Burnsville PD against free speech (I thought the RNC was over)

[annm4peace]

http://www.thisweeklive.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=10338&Itemid=29

The series of weekly anti-war vigils on the southwest corner of Burnsville Parkway and Nicollet Avenue continued Tuesday, but without “Honk 4 Peace” signs. At left is local peace activist and former congressional candidate Coleen Rowley. Photo by Rick Orndorf

by John Gessner
Thisweek Newspapers

Burnsville police and the American Civil Liberties Union may be headed for a second showdown over horn honking at the scene of weekly peace vigils.

The vigils, held by sign-carrying war protesters, have been a weekly event on Tuesdays from 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. since August 2007, according to frequent participant Coleen Rowley of Apple Valley.
Protesters gather on the southwest corner of the busy Nicollet Avenue-Burnsville Parkway intersection in the Heart of the City.

Sometimes the protesters, whom Rowley said may number from five to 20, have hoisted “Honk 4 Peace” signs.

Drivers who oblige are exercising free-speech rights, police and the ACLU agree. But police say it sometimes goes too far, in violation of a Minnesota statute that allows horn honking only as a traffic warning.

Chief Bob Hawkins said this week police intend to mail a ticket to a driver who was recorded on video honking 52 times during the June 30 vigil.

“To me, that is clearly a violation that creates a public safety situation,” Hawkins said. “We’re going to deal with it. I’m sure the ACLU is going to deal with us.”

ACLU attorney Howard Bass questioned whether police have a case. He said video recording by police of the vigils and passing traffic on June 23 and June 30 has had a chilling effect on free-speech rights.

The ACLU prevailed in an earlier horn-honking dispute with police.

Burnsville resident Barbara Gilliand was ticketed for improper horn use at the intersection on Aug. 5, 2008. Gilliand, who honked in support of the protesters, contacted the ACLU of Minnesota. The case was taken by Bass, a criminal-defense attorney in Burnsville and an ACLU board member and volunteer attorney.

“Basically, we moved to dismiss it on the basis that it was a violation of her First Amendment freedoms because it’s expressive conduct,” Bass said. “There are cases from around the country that have held that honking your horn in support of protesters’ message is constitutionally protected free speech.”

The city dismissed the complaint in February. In April, Bass and the city attorney signed a consent decree, on file in Dakota County District Court, stating that police wouldn’t issue citations for improper horn use “except under circumstances where the enforcement is necessary to preserve public safety.”

Hawkins said he ordered traffic–unit officers to monitor horn honking after a June 23 pedestrian accident in the Heart of the City. In that case, a woman was struck and injured while in the marked crosswalk at 126th Street and Nicollet.

[dflprincess]

1. Do the Eagan police take the same attitude toward the group that's at the corner of

Yankee Doodle & Pilot Knob on Thursdays (I've often seen Colleen Rowley at that one as well). And, does Kline still have an office at Nicollet & Burnsville Parkway? Do you suppose that has anything to do with the cops having trouble with this?

[Bjorn Against]

2. I am in that group as well, the police leave us alone now but they have not always

The first year or two of the Eagan vigil there was some police harassment and they kept trying to find excuses to shut the vigil down. I had not yet joined the group at the time, but the people who were there kept asking for the police to show them the law that said they couldn't be there. The police were never able to find that law so they eventually gave up and they don't harass us at all any more.

Kline does have an office at Nicollet & Burnsville Parkway and that is a big part of the reason the location was chosen. We have no way of proving that is the reason for the police harassment, but I would be very surprised if Kline's office has never talked to the police.

[annm4peace]

3. Is Kline the reason there is a set of Long Horn Steer horns

On the Burnsville Parkway bridge over 35W ?

[Bjorn Against]

4. I don't know...

His supporters do tend to herd together like cattle though so it would be an appropriate symbol for them.