Police Drop Request for Picket-Sign Law

A proposal to restrict the size and type of materials used for picket signs in Huntington Beach so they couldn’t be used as weapons has been withdrawn by Police Chief Kenneth W. Small in the face of strong criticism by striking supermarket workers and free-speech advocates.

When a split City Council adopted the ordinance on its first reading Jan. 12, the proposed law was denounced by dozens of critics who said it unfairly targeted supermarket strikers and infringed on their 1st Amendment rights.

The law would have prohibited signs attached to plastic or metal poles or thick wood -- including irrigation pipes, baseball bats and iron reinforcing rods that, authorities worried aloud, could be wielded as weapons.

Other cities, including Los Angeles, have adopted similar laws, Small said, but critics complained that the Huntington Beach ordinance made it appear that the city was taking sides in the supermarket strike.

“This [labor action] was selectively targeted and it would have been selectively enforced,” said Ben Wizner, an attorney in the Southern California office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“That is nuts,” the chief responded. Nonetheless, he has agreed to drop his request for the law.

“Considering all of the debate, and in light of some of the comments from the city attorney, I think you have to come to the conclusion that the bad [part of the ordinance] might outweigh the good,” Small said.

The proposed ordinance went before the City Council on Tuesday for its second reading and formal adoption.

But with continuing public debate, council members asked City Atty. Jennifer McGrath to clarify how the law would be applied, and tabled an immediate decision.

The police chief defended the intent of the ordinance, citing more than 200 police calls to Huntington Beach supermarkets since the strike began in October.

On those calls, he said, officers “have seen people carrying signs on things that we believe may become weapons if they lose their temper.”

At the initial council discussion, police displayed an iron reinforcing bar as an example of the material used for picket signs. Small said he also was worried about the use of two-by-fours and baseball bats.

The ordinance proposed that “No person shall carry or possess while participating in any demonstration, rally, picket line or public assembly, any length of lumber, wood or wood lath unless that object is one-fourth inch or less in thickness and two inches or less in width, or, if not generally rectangular in shape, such object shall not exceed three-quarters inch in its thickest dimension.”

The proposed ordinance, which Small said was modeled after ones in Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Ana, Fullerton and Beverly Hills, also would have prohibited people from carrying “any bar, shaft, rod or other such length of hard metal ... or other hard synthetic material” in a public demonstration, rally or picket line.

Signs used by striking workers on a Vons picket line in Huntington Beach “stick to the letter of the law,” said Maggi Land, a union representative.

“There are no pipes, no PVC, no baseball bats, ax handles, anything that could be construed as a weapon,” she said.

She said she applauded Small’s decision to drop the ordinance because it unfairly suggested that pickets were arming themselves for possible combat.

Critics charged the Police Department with creating a problem.

“We do not need professional law enforcement officers to go around with a tape measure” to qualify protest sticks as lawful, said Huntington Beach resident Tom Lash at Tuesday’s meeting.

Critics said people could be banned from waving the American flag on a hard plastic pole during a parade.

“At a time when everyone in the community, especially in government, should be working to resolve this labor dispute,” said the ACLU’s Wizner, “instead this ordinance is targeting peaceful protesters, and there’s no evidence that anyone has been put in danger.”