Free Speech isn't Interfering.
It ain't interfering when it is free speech.
And crossing the street in a crosswalk while waving a safety flag isn't an unlawful act and, therefore, isn't interference according to Utah law.
He has to interpret the law. If the law is unclear, like what constitutes "interference," then he has to make a judgment call.
It sounds to me like the city is trying to respond to dangerous crosswalk conditions. Have there been a lot of injuries or fatalities in these places?We have these where I live. On each side of a busy intersection, there is a bucket that holds a bunch of small orange flags. You grab one and wave it so that cars can more easily see you and signal your intent to cross
How'd the Metuchen pedestrian cross the road? Waving a bright orange flag
Pedestrians in Metuchen will be able to wave brightly colored orange flags to make sure cars see them as they're crossing the road.www.nj.com
And the cops, of course, were deliberately not using those flags that were provided, presumably, so the could write more tickets….
That may be, but it seems to me that this sting didn't come out of a vacuum. A crosswalk sting on its own seems like obvious revenue generation. Crosswalk stings and red flags for pedestrians look like responses to hazardous conditions.
You can record and report the operation, bringing public attention to something the public might not approve of. Cache Valley Transparency clearly put himself inside their operation and interfered with it. Now if he wants to do that as a protest for the purpose of bringing maximal attention to the issue (and maybe he should) then that's fine. But you just have to accept that there's a pretty good chance of getting arrested for interference at that point. Which, again, is perfectly fine if bringing attention to the issue is the goal.
If you don't want random people in your "operation" then maybe your operation shouldn't be on a public sidewalk crossing a public street.
No one has yet explained how this fits with the definition of interference according to Utah statutes. It's not interference with a peace officer, as there is no interference with the arrest or detention of any person (there cannot be, as he's prevention the commission of a crime/violation that would give rise to a person being subject to arrest or detention). It's not interference with a public servant (there is no force, violence, or intimidation used) unless one can point to an unlawful act the citizen is committing. Even an "unlawful act" would be shaky grounds at best, since the citizen isn't interfering with the officers in the performance of their official functions -- they are just as free to conduct their sting and pull over anyone who breaks the law as they are if he weren't there.
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