The headline sounds bizarre but that is exactly what happened today to Democracy For America Miami-Dade's (DFAM) President Charles and me, the DFAM Media Director, at the Ft. Lauderdale Folk Festival.
We paid to be vendors at the event, set up our unassuming table where we had our postcards and flyers for an anti-war protest we are sponsoring at Bayfront Park on January 20th in Miami. (www.grassrootsmiami.com)
It was raining and I decided to put some cards back in the car. As I walked back, I passed a gentleman and causally handed him a card.
He yelled out to me, "You cant pass this out here."
I replied, "Pardon? I am a vendor here."
He said, "I am the park manager and it is against the law to distribute political information in parks in Broward County."
I walked back to our table and told Charlie, I believe we are about to get in trouble. And sure enough the Sheriff appeared and told us to leave.
I asked to see this law in writing. No politics in a public park? We were at a Folk Festival. Folk music. Bob Dylan songs. Joan Baez. Woody Guthrey. Peter, Paul and Mary. How much more political can you get? Funny about that... you actually could get more political.. Our table was next to the ACLU. The American Civil Liberties Union. All of the above was ok, but two people sitting under a beach umbrella with a large blackand white poster version of our flier, some orange fliers and our post cards, well we were the law breakers.
We waited for them to present something in writing. Then the Sheriff came back with the Folk Festival organizers who appologized profusely and said they had no idea about any such law but would refund our money.
We didn't make an enormous deal about it because it was raining and the place was pretty empty. Had people been there, you would likely see photos of Charlie and I being taken away in cuffs. And we really didn't want to get the festival organizers in trouble.
We spoke with the park manager, who said he couldn't find the law in writing but that we could call the head of the Parks Department on Monday.
After we packed up our stuff we walked around the festival. We talked with people about the protest and then would tell them we got kicked out of the festival. They were all shocked. After we saw a man in a golf cart ride by carrying an enormous sign promoting a candidate for office, I made some phone calls to the press.
Does this law even exist? We don't know.The press never heard of such a law and they are still looking into it.
What we do know is that the folk festival paid for the grounds, and most of the folk singers were singing songs against war.
Some of them kindly mentioned our protest while they were up on stage performing.
It all seemed a bit ironic.
UPDATE: The Sun Sentinnel up in Broward County called and the story is running tomorrow. They said the organizers wanted us to come back at no charge if it is ok with the park manager (the organizers really felt awful about the whole situation)
The only law anyone can find is about making a nuisance in the park, which I was hardly doing. And someone did have a We Support Our Troops banner and the park manager said that too would be considered illegal in the park. We insisted he not do anything because as Charles put it, Who doesn't support our troops?
The ACLU asked for us to submit in writing what happened and their panel will consider taking on the case. They said if we decide to go back again tomorrow we should let them know we are coming and that we should bring media with us.