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Title: CHP arrests Hemet men for reading Bible at DMV
Source:
http://www.vvdailypress.com
URL Source: http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/hemet-27415-reading-arrests.html
Published: May 2, 2011
Author: ?
Post Date: 2011-05-02 16:07:05 by freepatriot32
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Keywords: california, DMV, bible, jackbooted thugs
Views: 108
Comments: 5
HEMET • An assistant pastor and two elders from Calvary Chapel Hemet were arrested for reading the Bible aloud outside a local Department of Motor Vehicles office. The three men went to the Hemet DMV Feb. 2 before it opened and one of the men started to read the Bible aloud. Less than 30 minutes later, he was arrested for “impeding an open business” under Penal Code Section 602.1(b), according to attorneys from Advocates for Faith & Freedom, an advocacy group. A security guard approached Mark Mackey as he was reading the Bible and told him to stop, according to a news release from Advocates for Faith & Freedom. 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. Ten minutes later, a California Highway Patrolman approached Mackey as he read, took the Bible out of his hands, and arrested him. As the CHP officer was arresting him and putting him in his patrol car, the two men who were with him — Assistant Pastor of Calvary Chapel Hemet, Brett Coronado, and Ed Flores — asked the officer, “What law was he breaking?” Instead of identifying a legal violation, the officer asked, “Were you preaching too?” After continuing to ask the officer for the legal violation, Coronado and Flores were also arrested by another CHP officer who had come to the DMV and were also cited for “impeding an open business.” Neither Coronado nor Flores ever read the Bible out loud anywhere on DMV premises. “This is an abuse of power on the part of the CHP,” said Jennifer Monk, Associate General Counsel for Advocates for Faith & Freedom. “The arresting officer could find no appropriate penal code to use when arresting these men. The purpose of the arrests appears to have been to censor them.” The legal group has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the men — who were subsequently released after their arrests — for violation of their right to free speech and for unlawful arrest.
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#5. To: freepatriot32, *The Donut Gang* (#0)
Too bad our POTUS can't take time out from personally killing terrorists in other countries to defend the Constitution in THIS country.
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