Ferguson protesters challenge validity of 'interfering with police' law
By Kim Bell | STLToday.com | December 16, 2015, 2:40PMCLAYTON - Two protesters arrested for interfering with police during a Ferguson protest in 2014 have filed suit, claiming a county ordinance is too vague and should be tossed out.
The suit was filed on behalf of two protesters: the Rev. Melissa V. Bennett and KB Frazier. Bennett is spiritual director for the Ferguson Center for Spiritual Living. Frazier has attended numerous rallies, beating a drum he carries around his neck.
The suit was filed against St. Louis County, county counselor Peter Krane and Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster. It asks that the county ordinance be tossed out as unconstitutional. Bennett and Frazier claim it is too vague, so it violates their 14th Amendment rights, and so broad that it violates their First Amendment rights.
The ordinance allows officers to arrest protesters for interfering with or obstructing them “in any manner.” Maggie Ellinger-Locke, an attorney representing Bennett and Frazier, said the ordinance never defines interfering or obstructing.
“The arbitrary application of this ordinance cannot be left entirely to an officer’s discretion,” Ellinger-Locke said in a statement, “and protesters need to know if or when they’re in violation of the law.”
Frazier and Bennett said they were arrested while on a sidewalk outside the Ferguson police station on Oct. 22, 2014. They were taking part in a protest against police brutality. They were charged by the county counselor on July 21, 2015.
The charges allege they “unlawfully interfered in any manner with a police officer or other employee of the County in the performance of his official duties or obstructed him in any manner whatsoever while performing any duty to wit, by walking and standing in the roadway after being warned not to do so by the police officer.”
Before the case went to trial, the county counselor dropped the charges.
More at link:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/ferguson-protesters-challenge-validity-of-interfering-with-police-law/article_80e6b1f2-92ff-5bfc-a68e-4d161950e2f9.html