Demonstrators who turned out Tuesday night to decry Boca Raton's proposed ordinance designed to ban injurious weapons at protests got a surprise at the end of the meeting.
The people, who turned out with duct tape across their mouths, banging drums outside City Hall and wearing t-shirts objecting to the ordinance, drew praise from City Council members.
“This ordinance is designed to stop people who would disrupt meetings like this,” said Mayor Steven Abrams.
He also complimented the protesters on their behavior. “Whatever happens,” he said, “I hope they are all as peaceful as this public hearing.”
Despite claims from the crowd that the ordinance is unconstitutional, the council voted 5-0 to adopt the measure that makes it a crime to bring wood, metal, pipes, bricks, stones, paint or other “weapons” to protest assemblages.
For the second day in a row, City Attorney Diana Grub Frieser stressed the amount of work that went into the ordinance to make sure it is constitutional.. “We did an extremely thorough search of the law,” she said, reviewing court decisions and trying to “incorporate them” into the document.
The law encourages a degree of discretion, she noted. “If you are walking down the street drinking a soda from a bottle, that can be explained. But if you are carrying 10 glass bottles in a box and are walking toward a demonstration,” that is likely to be construed as a potentially dangerous act.
She also noted that police will give potential offenders a chance to surrender their weapon with “no violation of the ordinance - unless they do not surrender.”
Still, a group of youths that apparently arrived together, some from Boca, but others from West Palm Beach and Lake Worth, expressed dissatisfaction.
“I’m surprised that my home town is taking away my freedom of speech and assembly,” said Mary Sheffield, a Boca native. She urged council members: “Don’t gag our city.”
Another man, a Delray Beach resident, member of the Florida Bar and ACLU member, said the ordinance - which he also called unconstitutional - could make Boca “a laughing stock.”
“The intent is not to restrain free speech, but to encourage it,” said Grub Frieser.
To conclude their objections, one member of the group, a Lake Worth resident, stood mute at the podium for several minutes, duct tape across his mouth. After several minutes, he thrust a fist into the air and about 10 people in the audience applauded.
Soon after, the council - with little discussion - adopted the measure.
The ordinance was drafted at the request of Police Chief Andrew Scott, and was based on information that protesters may picket next month’s Republican Governors Association annual meeting at the Boca Raton Resort & Club. Some of the demonstrators may be from a protest at the Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting in Miami. An FTAA meeting in Seattle in 1999 caused serious street fighting.
Abrams said the goal is to keep the expected protesters from getting out of hand.
“We are not worried about the peaceful protesters,” he said. “It’s the handful of vandals who are prone to violent acts that this ordinance seeks to address.”
He said the law is actually designed to protect peaceful protesters themselves by keeping away those who would use violence.
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