Crossposted at The Wide Awakes

You’d think that such a simple political act as getting a petition signed would have long ago been settled an an “inalienable right” in American jurisprudence, especially if you have paid for a table at the event, and the promoters have approved your purpose, and indeed it has been settled by the courts.

Well, someone needs to inform the Sunrise, Florida Police Department of this tenet of American law, because between them, five of that city’s officers couldn’t get it right.

WorldNet Daily reports that the incident happened at a Promise Keepers conference near Ft. Lauderdale, and says that the “homosexual-activist police officer” who was involved in security at the event is being investigated for purported threats made to members of the group — Florida4Marriage.org – who were petitioning for a state consitutional marriage amendment.

“I have never in my life seen such unprofessional and bizarre behavior from a law enforcement officer,” said John Stemberger, the president and general counsel of the Florida Family Policy Council.

“This kind of ridiculous harassment and intimidation was meant to thwart the effort to protect marriage in Florida. It should remind all of us that we are engaged in a culture war. …”

Working from a rented table at the June 2-3 conference, the group was there to try and collect signatures on petitions calling for a statewide vote on protecting traditional marriage — that between one man and one woman. However, Sunrise police officers stepped in and stopped the petition signing, physically removing the petitions from the table:

“Officers then physically removed the petitions from ‘public view’ on the table at the exhibitors tent,” the council said in a website update of the situation. “Two of the male officers mocked the volunteers by kissing each other after they initially removed all the petitions from the area.”

This is like a nightmare — a clearly defined constitutional right being denied by a sworn officer of the law! And why? For no other reason than the officer’s personal beliefs were different from those of the group seeking to have a peition signed by legal Florida voters. Focus on the Family’s CitizenLink.org gives more details on the confrontation between Stemberger and Officer Allen:

“I confronted the officer and asked if he had ordered the volunteers to put the petitions away, and he said he had,” Stemberger said. “I then proceeded to ask him the legal authority for that. And that’s when the amazing thing started.”

The officer, he said, started haranguing him, not about any law or ordinance, but about theology and his personal views on gay marriage.

“He said that Jesus never mentioned homosexuality in the New Testament — which is not exactly accurate,” Stemberger said. “He went on and on talking about theology.”

Stemberger alleges the officer also made abusive and intimidating comments — and even taunted volunteers by mock kissing another officer.

What he did not do, according to the Florida activist, was give any legal reason for why the group could not distribute petitions.

“He would not give me the basis for his authority,” Stemberger said, “for telling me why we could not distribute petitions at this event that we paid to be there for.”

An attorney, Stemberger said he tried several times to reason with the officer.

“After I pressed him, he said, ‘Look, I’m the governing authority, and the Bible says you’re to obey the governing authorities.’ And I said, ‘Sir, we’re all under authority, and you’re under the authority of the United States Constitution, which you are now violating.’ ”

Stemberger said the officer eventually told him that there was “a standing rule at the civic center” that flyers and petitions could not be passed out.

“So, after consulting with legal counsel, I thought, you know what, I’m going to go to the mat on this,” he said. “This is totally improper. He’s harassing us. He’s suppressing our constitutional right to peacefully assemble, speak freely and petition the government.

“So I went back to the table and put all the petitions back on the table with the clipboards.

“He said, ‘You remove them immediately, or I will arrest you.’ And I said, ‘Sir, you’re going to have to arrest me because you’re acting without authority.’ ”

Stemberger said the 45-minute incident finally ended without arrests or further complications after an administrator from the civic center showed up and confronted the officer, telling him to stand down.

Florida4Marriage.org has much more, including a PDF file with several links, including a video clip by CBS4, a local station.

I always knew that the Left was radical about supporting their agenda, but I never thought it would take the form of usurping a Constitutional right by a sworn officer of the law. Here’s hoping that Sgt. Allen’s days as a sworn officer are shortly numbered.

TD