Jason Pitzl-Waters recently posted about the “Freedom to Harass Us” case in Grand Rapids Michagan. There, a group of Christian evangelists invaded a Pagan Pride day festival, harassed its participants, even surrounded a little girl and drove her to tears, according to one commenter on Pitzl-Waters’ site. The implications of the court case are pretty serious, as Pitzl-Waters explains:

If Ickes, the Street Preachers Fellowship, and the Alliance Defense Fund were to win this case, Christian groups in Grand Rapids would be allowed to set up next to Pagan events with no prior warning and “evangelize” (ie harass and intimidate) as much as they wanted. Of course it would also allow for any group to set up next to another in a public park so long as they didn’t physically attack them. So the Klan would be able to “peacefully” set up next to a Martin Luther King day celebration, and neo-Nazis could send their “message” to a Jewish festival so long as they don’t use electronic amplification.

While some free speech absolutists would agree to such a proposition, such a reality would create a larger “chilling effect” than preventing opposing groups to pounce on an already permitted public event. It would mean that no group could use a public space without fear of that event being disrupted by the “free speech” of their idealogical opponents.

This recent event underscores the need for a nation-wide association of Pagans trained in security. Maybe some of the ugliness could have been prevented. If not, it could have been recorded for the use of the defendants in the pending lawsuit.

In the forums, we are working on forming just such an organization. For more information, visit this thread in the “Warrior Path” folder.