The Gideon Bible Foundation facing charges for being on public land, Florida says no one can be within 500 feet of a public school
By de Andréa
March 09, 2007
The Gideon International foundation has been giving Bibles to school children all over the world in 181 countries in 82 Languages virtually unmolested for nearly 200 years ; that is, until now.
Two Florida men who wanted to give Bibles to children in their community have been charged under a little used state law that bans anyone from being within 500 feet of the land on which schools are built unless they have "legitimate business or prior authorization." Apparently Christians giving Bibles to Children is no longer classified a legitimate, not in Key Largo Florida anyway.
Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson of Monroe County Florida in Key Largo were arrested, booked into jail, and charged with trespassing because they were handing out Bibles while standing on a public sidewalk adjacent to a school. Those trespassing charges were dismissed on a motion from lawyers from the Alliance Defence Fund who challenged them on factual and constitutional grounds.
But Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman said he'd been notified that the two men now are being re-charged under a different statute, this one banning anyone from being on public property within 500 feet of a school property without "prior authorization or legitimate business."
He said the law also includes an exemption for someone who lives within that distance from a school property. "This obviously is unconstitutional for several reasons," Cortman said. "The First Amendment gives you a right to be out there and engage in speech. Is anyone who uses the sidewalk or [the adjacent] highway now in violation?"
He said another issue is the definition of "legitimate business.” It's not for the government to apply those words using one definition to one group of people, and then apply those words using another definition to another group of people, he said.
"The government is not allowed to have unbridled discretion to define words in whatever manner they choose," he said. The Gideon’s have been legitimate for about 200 years now, but apparently not in the State of Florida.
On the face of the statute cited by the prosecutor, people driving by the school on the highway technically are in violation of the law, unless they have an exemption, and if the same exemption doesn't apply to the two members of the Gideon’s, then that creates a content-based speech restriction, which also isn't proper, Cortman said.
"The question I have is why the state is so intent on punishing these gentlemen for passing out Bibles on public property?" he asked. "This in America is just beyond comprehension."
The arrest happened Jan. 19, 2007 when Mirto and Simpson were on the sidewalk outside of Key Largo School in Key Largo, Fla., and were distributing copies of the Bible to those interested.
A written report from the ADF on the case confirmed that neither man entered school grounds. Despite that, the school's principal called police, and an officer from the Monroe County sheriff's office asked the men to leave immediately or face trespassing charges. As the men prepared to leave, the officer decided to arrest both individuals, the report said.
"Officials cannot use fear of arrest as a means of bullying law-abiding Christians into silence," Cortman said. "These men broke no laws when they decided to communicate their message on a public sidewalk."
In a statement at the outset of the case, Becky Herrin, of the public information office in the Monroe County sheriff's office, stated as a fact that the defendants in the case did trespass.
But the report revealed the two were arrested while in their truck. The report said that on the complaint from school Principal Annette Martinson, when the two defendants were ordered by the deputy to leave an area that included a bike path, "both defendants slowly walked away towards a pick up truck that was parked in front of the school."
The officer then confirms, "I observed both defendants enter the pick up truck and remain seated inside.” He watched for several minutes, then approached the pickup truck, "I asked both defendants why they where refusing to leave," and "Defendant Simpson III stated, we where just leaving." Perez then confirmed that after he got a call from the sheriff's office notifying him that Simpson was complaining "about a deputy at the Key Largo School asking him to leave, I advised Sgt. Mixon I was out with Simpson and he was going to be placed under arrest for trespassing."
The Gideon’s, are a “legitimate” Christian organization founded in the late 1800s, has as its "sole purpose" the goal "to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through association for service, personal testimony, and distributing the Bible in the human traffic lanes and streams of everyday life."
The organization has for the last 200 years focused on hotels and motels, hospitals and nursing homes, schools, colleges and universities, the military and law enforcement and prisons and jails.
THE BOTTOM LINE: It appears to be open season on Christians these days. One cannot help but wonder what would have happened if the Politically Correct School Administration of Key Largo School would have encountered a couple of Imams handing out Qurans, instead of these two Gideon’s handing out Bibles. My best guess is that there would have been a fear that they were there to blow up the school, but because of their “Political Correct Religion” which forbids profiling, the whole thing would have been handled very discreetly. Moreover, the Muslim Imams would then have been allowed to continue because unlike how the Government treats Christians, we surely don’t want the Muslims to get their prayer rugs in a bunch now do we?
Maybe we should turn this case over to the Federal “persecutors” that like to put border guards in jail instead of the drug runners that they are paid to prosecute…
de Andréa .
March 09, 2007
The Gideon International foundation has been giving Bibles to school children all over the world in 181 countries in 82 Languages virtually unmolested for nearly 200 years ; that is, until now.
Two Florida men who wanted to give Bibles to children in their community have been charged under a little used state law that bans anyone from being within 500 feet of the land on which schools are built unless they have "legitimate business or prior authorization." Apparently Christians giving Bibles to Children is no longer classified a legitimate, not in Key Largo Florida anyway.
Anthony Mirto and Ernest Simpson of Monroe County Florida in Key Largo were arrested, booked into jail, and charged with trespassing because they were handing out Bibles while standing on a public sidewalk adjacent to a school. Those trespassing charges were dismissed on a motion from lawyers from the Alliance Defence Fund who challenged them on factual and constitutional grounds.
But Senior Legal Counsel David Cortman said he'd been notified that the two men now are being re-charged under a different statute, this one banning anyone from being on public property within 500 feet of a school property without "prior authorization or legitimate business."
He said the law also includes an exemption for someone who lives within that distance from a school property. "This obviously is unconstitutional for several reasons," Cortman said. "The First Amendment gives you a right to be out there and engage in speech. Is anyone who uses the sidewalk or [the adjacent] highway now in violation?"
He said another issue is the definition of "legitimate business.” It's not for the government to apply those words using one definition to one group of people, and then apply those words using another definition to another group of people, he said.
"The government is not allowed to have unbridled discretion to define words in whatever manner they choose," he said. The Gideon’s have been legitimate for about 200 years now, but apparently not in the State of Florida.
On the face of the statute cited by the prosecutor, people driving by the school on the highway technically are in violation of the law, unless they have an exemption, and if the same exemption doesn't apply to the two members of the Gideon’s, then that creates a content-based speech restriction, which also isn't proper, Cortman said.
"The question I have is why the state is so intent on punishing these gentlemen for passing out Bibles on public property?" he asked. "This in America is just beyond comprehension."
The arrest happened Jan. 19, 2007 when Mirto and Simpson were on the sidewalk outside of Key Largo School in Key Largo, Fla., and were distributing copies of the Bible to those interested.
A written report from the ADF on the case confirmed that neither man entered school grounds. Despite that, the school's principal called police, and an officer from the Monroe County sheriff's office asked the men to leave immediately or face trespassing charges. As the men prepared to leave, the officer decided to arrest both individuals, the report said.
"Officials cannot use fear of arrest as a means of bullying law-abiding Christians into silence," Cortman said. "These men broke no laws when they decided to communicate their message on a public sidewalk."
In a statement at the outset of the case, Becky Herrin, of the public information office in the Monroe County sheriff's office, stated as a fact that the defendants in the case did trespass.
But the report revealed the two were arrested while in their truck. The report said that on the complaint from school Principal Annette Martinson, when the two defendants were ordered by the deputy to leave an area that included a bike path, "both defendants slowly walked away towards a pick up truck that was parked in front of the school."
The officer then confirms, "I observed both defendants enter the pick up truck and remain seated inside.” He watched for several minutes, then approached the pickup truck, "I asked both defendants why they where refusing to leave," and "Defendant Simpson III stated, we where just leaving." Perez then confirmed that after he got a call from the sheriff's office notifying him that Simpson was complaining "about a deputy at the Key Largo School asking him to leave, I advised Sgt. Mixon I was out with Simpson and he was going to be placed under arrest for trespassing."
The Gideon’s, are a “legitimate” Christian organization founded in the late 1800s, has as its "sole purpose" the goal "to win men, women, boys and girls to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ through association for service, personal testimony, and distributing the Bible in the human traffic lanes and streams of everyday life."
The organization has for the last 200 years focused on hotels and motels, hospitals and nursing homes, schools, colleges and universities, the military and law enforcement and prisons and jails.
THE BOTTOM LINE: It appears to be open season on Christians these days. One cannot help but wonder what would have happened if the Politically Correct School Administration of Key Largo School would have encountered a couple of Imams handing out Qurans, instead of these two Gideon’s handing out Bibles. My best guess is that there would have been a fear that they were there to blow up the school, but because of their “Political Correct Religion” which forbids profiling, the whole thing would have been handled very discreetly. Moreover, the Muslim Imams would then have been allowed to continue because unlike how the Government treats Christians, we surely don’t want the Muslims to get their prayer rugs in a bunch now do we?
Maybe we should turn this case over to the Federal “persecutors” that like to put border guards in jail instead of the drug runners that they are paid to prosecute…
de Andréa .
Posts
1 comment:
The Gideon's organization is not representing the men. The Gideon's organization is not being legally challenged, nor did they get arrested. These men were arrested for trespassing, or not staying far enough away from the school, not for handing out Bibles. There's enough information out there in the secular press.
Check this story out:
http://baptistmessenger.com/story/5AB0B8F454C48A2490F67BC03C6788E9
Post a Comment