Judge jails Florida pastors for refusing to pay $1 bond

[Motown_Johnny]

http://www.sacbee.com/2011/04/22/3572826/judge-jails-florida-pastors-for.html


^snip^

DEARBORN, Mich. -- A Michigan judge late Friday day sent two Florida pastors to jail for refusing to post a $1 bond.

The stunning development came after a Dearborn jury sided with prosecutors, ruling that Terry Jones and Wayne Sapp would breach the peace if they rallied at the Islamic Center of America in Dearborn.

Prosecutors asked Judge Mark Somers for $45,000 bond. Somers then set bond at $1 each for the two pastors.

They refused to pay. And Somers ordered them remanded to jail.

[Bozita]

1. MSNBC reporting bond has been paid. They're out of jail.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42723011/ns/us_news-life /

Controversial pastor out of jail after paying $1 bond for mosque protest
Terry Jones, associate initially refused to pay after Mich. jury decided they were responsible for demonstration's security and policing costs
msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 17 minutes ago


DEARBORN, Mich. — A controversial Florida pastor was briefly jailed and released on Friday after a Michigan court determined that his planned protest outside a mosque was likely to provoke violence and ordered him to stay away.

Terry Jones, 59, was sent to county jail after he declined to pay a $1 bond as ordered by Judge Mark Somers, who also ordered him to stay away from the Islamic Center of America for three years.

But about an hour later, police said Jones and a supporter, Wayne Sapp, were released from custody after the token $1 bond was paid.

Both Jones and Sapp were had initially refusing to meet the terms of a "peace bond" set by Somers in protest.

more...

[ddeclue]

2. Illinois Nazis, with apologies to Elwood Blues, are entitled to march

however despicable they might be. Same for Terry Jones. He is entitled to march and protest however despicable we might find his speech and pre-emptively jailing and fining him amounts to censorship and a violation of his First Amendment rights.

Just because someone's speech or protest might provoke a violent reaction is not justification for censoring it. Would it not have been convenient for an Alabama judge to jail Martin Luther King, Jr. in advance of the Selma march in order to prevent him from provoking a violent reaction from white Alabamans?

As much as we might hate what Terry Jones has to say, we should not be in the business of censoring him because if his First Amendment rights aren't safe then neither are ours.

Doug D.
Orlando, FL

[boppers]

3. King *was* jailed in Alabama.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_campaign#Martin_Luther_King_jailed

It didn't work.

[ddeclue]

4. Not as a pre-emptive form of censorship.

Sorry but you need to do some more reading..

[boppers]

5. What are you talking about?

The good friday arrests picked up *50* people in one day to try and stop their protests (and it was MLK's 13th arrest). It was a pretty standard tactic to preemptively jail people, to the point where intentionally packing jails became the countermeasure.

What did you think he was repeatedly jailed for?