GILROY—A Texas street preacher who had just spent two weeks helping at a San Martin church was waylaid Monday in Gilroy but quickly got the better of his accuser—a uniformed city code enforcement officer.
And as it turns out, the officer might have had a legitimate safety concern.
As Scott Crawford, 76, of Dallas, stood on the corner of First Street and Wren Avenue with a 10-foot white cross and sign proclaiming Christian beliefs he was approached by the officer and told he was breaking the law, according to Crawford.
Crawford said he objected; he’s so well versed in First Amendment rights, he said, that he carries briefs of court cases as he travels the country proclaiming his beliefs along its highways on from street corners. It’s not the first time someone has tried to stop him, he said.
“The Lord has given me a million pulpits in a thousand cities and I was in one of those pulpits [Monday],” he said.
The code officer, “Just came up to me and handed me his card and said, ‘There’s an ordinance in Gilroy against hand-held signs so you have to go get a permit,’” according to Crawford.
Crawford said he responded by saying he was exercising his free speech rights and did not need a permit to do so on public property.
The code enforcement officer insisted a permit was required, then walked away after Crawford said he planned to challenge what the officer was saying, according to Crawford.
“I’ve been doing this for 46 years and I politely stand up for my rights, said the retired Kansas motel owner, who had been helping at the Church of the Valley in San Martin while the house guest of a prominent Gilroy family.
So Crawford packed up his cross and sign and drove to City Hall, where he talked to the city clerk’s office, which passed the message to another code enforcement officer, Scott Barron.
The officer Crawford spoke to on the corner could not be reached for comment, but Barron said he contacted Crawford a few hours later to explain that it appeared the officer on the scene had a concern about safety and visibility.
“I did call him up and thought I kind of smoothed it out. I advised him (what he was doing) was OK as long as he was careful.”
However, Barron opined that Crawford probably should not have been stopped in the first place.
He said he conferred with the city traffic engineer before calling Crawford and learned there are rules designed to make sure visibility at intersections and on corners is not blocked.
As far as the need for a permit to do what Crawford was doing, Barron said permits are not needed to hold a sign when freedom of speech is involved.
