Chicago aldermen took a break from robbing the city blind to consider an ordinance that creates a "quiet zone" on some of the streets near downtown.
I'm sure this is a relief for some city residents. Downtown Chicago is one of the noisiest places on earth with car and truck horns blaring, sirens screaming, buses backfiring, and the general mayhem associated with a couple of million people going about their daily business.
But this "noise sensitive zone" is not to grant citizens some peace and quiet. Its sole purpose is to make other citizens STFU about abortion.
The City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted to prevent protesters from using a bullhorn, loudspeaker, or hitting a drum “to produce a sharp percussive noise so as to interfere with the functions” of the Family Planning Associates clinic.
Hear that, pro-life protesters? Sit down, shut up, and be a good little drone.
Two aldermen voted against the proposal, citing concerns about protesters’ rights and how officials would decide whether protests crossed a line.
The ordinance from Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, follows what he said were multiple noise complaints about loud and disruptive anti-abortion protesters at the clinic, including from nearby residents as well as FPA clinical staff. The clinic offers abortion care and other gynecological services.
Some of those protests have included “sound amplifiers so loud it was difficult for clinicians to hear patients inside,” Conway said in a release, in addition to reported incidents where protesters rushed at patients and volunteers walking them in, attempting to hand them religious pamphlets.
It should be noted that the city already has a "bubble ordinance" that makes it illegal to “engage in unwanted communication,” which includes leafleting or trying to provide education and counseling, “within 8 feet of someone in a 50-foot radius from the entrance of a medical facility.”
So how exactly is this law going to be enforced? Will police measure the decibels on sound from loudspeakers? How "loud" is too loud? And is the Chicago City Council forgetting the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States?
“This is the situation at our clinic, where demonstrators set up a stage outside our building, and use megaphones, microphones, and speakers to amplify speeches, music, and chants,” Dr. Allison Cowett, the clinic's medical director, said.
Yes, democracy is messy and very loud, except there's no noise ordinance that makes it illegal to try and shout down conservative speakers.
Apparently, some loud speech is more equal than others.
Two members of the committee voted against the proposal over concerns about subjective enforcement. Ald. Chris Taliaferro, 29th, said he wanted to know whether noise needed to reach a specific decibel to violate the policy.
And Ald Nick Sposato, 38th, said, “We have a thing here called the First Amendment.”
“I know many of these rallies or protests are quite obnoxious and everything,” Sposato said. “And I’ve seen many out-of-control ones, but I’ve never really heard of us before saying you have to tone down … you can’t yell. You can’t use a megaphone.”
I expect successful court challenges to this ordinance when it's passed by the council.
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