Editorial: Trashing free speech

Friday, April 23, 2004 | 8:47 a.m.

On the evening of April 14, Tom Griner and Jim Webber were preaching on a sidewalk in front of The Venetian. That's not surprising, as a federal court ruled two years ago that the sidewalk there is public, not private. The ruling was significant, as people may use public sidewalks to express themselves as guaranteed by the First Amendment. Nevertheless, the resort's security force asked Metro Police to remove the pair and two Metro bicycle officers initially sought to do so. It was only after the street preachers objected, and Gary Peck and Allen Lichtenstein of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada immediately intervened on their behalf, that the police allowed Griner and Webber to continue preaching.

Clark County Sheriff Bill Young says that while the sidewalk is public, police officers have the right to make sure that street preachers or anyone else can't block the flow of pedestrian traffic. But as pointed out Wednesday by Sun columnist Jeff German, who viewed a videotape of the incident that was made by Griner and Webber, pedestrians weren't obstructed at all. Furthermore, the videotape captured the police officers inexplicably saying that because the sidewalk was "part of their (The Venetian's) house," the resort could have the preachers removed.

We hope this disturbing incident is an isolated one. Sheriff Young needs to make it crystal clear to all police officers that the First Amendment isn't a civil liberties protection that can be taken away at the whim of a resort.