Carriage Horse Leafleting 6/6/09

There was six of us standing on a PUBLIC sidewalk in Dallas, passing out flyers describing the cruelty of the Carriage Horse Trade. We were breaking NO laws. It is not illegal to stand on a sidewalk and hand out flyers to people walking by. At no time did we approach anyone getting into a carriage, but that would still have been legal if we had chosen to do so. The street was CLOSED. First they started with the old "You need a permit to stand here" routine. When that didn't work and I called my atty., he spoke with this obnoxious officer for 20 minutes. They continued their harrassment for about 45 more minutes. Funny, they couldn't cite us for blocking the sidewalk, because we weren't, and for not having a permit either, because you don't need a permit to exercise free speech. The best they could do was a citation for "Solicitation by handbill", which is only part of the ordinance; the rest excludes non commercial (free) handbills, which is what we were handing out.. All because the drivers were complaining that they were losing money because of us. Well I guess we did our job right! We weren't there to help them profit off the horses' misery! Being harassed as usual by "Dallas' Finest". No other crimes being committed downtown on Saturday eve. right? Dallas taxpayers' dollars at work!

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• police
• harassment
• free
• speech
• violation
• carriage
• horse
• demo
• cruelty
• Dallas

[blakmira]

American citizens concerned about cruelty to animals (a.k.a. animal rights activists) are now considered "domestic terrorists." They are now on the police lists of those to be suspicious of.

If they had been handing out leaflets for "free carriage rides," would they have been harrassed??? No.

Absurd. Please update when the Court has thrown this case out for being frivolent.

[4theA]

Our atty. wrote a letter to the City Atty in Dallas and cc'd the Chief of Police as well. Of course, the citations were thrown out; didn't even have to go to court as predicted, because they were bogus charges. The City Atty. is taking our complaints about the DPD's abuse of power seriously, especially right on the heels of the Ryan Moats case

[4theA]

I'll keep you posted on what is going to happen. We are considering suing the city and the DPD. Even if animal rights isn't your cause, the loss of our First Amendment rights should be important to EVERY American. It's amazing how people actually think they have freedom of speech. You do, as long as you agree with the government and have Corporate America's best interests at heart. No dissent, or your "free speech" becomes very expensive.

[4theA]

BTW we mean what is right for ALL living beings. I don't understand why people assume that animal lovers all hate people. Why does it have to be one or the other, I wonder.

[4theA]

Fortunately, yes he does. None of this is about money, it's about what is right and just. We wouldn't even care about money in a lawsuit. It's again about principles. We are TRYING to save what is left of America's so called "free speech" and other civil liberties. Our Atty. is as passionate about animals and democracy as we are, and he does a lot for us. We're extremely fortunate. :)

[OpinionatedVegan]

Does you lawyer work free?

That must be a hasssle if not...

[ModelTsNotHorses]

Funny. A parallel in NYC is that the police are woefully ignorant about the laws--or complete absence of them-with respect to feeding pigeons. There is NO LAW PROHIBITING this, as the NYC Bar Association has stated. The police don't know this--and will try to write you up. A property owner can post a sign "banning" it; thus the citation is roughly equivalent to a parking ticket. It is not even littering--it's gone in 5 seconds. Take a pic!

[nombrejohn]

I'm guessing those cops think the Ryan Moats stop was successful. If only they would focus on people committing crimes sometime.

[4theA]

Sorry, David - I replied 3 times, but it didn't post. Apologize for being defensive; get a lot of hate mail on these vids from antis. Stand your ground if a "cop" tells you you need a permit for free speech, whatever the form! Fuck the the police! Do you have an AR/Constitutional atty? You need one on speed dial here. Not kidding, how messed up is that? No matter what the cause, Americans need to fight for thier rights, or they'll be gone; poof! You know that's half our battle.

[daviddavis66]

It's hard to tell from a short post with no vocal inflection, but I wasn't attacking you. I came to this site as a supporter of "The Coalition to Ban Horse-Drawn Carriages". I saw the link in a recent newsletter. In your video, you write "they cited us for leafletting". I wondered how they could do that if it wasn't illegal. Now I understand from your response that police often issue "bogus" citations.

[4theA]

People who aren't in political movements think the police are there to "serve and protect". Well, they do - as long as you're a business. Police break the law all the time, jailing and citing on bogus charges, only to have them dropped and they never even make it into a courtroom. We don't care about the citations because they won't go to court. Did you not read the info I posted? They cited us for SOLICITING which means asking for money! They are free, which is legal everywhere.