A Luthersville pastor said he and his followers will continue to make their presence felt through protests in Cleveland, and he said he is thinking about putting down roots with a new church in the area. Billy Ball of Faith Baptist Church said the citations he and other church members have received from Cleveland police will not stop them from protesting within the city.
The demonstrators have been cited for violating Cleveland's special events ordinance, which requires those interested in holding events ranging from parades to protests to file an application with the city about the event's location and what resources they'll need from the city. Events involving free speech require a three-day notice with the city and the application fee is waived.“I think it's good for the city to have an ordinance for parades or an ordinance for particular events,” Ball said, “but they've got to leave space in their ordinance for spontaneous events.”
Cleveland Police Chief John Foster said the group wouldn't have been cited had they followed the ordinance. The group has protested in the city four times, and each event has been documented by police as a separate offense.
“The city and police - we support the First Amendment; we support all of the constitution,” Foster said. “Our function is to provide public safety and protect the citizens. It is not our function to silence. That's not our aim or goal.”He explained that once his officers are on the scene of one of the protests, they stand guard to protect the protester from citizens who may be angry about their presence. But in doing that, the officers are not able to do their duty by patrolling the rest of the city.“Our concern is being able to plan for the unexpected or what might happen, not for what's happening now,” Foster said.But Ball said that if they were to submit an application in advance to exercise their First Amendment rights, it's not really free speech.“To make those people wait three days is basically too narrow of a limitation on their freedom of speech,” he said. “I don't think it's going to work. The best thing for the city to do is drop the charges and go forward.”According to the city's special events ordinance, each violation carries a fine ranging from $50 to $1,000. The amount of a fine would be determined by a judge.
Ball's group began protesting last month in response to a recent U.S. District Court settlement that the White County Board of Education re-instate non-curricular clubs on campus, pay $158,000 in legal fees and $10,000 in damages to students who created White County High School's gay-straight alliance in 2005.
Ball said in a previous White County News story that his group came to preach the Gospel and to rebuke what he calls Sodomite sympathizers. He said in the Jan. 18 story that the settlement is a back-door effort to get teachers and students to accept what he calls an ungodly lifestyle.
Ball and seven other men were scheduled to appear for Cleveland Municipal Court's calendar call Feb. 26, but he has since asked for an extension. He said he and his attorney, Joel Thornton of the International Human Rights Group, will be fighting the citations.“We came to preach, and (the city) decided to escalate,” Ball said. “That's their default response. This kind of reasoning has not withstood federal court muster.”
He is referring to a March 2006 settlement between anti-abortion activists and the city of Florence, S.C. The city's permit requirements regarding special events were ruled unconstitutional in U.S. District Court in Columbia, S.C., and the city settled by paying $51,000 in damages and court expenses to the activists.Ball said he is fighting a similar case in Atlanta after his group was cited last year for protesting a gay-pride parade in Piedmont Park.
He also said his group has been getting a good response from White County residents, and he is looking for property to create what he called an old-fashioned, independent Baptist church in the area.
Cleveland Clerk Connie Tracas said they've never had problems with the city's special events ordinance. She said many First Amendment groups such as the local Right to Life or even Kansas' Westboro Baptist Church - whose members protested several areas across the county in March 2005 in response to the local gay-straight alliance club - followed the city's ordinance.
“It's working out really well for us,” Tracas said. “The police department is on notice; they have to do additional traffic control.”She said the ordinance is in place to protect the event's participants and the city public. Foster agreed.“It allows us to plan for all the ‘what ifs',” he said. “In today's world, we'd never know what the ‘what if' is going to be.” [Sounds like the Newt Gingrich school of "End Free Speech" thought.
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