Why this Blog?

I am a law-abiding citizen.  Other than an occasional speeding ticket thanks to a heavy foot and a propensity for running late, I never encountered the police. Well, once when I was about 12 years old, a police officer stopped me on my bike for riding through a stop sign. Oh, and about 20 years later, the police came to my apartment, summoned by a neighbor who thought I was playing my music too loudly and rather than ask me to turn the volume down, called law enforcement.  But other than that, I never interacted with police officers in any way or really thought about them much.

That is, not until almost ten years ago, when I started demonstrating for various animal causes.

My first major protest, other than a march in the 1980's for animals in labs, was in Philadelphia at a Ringling Bros. Circus performance outside of the Wachovia Spectrum in April 2002.  I had recently read about how Ringling Bros. trainers were cited by the USDA for using excessive force in dragging nursing baby elephants from their mothers for training, leaving welts and sores.  I wanted to raise awareness about the facts of the lives of animals used in the circus, and participating in a demonstration outside of the very entity responsible for the abuse seemed to be the one of the most efficient ways to do so.

The April 2002 demonstration was uneventful except for some surprising (to me at the time) nastiness from patrons of the circus.  I can still see the face of the woman who turned around to scream at me, "I love to hunt animals and KILL them!"  I don't remember any major police presence, but there were a few officers in plainclothes that I later learned were from the Philadelphia Police Department's "Civil Affairs Unit."

In the next year or two, I participated in more circus demonstrations as well as events for animals killed for their fur and protests against foie gras.  Again, I don't remember much of a police presence, except that the plainclothes officers were often present.

In 2004, I participated in several demonstrations outside of Ferber Furs in Philadelphia.  Police were always present and sometimes filmed the demonstrators, which was puzzling and somewhat intimidating.
During one demonstration, I walked down the sidewalk to stand in front of an eyeglass store,  Pearle Vision Center or something like that.  The store owner did not like the sign I was holding and asked me to move.  I explained that I was on a public sidewalk and had the right to stand there.  She then approached a plainclothes police officer from the Philadelphia Police Department's Civil Affairs Unit and asked him to tell me to move.   Much to my astonishment, he did.

After I recovered somewhat from my surprise, I asked him why he was requesting that I move.  He said, "Because the place you're protesting is over there."  I explained that I had the right to stand anywhere on the public sidewalk as long as I wasn't blocking the sidewalk or causing a disruption.  He repeated that I needed to move.   I then moved because I thought maybe there was in fact a basis for him to do so that I might not be aware of.

After that incident, I extensively researched the laws covering demonstrations in Philadelphia.  I learned that no permit is required for events with fewer than 75 people.  I found out that the police officer had no basis for requesting that I move.   The only reason the police officer requested that I move was that the store owner had asked him to do so, and that is not a lawful reason to require a legal, peaceful demonstrator to move.

Unfortunately, the scenario of a business owner having the police request me to move would repeat itself dozens of times over the next year as I became more active in animal advocacy.  On April 1, 2005, I was arrested outside of UniverSoul Circus for standing on a public sidewalk after a Civil Affairs officer unlawfully requested me to move.  At my trial, I was found not guilty, and the ACLU brought a lawsuit on my behalf for false arrest and violation of my First Amendment rights, which we settled for a nominal amount of money, attorney's fees, and required training for Civil Affairs officers.

From 2005 to the present, I have participated in hundreds of demonstrations and outreach events from New York to Delaware, most often in the Philadelphia area.   With few exceptions, police do not know the laws covering First Amendment rights.  Many of my fellow demonstrators are similarly unaware of their rights.  Unfortunately, this combination means that most often the police will unlawfully request demonstrators to do certain things, and because the demonstrators are not aware of their rights, they will assume the police know what they are talking about and follow their directive.

This blog is to help communicate and explain the rights we all enjoy as taxpayers and citizens of this country - rights our forefathers died for and rights we should never relinquish.  And, I hope, will be a little entertaining along the way!