November 2014 - Parks & Recreation - 31

" past festivals had attracted Christian
evangelical groups, including " a radical group calling themselves the Bible
Believers. " As characterized in the
Plan, " [t]hese groups will possibly
show up at the festival trying to provoke our staff in a negative manner
and attempt to capture the negativity
on video camera. "
On June 15, 2012, the Bible Believers came to the Festival " bearing
strongly worded T-shirts and banners, " including: " Jesus Is the Judge;
Therefore, Repent, Be Converted
That Your Sins May Be Blotted Out, "
" Turn or Burn, " " Jesus Is the Way,
the Truth and the Life. All Others Are
Thieves and Robbers, " and " Islam Is
A Religion of Blood and Murder. "
One Bible Believer carried a severed
pig's head on a stick, which purportedly " protected the Bible Believers by
repelling observers who feared it. "
After arriving, the leader of the Bible Believers (Ruben Chavez) began
preaching, castigating the crowd for
" following a pedophile prophet. "
As the Bible Believers moved deeper
into the Festival, the crowd - a good
portion of which appeared to be minors
- continued to gather and yell. Some
people started throwing debris - including rocks, plastic bottles, garbage
and a milk crate - at the Bible Believers. Someone in the crowd also shoved
one Bible Believer to the ground.
Some WCSO officers detained debris throwers while other officers hovered at the edges of the crowd. Eventually, after about 35 minutes, the Bible
Believers temporarily stopped preaching and stood as the crowd harangued
them and hurled objects. Several officers, including some mounted units,
attempted to quell the crowd.
After about five minutes of standing quietly, the Bible Believers began
to move and preach again. As they

did so, the cascade of objects intensified. WCSO officers then advised the
Bible Believers that they should leave
because their safety was in jeopardy
and " not enough officers were available to control the crowd. " The Bible Believers, however, continued to
preach, followed by what had swelled
into a large crowd.

No Bible Believers were cited or arrested at the 2012 Festival itself.
Peacekeeper Plan
Bible Believers alleged that Wayne
County through the WCSO had " violated their First Amendment right
to freedom of speech by either suppressing their speech ab initio [i.e.,

The appeals court acknowledged that the
government has a right to prevent a speaker from
urging his opinion upon an audience with an intent
to incite violence.
The officers then noted " Chavez
was bleeding from where a piece of
debris had cut his face. " The officers
were concerned that " Chavez's conduct was inciting the crowd " and advised Chavez that they would " escort
the Bible Believers out of the Festival. "
Chavez asked if the Bible Believers
would be arrested if they refused. The
officer replied: " Probably we will cite
you " because " the Bible Believers were
a danger to public safety. " In response,
Chavez snapped: " I would assume a
few hundred angry Muslim children
throwing bottles would be more of a
threat than a few guys with signs. "
WCSO officers then told Chavez:
" You need to leave. If you don't leave,
we're going to cite you for disorderly.
You're creating a disturbance. I mean,
look at your people here. This is crazy! "
Officers then escorted the Bible
Believers out. Overall, the Bible
Believers preached at the Festival
less than one hour. The WCSO's
Post-Operation Report indicated
that officers arrested and cited several people for disorderly conduct
and gave others verbal warnings.

from the beginning] or by permitting
the hostile mob to effectuate a socalled 'heckler's veto.' "
As noted by the court, both parties
agreed that Bible Believers had " engaged in protected speech " and " the
Festival constituted a traditional public
forum " in which free speech rights are
exercised. Wayne County, however,
maintained that the First Amendment
did not empower the Bible Believers " to
act as they pleased. " On the contrary,
Wayne County claimed " the Bible Believers were not free to create a disturbance or cause a threat to public safety. "
Initially, under the circumstances
of this case, the federal appeals court
considered " whether the government
has adopted a regulation of speech
because of disagreement with the message it conveys. " In other words, were
the governmental restrictions of free
speech rights content-based or content-neutral? If content-neutral, that is,
the government regulates all messages
alike without regard to content, then
the government could impose " reasonable restrictions on the time, place
or manner of protected speech. " In

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November 2014 - Parks & Recreation

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