Man who wins right to paint in Ocean City denied in Baltimore
Mark Chase had just won a temporary victory when a federal judge ruled that he could paint along Ocean City's boardwalk, at least while his suit against the city moves forward. On Sunday, he took his work to the Inner Harbor area, and promptly got arrested.
A video captured part of the exchange between Chase and officers (Read The Sun's Andrea K. Walker's full story here:
The video shows Chase explaining that he had won a court injunction in U.S. District Court and had a right to paint where he was. Officers argued the laws were different in Baltimore.
"It is my constitutional right to be here without prior approval," Chase said to the officer at one point.
"Your constitutional rights have nothing to do with the law," the officer said.
"If you don't have a permit, you're trespassing," the officer said at another point.
In the federal case, the judge ruled that Ocean City could not enforce a permit process on street artists. Read The Sun's Tricia Bishop's story on the ruling.
Over the summer, Baltimore police officers moved city school teacher Bruce Friedrich out of the Inner Harbor for passing out fliers. Both of these incidents cry out for settlement of a years-long pending lawsuit filed by the ACLU protesting what the group calls restrictive rules governing free speech at the harbor.
The Harbor is actually a patchwork of quasi-public and private space with different rules governing assembly at different spots. What's allowed at one end of the harbor is not allowed at the other end. Talks between the two sides in the lawsuit are supposed to fix this.
Chase was in front of Harborplace, at Light and Pratt streets. We'll see today how that particular spot is interpreted. The ACLU believes the Harbor is entirely a public space.
Comments
"'Your constitutional rights have nothing to do with the law,' the officer said."
Well, that's confidence inspiring.
Posted by: disnazzio | September 19, 2011 3:53 PM
The officer should be fired for this statement: "Your constitutional rights have nothing to do with the law,"
On a side note, let the man practice his trade which the tourists in the harbor will likely enjoy. It's no wonder that Baltimore is such a lame, boring, and dilapidated place. If anyone wants to try something different from painting in the Harbor to opening a bar, some busy-body will stop them with regulations.
Posted by: V | September 19, 2011 4:57 PM
But the officer is correct, the city law trumps the constitution, until a judge says it doesn't. And that can take over a decade, as it has in the inner harbor. Then city gov will tweak the law, and enact it and we start all over.
Posted by: Strad | September 19, 2011 5:08 PM
. All laws derive their power from the ideals we hold as a nation many codified in the constitution. As such his statement that the "constitution right is one thing and it has nothing to do with the law" is one worthy of having him face the full force of US code Title 18 dealing with color of law. He very clearly seems to want to intimidate Mr. Chase.
Posted by: Surgei | September 20, 2011 11:47 AM