I lived in a house in a large urban area that was broken into SIX times in six months. I put bars on the first floor and they climbed up and came in the second floor. I put bars up there and they were still climbing on the porches, pulling out the light meter (thinking I had an alarm system) etc. I lost family antiques (they weren't super valuable but they were to me.)

It is so nice to know prosecutors had time to waste on two guys kissing meanwhile, I had to move out of my house (couldn't sleep when I was there, and couldn't concentrate at work when I wasn't) because the police didn't do anything (and routinely took an hour to respond to a call).

They should join the beer fest at the White house. They were also treated unfairly just like the Professor.

Gee, that kinda of shows the lie that the church was trying to come up with. claiming that they were drunk, disorderly, etc… if ANY of that were true the Salt Lake City prosecuter would be all over them. It shows that the church will always change it's story and try to lie if they think they will be shown a bad light. Good for the prosecuters office for not letting them get away with it anymore.

Check out the security video of their take-down by the gestapo:

http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_12946027

I'll remember to bring mace whenever I walk through there now.

Wasn't Christ betrayed by a kiss? Ironic that attention seeking gays chose an age old way of disrespecting and degrading something sacred. Was it innocent affection or devious deception? Sadley, the latter has become the method preferred by the miserable and mislead gay community.

@TeleUte83:

Thanks for the link to The Salt Lakes Times and security video.

I noted the following in the body of the write-up.

On Wednesday, Salt Lake City Prosecutor Sim Gill announced the city will not pursue the trespassing case, citing a "misunderstanding" that occurred because the couple mistakenly believed the privately owned plaza contains a public right of way."

Umm, am I missing something here? Has it not already been established that the plaza does, in fact, have a public right of way that allowed everyone to pass through it before this unfortunate incident occurred?

Correction: The last paragraph is my comment and should not have been italicized. I neglected to add the necessary closing comment symbols at the end of the third paragraph.

Oh to be a citizen of this dumbass state. How fortunate am I? lol

Can private security legally detain private law abiding citizens. I would think that the Mor(m)ons have opened themselves up to a law suit. They weren't stealing, or vandalizing, or harassing anyone – and yet they were verbally and physically abused by the jerks.

You know, maybe not all Mormons, but those five Mormon thug security guards sure need to have their white asses kicked. Hard. And deep.

I would love to see gays (and lesbians) in SLC organize and fight back the next time some fucking Mormon lays a hand on them.

@JC: Sadly, I think you were misled, when you thought you received a proper education…or spell-check instructions. Recommendation: Invest in a dictionary, drop your bible at the door ; there are atheists, buddhists, etc., here as well.

The courts decided that the city of Salt Lake could NOT sell this land to the church WITHOUT keeping a public easement through it, so lie number one. It IS private land. BUT there is a public easement crossing it and you CANNOT be prevented from any action that is LEGAL on public land while you are there.

Lie number two. The church claimed that these two were drunk and disorderly and were acting threatening towards them. Yeeeeaahhhh, those two little guys were scaring the large group of big security guards around them. All I saw was the guards harrassing the two gay guys.

@Cam:

You are mostly correct, however they were drinking at a local free concert series that is held about 1 block from the area they were harrassed. So that part is true, so they may have been a bit disorderly, yet there is no need for there to be 5 security guards to handle these two guys the way they did.

wow what times we live in

..its a flipin kiss

Are these gestapo pigs going to be charged with assault, false arrest, and kidnapping? It's all on tape.

No. 5 · JC: Betrayal is something sacred how stupid are you?
You would be absolutely amazed at how the law acn be perverted in places like the Southwest. Thinking that justice will reign with these turkeys is like believing that Jesus and his flock of mallards will hitch-hike from Jerusalem and save them.

I think that Mormon was a mistaken variation on the word Moron but they didn't have spellcheck on.

@Dick Mills: I don't know what the law is in Utah, but here in Ohio a security officer can only make a citizen's arrest, and then only if the officer witnesses a felony taking place. I would imagine Utah's rules on this would be similar, though as backward and evil as the place is I could be wrong. If Utah's laws are similar, then these security officers clearly overstepped their authority and would most likely be fired if they were working for a legitimate security firm, not to mention having criminal charges levied against them.

Qeerty's article stated, "'Prosecutor Sim Gill said in a statement there is reason to believe that although the property is private, Matt Aune and his partner, Derek Jones, did not think they could legally be ejected from the plaza because it is perceived to be open to the public.' What does this teach us? Kiss-ins, apparently, work."

What is actually teaches us is that the Utah prosecutor knows what Utah law actually states.

http://le.utah.gov/~code/TITLE.....020600.htm has the full text (note that this is a government web site, so it is not someone's spin on it). In particular:

(4) It is a defense to prosecution under this section that:
(a) the property was open to the public when the actor
entered or remained; and
(b) the actor's conduct did not substantially interfere
with the owner's use of the property.

There were signs indicating that the area was open to the public, and the video clearly shows others walking through the area and not being harassed. The law clearly states that the state cannot successfully prosecute someone for criminal trespass when the property was open to the public at the time and that person was not doing something that substantially interfered with the owner's use of the property.

The prosecutor dropped charges because Aune and Jones have a very good defense, one that is basically airtight.

With that out of the way, the Mormons should be very worried about the possibility of a civil suit.