Florida city officials consider ban on 'fighting words'

By The Associated Press

11.16.02

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — People using "fighting words" to address the Jacksonville City Council could soon be tossed out of the meeting by police.

The council introduced the proposal on Nov. 12, partly in response to a group of vocal protesters who have blasted the council about contamination in a local park. The measure could come to a vote early next year.

The bill defines fighting words as "threatening, derogatory or personally abusive epithets that inherently provoke or are intended to provoke a violent reaction."

Anyone who breaks the rule would be immediately removed from the council chamber and not allowed back in the meeting.

As written, the proposal could be "vague and overbroad," said Barbara Petersen, executive director of the Tallahassee-based First Amendment Foundation.

"When they start getting into content-based restrictions, they have to be very, very careful not to offend the First Amendment," Petersen said.

Laurence Tunsill, a spokesman for Citizens Organized for Environmental Justice, a group that wants the city park shut down, said the council should be more responsive to citizens than trying to muzzle them.

Tunsill's group has been speaking during the public comment section of council meetings for several months, often questioning the council's intelligence and leadership.

City Council President Jerry Holland said the group speaking about the park "obviously seemed to upset more council members than anything else."

"Let's try to keep it professional, let's try to express what you're trying to express without getting into what really amounts to childish name-calling," Holland said.

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