Pat Fitzpatrick said he couldn’t believe the irony that unfolded when he was arrested while protesting next to a First Amendment monument last October.
Fitzpatrick and a handful of other Occupy Gainesville protesters were arrested for trespassing on Bo Diddley Community Plaza.
Now, Fitzpatrick and at least 20 other protesters are fighting to have their trespassing cases thrown out.
He said he shouldn’t have been arrested because the plaza is a public space, which means it should be open to everyone.
“We were definitely arrested for the content of our speech and trying to assemble,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s really sad.”
Fitzpatrick said he protested on Oct. 14 to voice his concerns that the city is bowing to downtown developers who want to force the homeless out of Bo Diddley Community Plaza.
Attorney Geoffrey Mason, a partner with Schackow, Mercadante & Edwards, was also at the protest.
He said the National Lawyers Guild, a nonprofit organization that provides legal services for First Amendment issues, among other projects, asked him to supervise the protest. He didn’t expect any problems – until he saw the handcuffs come out.
“When I saw the people getting arrested, I was very surprised,” Mason said.
Although a city ordinance states that Bo Diddley Community Plaza is closed from 11:30 p.m. to 6:30 a.m., Mason said the court must evaluate how the statute affected freedom of speech.
“There was no crime happening besides them participating in the core political speech,” Mason said.
He said the cases against his clients and Fitzpatrick would require the city to cite a compelling government interest for arresting the protesters, like safety or sanitation. Otherwise, it could be an infringement on the group’s freedom of speech.
Mason is now representing 21 Occupy members for free and filed a motion to dismiss their trespassing charges in late April.
In the motion, Mason said the city ordinance was “selectively enforced against the defendant(s) in an arbitrary and unreasonable manner.” He went on to say the way the law was applied placed “an unconstitutional restriction on the defendant’s rights to free speech and assembly.”
Mason decided to join Occupy Gainesville after witnessing the arrests and said he was disappointed in how the police handled the situation.
“I thought Gainesville was more willing to embrace different views,” Mason said. “I didn’t anticipate people would be arrested.”
Contact Shelby Webb at swebb@alligator.org.
Pat Fitzpatrick stands outside City Hall on Monday afternoon. Fitzpatrick and other protestors were arrested last October for trespassing on Bo Diddley Community Plaza.
