Gregory Owen won’t be kicked out of this year’s Italian Festival for
handing out religious material—but it took a court order to make it
happen.
In 2011, Buffalo, N.Y., police threatened to arrest Owen
for peacefully sharing his faith on the public streets and sidewalks
during the festival. Police ordered Owen to leave the festival, which
was free and open to the public, if he intended to continue handing out
Christian literature. One officer also threatened to arrest him.
“People of faith
shouldn’t be threatened with arrest for peacefully expressing their
beliefs,” says Nate Kellum, chief counsel with the Center for Religious
Expression and one of more than 2,100 attorneys in the Alliance Defense
Fund (ADF). “The city has done the right thing in allowing Gregory to
peacefully speak with willing passers-by and hand out literature this
year, just as the Constitution allows.”
Here's the backstory:
Owen, together with a friend and members of his family, walked up and
down Hertel Avenue during the 2011 Greater Buffalo Italian Heritage
Festival to hand out Christian literature and discuss his faith with
willing passers-by.
Although the road is a public street in a
section of town known as “Little Italy,” police approached Owen and told
him to leave under threat of arrest, claiming that his speech violated
an agreement with festival organizers. As one officer told the man, “If
you hand out one more tract, you’re going to jail.”
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