The latest battle in the culture wars is being waged on the
unlikeliest of
battlefields: Seattle’s University District Farmers
Market at Northeast 50th Street and University Way.
In an e-mail to market staff and vendors last week, Neighborhood
Farmers Market Alliance director Chris Curtis solicited advice for
dealing with a group of apparent “religious zealot[s]” who, according
to Curtis, have been harassing shoppers and vendors at the market over
the last several weekends. “They preach endlessly about sin and
admonish all market shoppers as ‘sinners,'” Curtis wrote in his e-mail.
“They are calling more and more shoppers ‘homos’ and being more and
more obnoxious every week.”
According to vendors and staff at the market, the cadre of religious
protestors—a group of white men in their 20s and 30s, wearing
sweatshirts that read “Fear God” and “Follow Jesus” and T-shirts with
the word “Homo” crossed out—began showing up on Saturday, April
25, warning market shoppers about their futures in the fires of hell,
disrupting business, and driving customers away.
On May 2, things reportedly got so bad that market managers called
police three times, only to be told that the protesters were practicing
their freedom of speech. “The police came and told them they couldn’t
use their amplification, and that’s about all they can do legally,”
University District Farmers Market manager Karen Kerschner says.
“They call themselves Christian people, and they’re being really
loud and obnoxious,” says one vendor, who asked not to be named. “I
myself am a Christian, but not that kind.”
Last Saturday, May 9, police cars circled past the market every 15
minutes or so, but the mysterious group of Bible-thumpers was nowhere
to be seen. Market management is hoping they won’t be back.
It remains unclear whether the group is affiliated with any church
or why it targeted the University District market, which does not
appear to be any gayer than your average farmers market. 
I was glad to not see them there last weekend. I noticed that they were basically forcing the Real Change vendors out of their usual spots, which is pretty damn despicable in and of itself.
They were definitely aggressive and obnoxious, and to the unknowing observer, it really wasn’t clear that they weren’t a sanctioned part of the market. Their signs were awful and hateful. So the SPD says that they’re only exercising their freedom of speech, but isn’t there some kind of law against obstruction or interference of lawful business? They shouldn’t be able to stay there and actively drive customers away like that.
What they are doing is legal. The only real option is for counter-protesters to go out there and let them know that they aren’t welcome.
And I for one don’t want to spend my weekends getting in a shouting match with wack-job assholes. That’s why they are out there alone (and losing in the courts and at the ballots), because reasonable people don’t go out in public and start fights.
Those people are from openairseattle.org. You’ll probably see them at Hemp Fest, the Fremont Parade, UD Street Fair, Sea Fair, and DEFINITELY the Pride Fest.
I recommend humorous counter-protest signs like “God hates figs (or nags)” “Fur dog,” and “Repaint now, and thin no more.” At least it’ll lighten it up a bit.
Thank you for writing about this. It’s been going on for several weeks and driving me nuts. I want my neighborhood back. I want to be able to go to and from the Y in peace. There’s free speech and then there’s harassment. I was so pissed off one week, I found myself yelling–almost–several times: Shut the fuck up! (I said it aloud but didn’t actually yell as I knew that wold feed the asshole fire.) A guy behind me laughed–most people think these guys are ridiculous–until I outed myself as an atheist, and offered that people could go to the North Pole as easily as hell. He then became offended retorting: “Well they have a right to their opinion.” Apparently though, as an atheist I don’t. I think a counter-protest w/ all the “homo”-loving, reasonable people is just the thing we need. (Thanks tacomaitis, although I can’t decide if humor is the way to go or if a direct approach would be better.) I swear, I almost did it myself a few weeks ago but ran out of steam by the time I got home.
FYI, the law in most states (and I assume WA) recognizes “fighting words” as an affirmative defense to civil assault. If someone calls you a “fag” and you knock his teeth out, you’ll be in good shape in civil court, at least. Maybe not in criminal court — but then, in the real world, it’s unlikely that a DA would want to waste a lot of time prosecuting someone who punched someone else after being hit, completely randomly, by a slur.
When the law fails to protect people, this sort of “self-help” is inevitable.
If people were regularly congregating near a black church hurling racial slurs at passersby, I doubt that the police would be so laid-back about it.
What MyManGodfrey said.
Also, calling someone a “homo” or a “fag” might also be a form of assault, legally, if the person on the receiving end of the slur has reason to fear for his or her safety, e.g. if they’re being too aggressive. Basically if they’re using slurs, it’s hate speech and they are treading the line of a hate crime–particularly if there are threats of, or actual incidents of, physical contact.
how about a fenced-in “free speech area” a half mile away for those protesters in the style of the RNC?
How illegal would it be to go at these guys with a bunch of Supersoakers (water only, of course)? How about from a moving vehicle (drive-by soaking)?
Just fantasizing here.
Hey, Jonah – Just a minor point: Chris Curtis, director of the farmers market alliance, is a woman. (You refer to “his e-mail.”
Hey, Jonah – Just a minor point: Chris Curtis, director of the farmers market alliance, is a woman. (You refer to “his e-mail.”
@8 best idea ever….water balloons too….maybe via bicycle for quick get away and a revisit 10 minutes later for a post-soak observation
Find out where they originate, then go there and scream at them. Freedom of speech for our side, too.
The next time they show up at the market, just get gather up some people and newspapers (stranger, weekly, whatever your flavor is). Then everybody stand in between them and everybody else, with your backs to the protesters, open up your papers and start reading.
They have a right to free speech and, hey, you have a right to stand in a public market and read a newspaper.
i say have a big water balloon fight and get it over with and a nice pint a beer to go with it. Those bible thumpers just yell to be yelling and hoping that they will be heard.
Maybe they want a wet t-shirt contest to go with it, who knows??
So you mean to tell me that if a group of atheists went and stood outside a church with posters of Jesus getting double-fisted while sucking a couple of black studs’ members, with ejaculate dripping from his bearded chin…. that they wouldn’t be arrested for disturbing the peace?
@15: Maybe. Maybe not. But they could definitely be told to remove those signs under obscenity law, and I’m guessing could be arrested or fined on the same count. If they were using bullhorns, they would also be told to stop.
Based on what I’ve seen from the SPD at demos, they’d probably not arrest them unless they persisted. The signs you describe might piss them off enough to do more, though.
And I don’t know if all the church-goers would turn the other cheek when presented with gay-kinky-interracial-porn-Jesus.
I guess this is one good consequence of not getting down to the farmer’s market those few weeks they were there.
It’d be fun to counter protest with Hey Sue Effen Cricso’s signs.