Spartansburg, SC: Officer Makes Strange Demand

Our demo location was right next to a car wash so we had many of their employees come over to talk to us. Some people driving by stopped to see what the protest was all about. This KFC wasn't very busy so there weren't many cars to leaflet coming out of the drive thru.

When an officer pulled up on the sidewalk and walked over to us I expected to hear the usual guidelines: no stopping cars in traffic and no going on KFC property. However, Officer Tanner proceeded to tell us that we must leave KFC property and take our demo across the street. When Lindsay mentioned the sidewalk being public property, he said we were causing a disturbance. Matt started to film and asked him to tell us which law we were violating. He could only repeat that we were a disturbance. When Matt asked if we could contact someone in charge, he said he was in charge. We knew that it was our right to demonstrate on the sidewalk so we asked him what would happen if we didn't leave. All he said was that he would be back.

Lindsay stood aside with him for a few minutes and assured him that she called to clear our demo and asked if we needed a permit. He left, we assumed to check his facts.

We continued to protest for our entire scheduled time and he did not return. I felt as if he thought his position of authority would make asking us to leave easy.