SANFORD, Fla. — The Sanford police department says they made a mistake after trespassing a man at the Farmer’s Market on Saturday. The video shows him holding a sign supporting homeless veterans on a public sidewalk.
Jeff Gray says he travels to different cities to exercise his First Amendment rights. In this case, someone complained about him, and the police arrived.
In the video he recorded, you can hear this: The officer says, “You can exercise your rights somewhere else, we just don’t want you here.” Gray responds, “So I’m trespassed? From this area?” The officer replies, “Ya.”
Gray says he was holding a sign supporting homeless veterans and wasn’t panhandling when Officer Jason Hernandez and Officer Wendell Castor trespassed him at the Sanford Farmer’s Market.
But shortly after, the officers returned and said, “So we made a mistake you’re exercising your first amendment right.”
Sanford police even posted this on their Facebook page, stating:
The Sanford Police Department is aware of a video circulating online showing Sanford Police Officers trespassing a person from a farmer’s market. We acknowledge that a mistake was made in how that incident was handled. The officers involved are being addressed. We understand the importance of First Amendment rights and will work to ensure future calls for service are handled in a way that preserves that right.
We asked the Sanford Police Department for an interview, but no one was available.
Gray says, “I think that’s a good step. That’s a positive step. It’s more like they enforce their egos over the law.” The exercise is called First Amendment auditing.
Several police departments in Georgia have made changes in training after Gray’s visits.
“They see their officers doing something they shouldn’t do and train their officers and correct their actions.”
We spoke with Bobby Block at the First Amendment Foundation about the Georgia cases. “Apologies were given. In some cases, I thought it was interesting that they also donated $1,791 to different organizations because 1791 was the year that the Bill of Rights passed.”
Block says cities often pass panhandling bans to keep the homeless away from businesses. But if a person is simply holding a sign, it’s not against the law. “Court cases have consistently upheld their First Amendment rights to stand in a public space.”
While Gray says the majority of people are supportive of his cause, 10 percent are not.
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