Local Police Attempt to Block Collection of Pro-Marriage Petitions

by Fred Jackson and Jody Brown
June 7, 2006

(AgapePress) - - A pro-family group in Florida is outraged over the behavior of some police officers last weekend who tried to stop a petition drive aimed at protecting traditional marriage.

Last weekend members of the Florida Family Policy Council were at a Promise Keepers conference in Broward County where they were collecting petitions for the Florida4Marriage campaign, an effort to get onto the November 2008 ballot an amendment protecting traditional marriage. The pro-family group had paid a fee to have a booth at the PK event at which it was collecting the petitions in support of the campaign's goal of gathering 611,009 signatures by July 12, 2006.

Then in what the group calls a "stunning display of unprofessional conduct," several members of the City of Sunrise Police Department arrived at the scene and ordered Council vice president Nathan Dunn to stop collecting the petitions, and then removed the petitions from public view. A discussion ensued, during which John Stemberger -- president and general counsel for the Council -- was summoned to the scene. The group says Stemberger's request for an explanation of what law or ordinance was being violated was ignored by Police Sergeant Stephen Allen, who it says then began lecturing nearby volunteers on what Jesus taught about homosexuality, claiming that the petition effort was a waste of time and that he was the authority and they should obey him.

"It quickly became apparent that [Allen] was a supporter of gay marriage and personally disagreed with the marriage amendment effort," says the Council's press release, which includes a picture of Allen kissing another male officer on the cheek in what the family advocacy group describes as a "mocking" gesture.

Stemberger reportedly returned the petitions to the exhibit table after security and event officials informed the police the petitions were authorized to be distributed at the table. At the height of the confrontation, notes the press release, the police sergeant "continued to interrupt with abusive and irrelevant personal remarks" and even threatened Stemberger with arrest if the petitions were not immediately removed from the table.

"I stood in between the petitions and the officer and told Allen he had no legal authority," Stemberger said later, adding that he informed the sergeant he "had no legal authority, was in violation of the U.S. Constitution, and would have to arrest me because the petitions were going to stay on the table."

The incident finally ended when an official with the Bank Atlantic Center intervened to tell the officers that no laws or rules were being broken, and that the petitions could be distributed at the table. Allen and the other officers then left the scene.

Stemberger says he has never before seen such "unprofessional and bizarre" behavior from a law enforcement officer. Allen, he says, was "abusing" his authority and "trying to bully law-abiding citizens" just because he disagreed with them. "This is unacceptable and a disgrace to the thousands of good cops in Florida that put their lives on the line every day to protect our families and our liberties," the Council president says.

The pro-family group says the officers' "harassment and intimidation" should be a reminder to families of the culture war that is going on. "If we do not stand up to this type of abuse of power, then our constitutional rights will continue to be violated," says Stemberger.