Jason Sorens, founder of the Free State Project, wrote:
I've gotten permission from Tim to post this.
Greetings everyone. My apologies for not getting to you before now. My home network has gone into full meltdown mode and I lost my Internet access, necessitating printing out a huge volume of emails and bringing them to my office. Yes, I was arrested yesterday morning out side the Orange County Convention Center (Orlando, FL) for handing out FSP literature and refusing to cease doing so; I was then told to leave the (public) premises or I would be cited for "trespassing." I refused to leave, noting to the assembled security personnel and sheriff's deputies that I was on public (county) property, and that as such I had a right under the 1st Amendment to pass out literature at that venue. I also pointed out to them that I was a paid-up member of the NRA, I was a registered participant of the NRA convention, I was wearing an NRA sticker on my Free State Project T-shirt, the literature I was passing out was pro-gun rights (like the NRA's ostensible position), that no one was being impeded, and that the NRA members liked the content of the brochure (our tri-fold) and appreciated the Free State Project. (I did not at the time point out that on Friday there were other people handing out NRA literature along with me, nor that the following day, Saturday, those same people were handing out NRA literature inside the doors to the convention hall (which I never entered; all leafleting was done outside the doors to the convention center; people were handed FSP literature when they were entering or leaving the building). Upon telling them that I would not leave, and why, I was arrested under a state trespassing statute which I believe is a constitutional statute when applied to private property, but which was being utilized in an unconstitutional manner here. I was held for 12 hours at the Orange County jail, treated well by the sheriff's office personnel (who were probably treating me with kid-gloves because they knew I was a lawyer, and that this was a constitutional/civil rights challenge), before being bonded out on $500 bond by my wife Michele, who was working on it from Tampa, 100 miles away.
At which point the cop probably arrested him just to shut him up. Sometimes it is best to simply close your mouth and do what the nice policeman tells you to do.