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Taking Liberties: Arrested for reading the Bible?

Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

I don't know enough about Cali. property laws to make an educated opinion.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

Jredbaron96 said:
I don't know enough about Cali. property laws to make an educated opinion.
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It was public property ie something he had payed taxes on. No matter how much people (not saying you) on this thread hate it, the guy was well within his right to do what he was doing. I'm still waiting on any of the people (especially soccerboy) on this thread alleging he was wrong to provide a link to the law making him wrong. This isn't a religious debate. Its a freedom debate. If this were an atheist, muslim, whatever, I'd have the same opinion.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

digsbe said:
If it's private property and the owner wanted him gone he deserved arrest.
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It was public property. The DMV is state owned and operated.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

MarineTpartier said:
Again, can you find the law that says it's illegal in California for a person to read religious material aloud on public property? I'm not interested in whether the cop did "a d*** thing" or not. I want to know if it was illegal. You made the claim he needs a permit to read the Bible aloud on public property. Show me where it says that in California state law.
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It was linked twice now in this thread and I am out so I do not have the link on my phone. According to the Blaze article and the police department, to do any action on DMV property that is not linked with the DMV you need a permit.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

Ockham said:
Could be he just didn't like Christians or was ignorant of his job. Could be a lot of things.
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Could be a simple mistake. But you certainly all but suggested otherwise.

Funny... you seem to know a lot about Fox news. You should watch something else.
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I've seen enough of their pap. I recall Oliely's little "Holiday Ornament" gaffe. Rather hilarious actually.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

MarineTpartier said:
It was public property. The DMV is state owned and operated.
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The use of the public property is important. For example, you wouldn't want people wandering around a military base, the US mint, the back of a post office, or similar. So I don't see a problem with a permit being needed for this.

Now if it were a park or something, yeah, I would agree with you.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

megaprogman said:
The use of the public property is important. For example, you wouldn't want people wandering around a military base, the US mint, the back of a post office, or similar. So I don't see a problem with a permit being needed for this.

Now if it were a park or something, yeah, I would agree with you.
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Look at the examples that you gave and what they do/have then look at the DMV and what it has/does. What is the huge difference between the two?
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

megaprogman said:
The use of the public property is important. For example, you wouldn't want people wandering around a military base, the US mint, the back of a post office, or similar. So I don't see a problem with a permit being needed for this.

Now if it were a park or something, yeah, I would agree with you.
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However, the DMV is open to the public, is it now? In addition, this particular DMV wasn't even open yet.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

Quote from article:
“He does not have the right to intimidate others and force them to listen and impede their ability to do normal business activities such as going to the DMV.”
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This means that I can have the asshat behind me who insists on talking loudly on their cell phone arrested for "forcing" me to listen about their bowel movements, right?
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

MarineTpartier said:
It was public property ie something he had payed taxes on. No matter how much people (not saying you) on this thread hate it, the guy was well within his right to do what he was doing.
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That's not always true though, sometimes you do have to have permits, etc.

I'm not saying this is that situation, but it's not always cut and dry just because it is public property.

There are sometimes rules and procedures that you have to go by and I'm not sure if that applies here or not.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

you need a permit to demonstrate on public property.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

Thunder said:
you need a permit to demonstrate on public property.
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First, it's not a "demonstration". Second, the Riverside California proccess identifies a permit is required on public land when an event is "organized"

Riverside County - Event Permit said:
In general, any organized activity involving the use of, or having impact upon public property, street areas or the temporary use of private property in a manner that varies from its current land use, requires a permit.
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BTW.. Hemet California is in Riverside County. This was not organized... therefore no permit was needed.

City of Riverside - Vendor Template
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

Thunder said:
I disagree.
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Whether you disagree or not is irrelevent. If I went out there and read Green Eggs & Ham out loud to everyone would that be a demonstration? No it wouldn't.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

Ockham said:
First, it's not a "demonstration". Second, the Riverside California proccess identifies a permit is required on public land when an event is "organized"

BTW.. Hemet California is in Riverside County. This was not organized... therefore no permit was needed.

City of Riverside - Vendor Template
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So if he didn't need a permit, since this wasn't an "organized" rally, what was this guy charged with?
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

Billy the Kid said:
So if he didn't need a permit, since this wasn't an "organized" rally, what was this guy charged with?
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The more appropriate question would be "what was he convicted of?". Just because a person is charged with something does not mean that they are guilty of something.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

joko104 said:
Didn't the US Supreme Court just rule on this concerning that asshole Hillsboro church shouting hate in religious context at a soldier's funeral? Not only could they NOT be arrested because they were on public land, they were not even breaking any civil law. This would be a slam-dunk lawsuit.
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Was it public land though? Fred Phelps and crew are very smart about not veering off the sidewalk. If he had remained on a sidewalk an not on what is potentially private property...

In other words, who owns the land where this happened? I think that's an important question. If it's privately owned and the owner doesn't want that, then it's their right to say you can't do it. Especially since this was essentially a theater piece.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

Ockham said:
First, it's not a "demonstration". Second, the Riverside California proccess identifies a permit is required on public land when an event is "organized"

BTW.. Hemet California is in Riverside County. This was not organized... therefore no permit was needed.

City of Riverside - Vendor Template
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That is not quite true, because the DMV is state property, not public.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

Kal'Stang said:
The more appropriate question would be "what was he convicted of?". Just because a person is charged with something does not mean that they are guilty of something.
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From what I have found, a security guard asked them to stop and leave, they did not so the cops were called.

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.

About ten minutes later, a California Highway Patrolman approached Mr. Mackey as he read, took the Bible out of his hands, and arrested him.
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Which apparently is a violation of this code in CA,

Any person who intentionally interferes with any lawful
business carried on by the employees of a public agency open to the
public, by obstructing or intimidating those attempting to carry on
business, or those persons there to transact business with the public
agency, and who refuses to leave the premises of the public agency
after being requested to leave by the office manager or a supervisor
of the public agency, or by a peace officer acting at the request of
the office manager or a supervisor of the public agency, is guilty of
a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for up to
90 days, or by a fine of up to four hundred dollars ($400), or by
both that imprisonment and fine.
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Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

Kal'Stang said:
Whether you disagree or not is irrelevent. If I went out there and read Green Eggs & Ham out loud to everyone would that be a demonstration? No it wouldn't.
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What would be your point in reading Green Eggs and Ham is the important question.


This guy knew he'd get arrested, which is why he went and did it, and why somebody taped it for him. It was a theatrical performance designed to be posted on YouTube and get the mindless sheep of the Religious Right all riled up.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

Billy the Kid said:
So if he didn't need a permit, since this wasn't an "organized" rally, what was this guy charged with?
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Initially the charges were levied against two men, Meyer being one of them for misdemeanor"conducting a demonstration on state grounds without a permit". That was dropped, per the OP article to simple trespassing... trespassing on public property, allegedly 50 feet from the DMV door.
 
Re: Man Arrested For Reading The Bible Out Loud

soccerboy22 said:
That is not quite true, because the DMV is state property, not public.
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They were, according to reports, 50 feet from the DMV, therefore it's public property.
 
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