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Democracy can get noisy, unless you're at BayWalk

By ROBYN E. BLUMNER
Published September 4, 2005

The night the Lightning won the Stanley Cup in 2004, downtown Tampa erupted in a cacophony of enthusiastic horn-blowing. Police were everywhere directing pedestrians, guiding cars, but not one officer I passed had any objection to the celebratory noise being made by fans leaning on their horns.

Contrast that to the tickets given drivers who tap their car horns in support of the antiwar protesters at BayWalk in St. Petersburg.

So, expressing yourself with your horn is just dandy if you are a hockey fan. But using your horn to express concern over the deaths of American soldiers and innocent Iraqis is strictly prohibited and you will be forcibly quieted by police.

Nice priorities.

I spent the evening of Saturday, Aug. 27 at BayWalk, watching the entirety of the weekly St. Pete for Peace demonstration. At its peak, there were probably 100 or so protesters, many standing with antiwar and anti-Bush signs and banners. A couple of demonstrators chanted with megaphones. As far as I could tell, the demonstrators didn't try to engage BayWalk's customers who walked by - unless they were provoked by someone loudly dissenting. And despite the removal of the barricades (a wise decision by whoever made it), pedestrians had no problem moving unimpeded on the sidewalk or the crosswalk.

Security abounded, though. I counted at least 10 St. Petersburg police officers on foot patrol and a number of BayWalk security personnel - all helping to keep order and keep protester toes off BayWalk property. Two officers were acting as crossing guards, stopping cars in front of the crosswalk on Second Avenue N. It looked to me like a reasonable solution to the concern over pedestrian safety.

While the police and protesters mostly stayed out of each other's way, I observed continued hostility by some officers, who approached protesters in a surly and aggressive manner and issued hypertechnical citations.

On Aug. 20, eyewitnesses say, three people were cited for unlawful horn use in support of the protest. One of those was Dr. Elizabeth E. Valentine, a clinical psychologist and consultant, who said she was ticketed after tapping on her horn to express support for getting out of Iraq.

The 64-year-old Valentine, from St. Petersburg, said she was "totally perplexed" and initially had no idea why police pulled her over. After being told, she was stunned. "I had no thought that (what I did) was irresponsible. To me this is customary. You respond to people holding signs," said Valentine, who noted that she was in a commercial area and not disturbing any residents. Valentine plans on fighting the ticket. "All of a sudden people have to worry about what they believe in," she said.

The next weekend, I observed Margaret Lakas get arrested - handcuffs and all - for annoying an officer by tapping out a rhythmic ditty with her horn in unity with protesters as drove by. According to the police report, Lakas was charged with "obstruction" for failing to quit beeping when ordered to do so and for stopping her car in the crosswalk. I watched the arrest unfold. Police were motioning for her to stop and move over, and she was complying with those orders, though she continued to tap her horn. I also witnessed a driver in the car behind her get ticketed for a horn tap or two.

While this was going on, the steady bass thumping out of Wet Willie's was so loud that I had to raise my voice to the person next to me to be heard.

Noisy music was all around, but the protesters were warned not to make any - at least not with instruments. Police claim that the playing of instruments by demonstrators violates the city's noise pollution ordinance.

Not quite.

While the ordinance does limit the playing of instruments on public property after 8 p.m., it specifically exempts "public speaking and public assembly activities." Even Mark Winn, the chief assistant city attorney, agreed that the ordinance "probably" doesn't apply to the BayWalk protests.

But the clear language of the law didn't help 16-year-old Peter Likins, who blew a shofar (an instrument made from a ram's horn) at the start of the Aug. 27 protest at about 7:30 p.m. As Peter explains, the shofar is used in the Jewish faith "to call people to a gathering."

An officer, according to Peter, told him to stop because he was violating the noise ordinance. When Peter responded that the ordinance wasn't applicable, Peter claims the officer just kept repeating, "you better cut it out." Peter put the instrument down rather than get arrested.

Making music to make a political point should be at least as tolerable as the pounding club music emanating from BayWalk's open-air bars; and car horns for peace should be granted the same latitude as those of excited sports fans. At its core, the First Amendment protects political speech, and a public sidewalk is a traditional site of public protest. Some St. Petersburg police officers don't get that or don't want to.

[Last modified September 2, 2005, 19:39:02]