For those who feel that the Town of Franklin has been unclear about what is or is not a lawful gathering in the downtown area, the Town Council is taking steps to clarify the policy.
At the council’s monthly meeting on Dec. 7, board members discussed amending the language of Chapter 95 of the town’s code of ordinances. This chapter describes acceptable and unacceptable procedures for large-scale public gatherings such as parades and protests. Among the proposed amendments to the chapter is language clarifying that permits are required for any “parade, picket line or group demonstration” that would “obstruct or block” streets, sidewalks and alleys out of safety concerns, but not for spontaneous events or those that do not interfere with public accessibility.
“Participation in an illegal parade, picket line or group demonstration is unlawful,” reads the new text written by town attorney John Henning Jr. “This provision is not intended to prohibit First Amendment principles of freedom of expression or freedom of assembly. A permit is not required if the parade, picket line or group demonstration constitutes a small gathering that poses no threat to the safety, order and accessibility of streets and sidewalks.”
There has been some controversy among residents about the town allowing gatherings in the town square. After large protests that followed inconsistent COVID-19 preventative measures took place in the summer, the council put a moratorium on permitting downtown events to prevent future outbreaks, spoiling plans for some organizers. Henning feels that the new text for the ordinance would make the town’s role in these events clearer for everyone.
“I found some places that really need attention in terms of applying some more recent case law, particularly dealing with things like making clear that protests that stay entirely on the sidewalk and obey traffic rules are not something that you can really regulate,” Henning said. “You need to make some provisions for small gatherings that don’t really pose any kind of health or safety risk and that come about on the spur of a moment kind of basis. Those changes are all made in here.”
The board members were receptive to Henning’s counsel. After seeing the high tensions that tough decisions regarding gatherings stirred up this year, they were supportive of measures that would make citizens feel like their rights were being better respected.
“If we’re going to err, I’d rather err on the side of personal freedom,” council member Mike Lewis said.
The amended text would also give the chief of police the authority to deny permits for events that would close the street “if the applicant’s proposed activities would be unlawful, endanger the health and safety of surrounding persons, significantly inhibit pedestrian and vehicular traffic or deprive the municipality of critical services that could not be supplied through other means,” as well as in circumstances with conflicting applications or falsified information on an application. The council members expressed their support for allowing the chief to make those decisions.
“Chief should have the ability to differentiate if this could actually lead to some sort of violence or this could lead to a detrimental situation for our community and he should have the ability to do something about it,” council member David Culpepper said.
However, given the importance of the decision, they also felt that they should review the full text of the amended language to make sure it would address all of the relevant issues.
“There may be some other questions or some issues that we haven’t thought of,” council member Jack Horton said. “I’d rather take time to look at it and make sure that if we’re going to do something that we have it well thought out before we jump into it.”
The council will discuss amendments to the ordinance on parades and demonstrations further at their next monthly meeting on Monday, Jan. 4, 2021.