St. Petersburg police kept their gay pride promise. As we reported last week, police chief Charles Harmon and Mayor Rick Baker teamed up to create so-called “free speech” zones in which gay activists and anti-gay activists could voice their respective, conflicting opinions.
The ACLU swore St. Petersburg authorities were violating both the gays’ and anti-gays’ freedom of speech. The police didn’t seem to care, however, because they arrested five people during this weekend’s pride – four of whom were anti-gay priders and “violated” the free speech zones…
Police say at around 1:15 p.m., four protesters were taken into custody after they were seen holding signs above their heads while within the street festival.
Officers say they repeatedly asked the protesters from Georgia to follow a city ordinance which does not allow hand held signs that are larger than the sign holder’s torso or signs held on a stick within a closed street. Joshua Pettigrew, Douglas Pitts, Willie Lee Holt III and Francis Primavera have been taken to the Pinellas County Jail, charged with violating a city ordinance.
The fifth person got nabbed for drunk and disorderly conduct, probably because she could feel her constitutional rights going up in flames.
floridaken77
Just a correction to this story from a St. Petersburg Native.
The free-speech zones were scrapped, and the protesters were arrested for not following current city laws regulating street festivals. These laws had been on the books before the pride festival.
The protesters were arrested for taking their extremely large signs into the street festival area which creates a saftey hazard.
The fifth person was a GLBT person who threw her drink at the protestors and was arrested for doing so.
underbear1
I hope the hours spent stewing in his OWN JUICES (which there could have been an OCEAN) inside a very hot paddy wagon…got the fat b*stard’s attention.
Who knows maybe Pastor Billy Ball dropped a couple pounds of unsightly flesh from his MORE THAN AMPLE fat a$$.
underbear1
Pastor Billy Ball should have brought Mrs. Ball..old medusa would have turned the cops to stone with a glance.