While people get arrested every day in Europe for “offensive speech,” America’s First Amendment remains a safeguard against criminalizing the vast majority of speech — certainly the kind that could be deemed offensive by certain groups.Except in Fort Worth, Texas, apparently. A cop by the name of Sarah Stogner went viral last month after videos captured her telling Christian street preachers that they could be cited for “offensive speech” if their preaching offended attendees at a local Pride parade.On a recent episode of “Come and Take It,” BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales reviewed the shocking footage and made a case that First Amendment violations should be fireable offenses. Sara begins by playing the viral video of the interaction between Stogner and the evangelists.“If someone is offended by your talking, then we have a problem,” Stogner stated, threatening to write a ticket if they didn’t comply.“Wait, you’re going to ticket us for offensive speech?” one shocked preacher pushed back.“Yes, absolutely. … It’s called disorderly conduct,” Stogner responded.“No, disorderly conduct has to be accompanied by conduct,” another preacher retorted, before explaining that he was a retired federal law enforcement officer.Sara is flabbergasted by the interaction.“Try reading the First Amendment. … If there are any to be clear on, that is the one that you, as a cop, should be super clear on,” she comments. “And by the way, this is the epitome of why it was written actually: to keep tyrannical dictators from forcing us to keep our mouths shut about topics they didn’t want us discussing.”Unfortunately, the situation got worse for the street preachers, who approached another cop at the festival to inform him of Stogner’s unconstitutional threat.But he doubled down. “It depends on what you’re saying and who’s offended,” he clapped back.“If you make fun of somebody, if you call them certain words and they feel offended by that, unfortunately that is —” he continued before one preacher cut him off by presenting a hypothetical.“So, if I say, ‘You’re a faggot,’ and they get offended, you’re gonna cite me?” he asked, emphasizing that he would make “no threats.”“That is a Class C ticket, unfortunately,” the cop replied.“It depends on what you’re saying and who’s offended? I must have missed that in the Bill of Rights. Is there a footnote that I’m unaware of?” Sara asks, shocked.The interaction then took an even wilder turn when the preachers asked the male cop about misgendering someone.“If a biological male comes up to me who says he’s a woman, and I say, ‘Sir,’ and he gets offended, is that a citable offense?” one preacher asked.“We’re talking gray area right now,” the cop replied.“If they come up and say, ‘Hey, I’m offended by that,’ and you continue to do that, well, then that’s just becoming offensive to them,” he continued, suggesting that he’d give a “warning” and then move to “potential” consequences if the offensive language didn’t stop.“So, what if I’m offended by what they say? … Will they get cited? I’m offended by all of this. I’m offended by seeing half naked men run around with children. I am deeply offended by that,” the preacher retorted.“Unfortunately, there’s not much on our side to do anything,” the cop stated.“It’s actually not a gray area at all. This isn’t hard. It’s not brain surgery. You are allowed to speak freely even if someone is offended. This isn’t Europe,” Sara says.She highlights the glaring bias when it comes to “offensive speech.”“You guys want to protect the debauchery, but any time a Christian is offended by the debauchery, you can’t do anything about that,” she declares.Sara expresses disappointment in Fort Worth PD’s response to the Trinity Pride Fest incident.While the department acknowledged that Sgt. Sarah Stogner (and officers) made inaccurate statements about citing people for “offensive speech,” they seemed to place more emphasis on clarifying that the citation was for a bullhorn noise ordinance violation rather than speech content. They also announced they would provide First Amendment refresher training to officers.Sara scoffs at the idea of a “refresher” course on something as basic as the First Amendment. “It should just be a fireable offense to be that ignorant of the law,” she states.It appears Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division Harmeet Dhillon may agree that stronger action is warranted.On July 10, she posted:
To learn more and watch the disturbing footage, check out the episode above.Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara’s no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.
