Police Harassed a Man Holding a 'God Bless the Homeless Vets' Sign. He's Suing.
"My intention is to ensure that all Americans from the wealthiest millionaire to the poorest homeless person can exercise these rights without fear of consequence from our government," said Jeff Gray.
Police in two Georgia towns—Alpharetta and Blackshear—arrested, searched, and even issued criminal citations against a man for holding a sign intended to raise awareness for homeless veterans. Jeff Gray, a U.S. Army veteran himself, says the police tried to stop him from exercising his First Amendment rights. Now, officials in both cities are facing a federal lawsuit.
"Jeff Gray doesn't need a government-issued permission slip to speak — the First Amendment is his permission slip," said Harrison Rosenthal, an attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a First Amendment nonprofit that filed the lawsuits on Gray's behalf. "Speaking out in public areas is a core First Amendment right, whether government officials recognize it or not."
Since 2011, Jeff Gray has uploaded videos of himself engaging in what he calls "civil rights investigations" in cities across the southeastern United States. In these videos, Gray peacefully tests whether local law enforcement will respect his constitutional rights—often by holding a cardboard sign with a message about homeless veterans or recording police during routine traffic stops. Frequently, his efforts result in arrests, "I've been arrested at least eight or nine times," Gray tells Reason. "What I've learned from these investigations is that if they think that you're a homeless person, they don't treat you as an equal human. They treat you as less than human."
In January 2022, Gray was harassed by Alpharetta police as he stood outside city hall holding a sign that read "God Bless Homeless Vets." Video footage released by FIRE shows Gray peacefully standing with the sign, occasionally saying "God bless the homeless veterans" to passersby. But Gray was soon interrupted. According to the lawsuit, a city councilman told Gray there was "no panhandling here" and directed a nearby police officer, Arick Furr, to order Gray to leave the area.
When Gray refused to leave, Furr demanded Gray's identification. According to the lawsuit, "Gray declined and asked Lt. Furr to describe the 'reasonable, articulable suspicion that crime is afoot,' to justify his demand that Gray show him an identification card." Furr responded by again telling Gray that "panhandling" is illegal in the city, adding "I'm not going to deal with you," before handcuffing Gray. Making matters worse, Furr turned off Gray's camera despite his objections. According to the lawsuit, in a later disciplinary report, Furr conceded that he "knew that he should not have manipulated the camera and should have allowed the camera to continue to record."
Another officer, Harold Shoffeitt, soon joined Furr. The pair, after attempting to interrogate Gray, eventually released him. However, Furr created a "CRIMINAL TRESPASS WARNING" against Gray ordering him not to return to the area for one year.
Gray also faced police harassment in the small town of Blackshear. According to that lawsuit, Gray was engaged in a similar demonstration in August 2021 when he was stopped by the local police chief, who told Gray that he could protest only if he first obtained a permit, adding that the law was "kind of silly, but that's what the rules are." Gray refused to leave and was issued a criminal citation for violating the local ordinance, though the citation was later dropped.
In the lawsuits against both cities, FIRE challenges a local law. In the case of Alpharetta, the suit claims that the city's anti-panhandling law is overly broad and a content-based restriction on speech, arguing that simply asking others for money in a public space is clearly protected by the First Amendment. And even if the law were constitutional, the law would not apply to Gray, because he was not panhandling.
In the suit against Blackshear, FIRE argues that the city's law requiring formal permission to protest is also clearly unconstitutional, writing that "the public parks, streets, and sidewalks of the City of Blackshear, including the sidewalks in front of Blackshear City Hall, are traditional public fora, immemorially held in trust for the use of the public to communicate thoughts or discuss public questions."
In addition to other claims, the lawsuit against Alpharetta also singles out Furr and Shoffeitt for retaliating against Gray for engaging in First Amendment–protected speech, illegally compelling him to identify himself, and interfering with this right to film police activity.
"I have been harassed, trespassed, handcuffed and arrested countless times for peacefully exercising my First Amendment rights," Gray said in a Monday press release. "My intention is to ensure that all Americans from the wealthiest millionaire to the poorest homeless person can exercise these rights without fear of consequence from our government."
With these lawsuits, FIRE hopes "that cities will take a look at their ordinances and their statutes and their regulations and dust off old dusty law books and make sure there's nothing unconstitutional lingering in there," FIRE Attorney Adam Steinbaugh tells Reason. "If you have an old law that's just sitting around and it's unconstitutional, sooner or later, a police officer's going to pick up that book and throw it at somebody."
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It was mostly due to the poor penmanship.
He should respond with a much bigger sign with a white background for better contrast, and much larger letters.
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Is he one of those auditors that records police interactions, sues and makes a decent income by doing that?
1A regardless.
If he doesn’t make a decent income, he deserves one. I wonder if this guy has a GoFundMe site.
He generally directs donors to support homeless shelters in the St. Augustine, Florida area.
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There are folks that get enough settlements that they make six figure annual incomes. A $10,000 settlement is cheaper for the offending local government than going to court. A few of them also get big hits on YT and receive that income as well.
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So are those settlements considered regular income? At a glance it appears not, with the exception of interest received.
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Ditto. The more democrat the municipality, the more enjoyable.
You know, if Sarc weren’t such a drunk rageaholic, he could eke out a decent living in this manner. But those pesky public intoxication laws would probably circumvent his efforts,
I thought Jeff Gray was the person behind “Photography is not a Crime” website – PINAC. I could be miss-remembering.
The problem is, he doesn’t resist at all so he doesn’t get beat up and he needs to find a lawyer that is willing to take the case. Damages are on the low side so…
Not only that, if it goes to a jury, they need to find a jury that is willing to not look at him like a nuisance, but more like a victim.
Bottom line, he probably makes more money from YouTube.
Can’t we just send all the homeless to Puerto Rico? I’ve been there. Nothing cruel and unusual about it. Win-win for everyone. Send along food and a pile of 2×4’s and plywood so they can build there own shelters. Drop off food in bulk.
Nice weather for outdoor living.
You might be on to something.
“Furr conceded that he “knew that he should not have manipulated the camera and should have allowed the camera to continue to record.”
So, Furr was fired and prosecuted for civil rights violations?
His admission establishes intent.
He also committed a federal crime.
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“Speaking out in public areas is a core First Amendment right, whether government officials recognize it or not.”
Well, *some* public areas. For some other public areas, guy’s like Rosenthal walk around as though they’d been hit with a FIRE extinguisher.
Freedom of speech isn’t freedom to stand anywhere I want and speak.
As long as the “anywhere” is either your own or public property, yes it is.
And any private property where the owner gives permission, but not otherwise.
You’re a cop troll, admit it.
No, he is simply stating a fact.
The First Amendment provides that Congress make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting its free exercise. It protects freedom of speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
No mention of limits.
Amendment 9 proclaims the limit on all rights: “The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.”
In other words an individual has a right to exercise freedom of thought, expression, and association, as long as it respects the pre-existing rights of other individuals.
Nothing about carrying a sign on a public thoroughfare violates any other individual’s rights as long as they can exercise that same right and are as free to move as the sign-carrier.
And they tried to say the guy was panhandling. Even though it doesn’t appear he was begging for money.
Generally speaking, unless he is blocking the sidewalk, he is doing nothing wrong.
Also, in every state, the law is something like “trespass after warning”. Unless he is warned – and refuses to leave, he has not committed a crime – thus doesn’t have to ID.
Why not call the Sheriff and have him arrest these officers for Title 18 violations?
These shouldn’t be just lawsuits. These should result in long prison sentences and massive fines.
If the cops resist, end them on the spot.
I thought it was Title 42 a.k.a. The Ku Klux Klan Act, that forbade conspiracy to violate an individual’s civil rights.
Title 18 makes it a felony to deprive or conspire to deprive someone of their civil rights under color of law.
It was written to allow citizens to hold cops, judges and politicians accountable.
Not been of much use since Lincoln.
I’ll look that up soon.
I looked it up. Alpharetta is democrat by a 3 to 1 margin. What a surprise. I suspected this, since democrats generally hate veterans. If this man were a transgender junkie predator who shit in the middle of the street daily, the city would be falling all over themselves to help him.
That’s what shocked me! Georgia is a Red State, so I was hugely skeptical of this article. Maybe my partisan lenses need adjustment, but aren’t Red States known for their unprecedented freedom? Where policing even exists, it’s usually done by lax minarchist, liberty-loving cops…right? I’ve never once heard of cops in Red States screwing with people just because they can!
Of course, the other locale mentioned in the article, Blackshear, is in a huge swath of Georgia considered ‘highly conservative’ on the political maps, so maybe the partisan theory of statist tyranny doesn’t hold water. In my experience, authoritarian attitudes prevail among both Republicans and Democrats, just for slightly different reasons.
FWIW, I’ve lived within literal walking distance of Alpharetta for 3 decades; it’s one of Georgia’s higher-income ZIP codes and pretty conservative. Yuppie central, really, though that’s slowly changing as the area becomes increasingly Asian. The police are aggressive (not as much as in neighboring Duluth, which I’ve sworn off due to its predatory cops.) I’ve never seen ANY homeless person or street junkies, and I’m there regularly. They’d blight the landscape and the yuppies would have them removed, posthaste. Now, Buckhead? That’s a different story.
Georgia isn’t all that red anymore. Raphael Warnock is a sitting US senator from there.
I’ve seen his videos, this guy is a hero.
He just allows law enforcement to show themselves for who they are, and he does it politely, lawfully and brilliantly.
It appears he really wants to help vets and won’t be pushed around doing it.
I like eccentric people who have the time to fuck with these assholes. Live and let live motherfuckers. This guy probably would have gone home years ago if these little tyrants had ignored him.
Absolutely agreed.
As much as I’ve railed against people junking up my privately-owned workplace with religious tracts when we’re clearly posted with a “No Soliciting” sign, if these same religious people were doing like this guy and peacefully, non-obstructively carrying signs on a public thoroughfare or built a Reading Room or private library, I would defend their right to do so, even if I thoroughly disagreed with their message, and would even have a friendly dialogue if they were willing.
I hope he racks up some good settlements against corrupt Cities and their corrupt Gens d’Armes! I’d do it myself if my health could hack it, but I’d end up with amputations or even dead. My kind of activism keeps me alive and maybe outliving my enemies if possible.
“democrats generally hate veterans. ” What is this made up world you live in? Most of the people in this country just go along with the “support our troops”, regardless of whether they are team red or team blue. I live in illinois and I don’t like the dems, but the actual rank and file individuals sure don’t hate veterans. I know plenty of dems here who do the whole “thank the troops” and buy them dinner.
Meanwhile, I’m on a supposedly libertarian site where I expect many people appreciate the individual troops but don’t like our govt policing the damn world. Meanwhile twice, if you meant the Democrats as in the actual politicians, none of them, Dems or Reps, support these troops when they get home which is why all the homeless vets, shitty VA, etc etc, so on and so forth. They might raise the spending to the pentagon but that never seems to increase the pay of a grunt or afford them body armor or anything to actually help the individuals at the bottom, it’s all development money going to Boeing.
‘I know plenty of dems here who do the whole “thank the troops” and buy them dinner.’ Not familiar w/ the concept of virtue-signaling, even to self, it appears. Yet, claims to be familiar w/ DNC members… Both GOP and DNC lie when they claim to appreciate and support servicemembers and veterans, but the latter has a long history of hating the culture of which the military is a part.
Word salad, Hank, when you’re talking about virtue signaling, especially as you are tying to imply whatever you’re trying to imply about me virtue signaling here myself. You, at least, agree that both GOP and DNC lie when they claim to appreciate and support. So we agree there.
On virtue signaling, if you’re saying that individuals who “thank the troops” are virtue signaling, then it’s an admission that they (individaul dems) and other in society consider supporting the troops a virtuous thing to do.
Really? It certainly isn’t reflected in their legislative priorities. Given all the finding that goes to take care of illegals when we so many homeless vets. Or the way they’re treated by democrat presidents. Then there is the venom expressed towards them by democrat groups like antifa, or code pink. This goes back to democrats literally screaming at and spitting on vets returning from Vietnam.
This comes down to the fact that democrats are almost completely incapable of patriotism, reverence for the constitution, our troops, etc. is anathema to them.
So yeah, democrats really don’t like vets.
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“It certainly isn’t reflected in their legislative priorities. ”
That was addressed already in my first post. Neither the GOP NOR the DNC reflect them in their legislative or budgetary priorities.
Then you continue on with your delusions about democrats being “completely incapable of patriotism” etc etc, so forth. Keep letting these made up enemies live in your head rent-free.
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