching his rreligion.
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