Or attempts to anyway.
Dearborn filed an injunction against the idiotic minister from Florida, asking Jones to pay over 40,000 dollars in security fees or be banned from protesting in front of a Mosque tomorrow as he had originally planned.
Jones is due in court today on a request by Wayne County prosecutors and the Dearborn police that he pay more than $46,000 in security costs to protect him during his protest. They are also arguing that he should protest instead at Dearborn City Hall or the city’s civic center, not the Islamic Center, where he wants to protest against sharia and jihad.
http://www.freep.com/...
Within a matter of hours, the Michigan ACLU has stepped in to protest the injunction by the city. Rightly, the ACLU is siding with Jones about the restriction on his freedom of speech.
This is an inflammatory subject and without a doubt Jones is a bigot, a moron, or any other number of things too numerous to mention. However, I believe that Dearborn has made a fundamental error in their approach to Jones' planned protest.
Here are some of the possible results of the attempted censorship by Wayne County and Dearborn:
1.) Jones is looking for Martyrdom. He wants the to the "Hero" either by instigating violence from the Muslim community or by falling on his sword as a hero of the first amendment. To this end he has already succeeded to a certain degree.
2.) What Dearborn is doing - and by asking Jones to protest in their designated 'free speech zones' - is essentially the ' Heckler's Veto' with regard to free speech. It's also blatantly unconstitutional. Jones knows that. The ACLU knows that. Dearborn and Wayne County should know that and any civil jury or judge is definitely going to know that.
3.) Which brings me to point three: Jones can pull a Westboro Baptist Church here, by claiming the mantle of free speech and forcing Dearborn to react the way they did, he may be able land a large settlement and continue to finance his hate.
We'll see what happens. But in a free society, Jone's speech must be allowed and therefore tolerated. It doesn't mean we support it, or that we cannot counter it. But it cannot be suppressed. Updated by campionrules at Thu Apr 21, 2011 at 01:53 PM PDT
Update: Per the Free Press, Jones refuses to pay the bond that County requested: Will go to a Jury to decide whether he must pay the bond. Expect civil lawsuits if denied.