http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=FruQO8qaw9c<\/a>\nAttorney Jennifer Monk, associate general counsel with\u00a0a group called\u00a0Advocates for Faith and Freedom, filed the suit April 25 in U.S. District Court, alleging free speech violations and unlawful arrest. She’s representing the man who was arrested —\u00a0Mark Mackey, a member of Calvary Chapel in Hemet.<\/p>\n
The other two plaintiffs, assistant Pastor Brett Coronado and Ed Flores Jr., were\u00a0later arrested after asking what laws were broken to merit Mackey\u2019s arrest.<\/p>\n
According to the 13-page complaint, the trio began sharing the gospel at 8:10 a.m. nearly an hour before the DMV opened. The audience was people waiting in line for the office to open.<\/p>\n
All three were taken to the CHP offices where they were handcuffed to a table for about 90 minutes. They were cited for \u201cimpeding an open business,\u201d although the facility was not open and the men were never closer than 50 feet of any entrance. A spokesman for the Hemet office told a local newspaper that the church members had been warned in the past that they needed a permit to preach on state property.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an abuse of power on the part of the CHP,\u201d Monk said. \u201cThe arresting officer could find no appropriate penal code to use when arresting these men.\u00a0The purpose of the arrests appears to have been to censor them.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the time of the lawsuit\u2019s filing, the district attorney\u2019s office had yet to pursue any charges against the men.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable that something like this could happen in America today,\u201d says Coronado.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether this was an intentional violation of our clients\u2019 constitutional liberty or whether this was an act of ignorance on the part of the CHP, this lawsuit is important in order to preserve the liberty to read the Bible aloud on public property without fear of criminal prosecution,\u201d said Jennifer Monk.<\/p>\n
So, the question is: If the U.S. Supreme Court says that the obnoxious Westboro Baptist Church has the right to defile the funerals of America’s fallen soldiers, how can a little church in southern California\u00a0be denied their right\u00a0to read aloud from Romans 1 to Department of Motor Vehicles customers waiting for bureaucrats to open their office?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Watch this video and ask yourself whether this street preacher was a trouble-maker or merely exercising his right to freedom of speech. You’ll watch him being arrested for reading aloud from Romans 1 outside of the Department of Motor Vehicles in Hemet, California. Attorney Jennifer Monk, associate general counsel with\u00a0a group called\u00a0Advocates for Faith and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,149,107],"tags":[160,158,159,413],"class_list":["post-1390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-persecution","category-political-correctness","tag-california","tag-freedom-of-speech","tag-freedom-of-worship","tag-persecution"],"yoast_head":"\n
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