Man faces 90 days in jail for honking in support of protest outside the office of John Kline (R-MN)

[Bjorn Against]

Yesterday one of my friends learned that he was facing three months in jail and a $1,000 fine. His crime? Improper use of a car horn. You may think that people don't go to jail for honking their car horns, you may think that there must be an additional charge on top of the honking offense because we have all heard people use their car horns in non-emergency situations but most of us have never heard of a person going to jail for such an offense. There are no other charges however, the only charge against him in the police report is that he was “honking the vehicle's horn repeatedly approximately five to ten times.” If you have ever honked when you drove past a wedding or sounded the horn when you wanted to capture the attention of someone you knew who was walking down the street then you have committed the exact same crime they are charging my friend with, but I am guessing you never thought about the possibility that people who honk in celebration of a wedding would face serious jail time. You don't need to worry about such a possibility because the idea that the state would use their resources to lock people up for honking outside a wedding is absurd, but my friend was not honking outside a wedding he honked in support of protesters outside the office of a powerful Republican Congressman while he was driving to a parking spot so he could join the protest.

For almost two years now protesters have gathered at 4:30 every Tuesday afternoon in Burnsville, MN to hold a peace vigil on the corner of Nicollet Avenue and Burnsville Parkway. One of the buildings at this intersection houses the office of Republican Congressman John Kline, a man who showed great loyalty to the Bush agenda from the time of his arrival in Congress in 2002 and as a result of that loyalty he achieved a prominent position in his party. While Kline is not the most well known Republican member of Congress he holds a great deal of influence behind the scenes with his seats on the Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, and those committees make him the most powerful Republican in Minnesota's congressional delegation.

Kline has never been good about holding public town hall meetings to listen to his constituents, but the Burnsville peace vigil has ensured that every week the people working inside John Kline's office are reminded that many of his constituents oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that he has been a major supporter of. Not only do they see the people participating in the protest directly but they also hear hundreds of honks from the people who drive by that support ending the wars, and they have no doubt wished that we would go away.

Well over a year ago Burnsville Police confronted the participants of the peace vigil about complaints they had received over the honking and threatened to arrest them if people kept honking in support of their vigil. The police argued that the “Honk 4 Peace” signs encouraged an illegal activity as they said honking was only legal if used to give an audible warning in emergency situations. The police were quickly informed that it would be unconstitutional to arrest protesters simply because someone honked at them so instead they decided to try a different tactic by pulling people over and ticketing them for improper use of the horn. Prior to this the Burnsville Police had never ticketed anyone for honking, and when the ACLU defended one of the drivers who had been ticketed this fact helped them show that the people were not being pulled over based on public safety but rather on the basis of politics and the law was not being enforced when political speech was not involved. The ACLU was not only able to get the ticket of the woman they were defending dropped, but they also succeeded in getting the police to sign a consent decree stating that they would not ticket anyone for honking unless there was a threat to public safety. It seemed that the battle had been won and people would once again be able to honk in support of the protesters without fear of being ticketed, but it was only a couple months later that Bob Palmer received a ticket in the mail for improper use of the horn.

The ACLU was notified of the ticket and began the process to get approval from their board to take the case up again, while this process was underway they advised Bob to request a formal complaint at his hearing in traffic court. Bob did exactly that and we waited for several weeks without receiving the complaint or any news on the case. We had started to wonder if the police realized they were going to lose in court and receive a great deal of bad publicity in the process, the story had already received some media attention and it was looking like they could be stepping into a major controversy that would damage their reputation. For a few weeks it seemed as if the police may have been backing down, but yesterday that changed. Yesterday Bob Palmer was notified that he would not just be facing the couple hundred dollar fine that the other people faced for improper use of the horn, he is now facing serious jail time simply because he honked his horn.

Everyone who has been in a protest knows that it is a time honored tradition for people to honk in support of protesters when they drive by. If people start receiving jail time for supporting protesters in this way it will put a chill on free speech as not only will drivers be afraid to show their support, but the protesters will be afraid of participating in something that could result in the arrest of their supporters.

No one goes to jail for honking at a wedding, and if they do not send people to jail for non-political use of the horn then it is clearly unconstitutional to send people to jail for the use of the horn to express support for a political position. Please help get this story out and let people know about this outrageous charge, the idea that a person should be locked up in a cell for three months for doing nothing more than honking their horn is absurd. It is time to stand up for the first amendment, and it is time to make sure that no one is sent to jail for supporting peaceful protest.