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Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad testified that Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini, who heads the Islamic Center, told him that for some members of his mosque, burning the Quran was considered a major crime. Qazwini expressed concern about how some young members of his mosque might react to Jones, Haddad testified.
Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Moran said in court that Qazwini talked about how some feel Quran-burning "is worse than more than 1,000 deaths. That's what the citizens of this society believe."
Moran used that as one reason why Jones should not be allowed to protest outside the Islamic Center, saying it would lead to a breach of the peace.
But in his closing arguments, Jones said that the fact that such a view about Quran-burning concerns him, raising questions about Islam and violence, he said.
http://www.freep.com/article/
Jones is bailed. That's not good enough. It's an outrage that he had to do more than simply pick up a permit and go on his way to demonstrate. But this is Obama's Left dhimmi fascist America now. We're all going to be in jail if this continues. America will be a prison.
DETROIT (WXYZ) - Controversial Quran-burning Pastor Terry Jones was taken to the Wayne County Jail, in Detroit, Michigan, after refusing to post a $1 peace bond.
However, someone posted the bond on his behalf not long after he was taken into custody.
Up-date:
Terry Jones was jailed briefly today in Dearborn, Michigan after refusing to pay a $1.00 bond-- and refusing to agree not to exercise his rights to free speech. It's not about the buck. You'd have to dig hard to find that in the mainstream media. Here's more, thanks to HRW at Infidel Bloggers Alliance.
Pastor seeking to protest at mosque briefly jailed
By COREY WILLIAMS
Associated Press
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- A Florida pastor's planned demonstration outside a Michigan mosque was scuttled Friday after a jury determined the protest would constitute a breach of the peace and he was briefly jailed for refusing to pay what authorities called a "peace bond."
The Rev. Terry Jones, whose past rhetoric against Muslims has inflamed anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan, said he refused to pay the $1 bond because to do so would violate his freedom of speech. He later paid it and was released.
Jones had planned a demonstration Friday evening outside the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit that is home to one of the largest Muslim communities in the nation. An estimated 30,000 people in Dearborn, about a third of the city's population, trace their roots to the Middle East.
Prosecutors worry that someone, who knows who, might get violent against Jones if he were allowed to demonstrate against violent Islam. It's Jones' fault if Muslims get violent, so Jones goes to jail for refusing to co-operate in his banishment.
Prosecutors worried the protest would lead to violence and asked Dearborn District Judge Mark Somers to intervene. Somers conducted a one-day jury trial to determine whether Jones would pose a threat to peace. They did, and Somers then ordered Jones and an associate to post the bond to ostensibly cover the costs of police protection.
While largely symbolic, the bond also came with conditions that included a prohibition on Jones from going to the mosque or the adjacent property for three years.
Somers said he spoke to the jury after they reached their verdict and they told him they were concerned with the "time, place and manner and not the content of the speech."
That place would be America, last time I checked.
But Robert Sedler, a constitutional law professor at Wayne State University, called the entire proceedings unconstitutional. He said the U.S. Supreme Court has found that it's the job of the police to protect speakers at such events and said it is unconstitutional to require protesters to post a bond for police protection.
"What basis did the state have for arguing that they would breach the peace?" Sedler said. "It's a matter of First Amendment requirement: The government can't stop a speaker from speaking because of danger from a hostile crowd."
The state law allowing a judge to require a bond "for preservation of public peace" originally dates to 1846. As recently as 1999, the state Court of Appeals upheld it as constitutional in a case involving feuding neighbors who sought peace bonds against each other.
4 comments:
We're all going to be in jail if this continues. America will be a prison.
Yep.
And the Constitution be damned as America submits to Islam.
My comment disappeared. Sorry about that. I thought I had responded to you far earlier in the day, but this will be it now.
There is a leftard academic whose work I like, Joanne Burke, who writes about soldiers in combat, and how most of them do not fire their weapons in combat, under fire, with visible targets, every good reason to fire. Most men just don't kill anyone ever. Even when they have a sgt. yelling at them, then they fire, but mostly blindly and they stop when the sgt moves on to the next man. Most men do not have it in them to kill. I like that. It means, though, that most men don't have it in them to do much of anything unless they have to, and that they will stop when no one is ordering them to do X. For us it means that roughly 15 per cent of men, and women, will be "active." It means people like you and our own will act, but that the rest will only help us rather than do on their own. The same is true of Muslims as well. I think it's roughly always true of everyone. Only 15 per cent will act for anything. We have to do by ourselves and accept that the rest will maybe help. There's no blame to cast, not resentment to feel about this. We are on our own, and I think we can feel gladness that we are the ones.
You are a doer. It is a blessing. I feel blessed too that I can do in this struggle. That 15 per cent of doers is a lot of people in our nation, and we will prevail. There is not only hope but a joy that we can do this great thing. Not all will share in our triumph directly. Most will sit on the side-lines and help, but they cannot be proud like you are proud and like I am proud of you and those who act. It's a good feeling to know that we are acting for the good in this grand battle. It is a blessing.
The authorities did not tell him he couldn't spew his opinions, they redirected him to another public place where his opinions might cause less loss of life; considering the history of his actions and their consequences that doesn't seem unreasonable, or a violation of his rights.
Atlanta, I'll respond to this tomorrow when I have a few moments to spare. Thanks for putting in your opinions.
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