(LINO LAKES) – Lino Lakes leaders are on the way to making protests that target individual homes on city streets illegal.
City council members unanimously passed an ordinance at last Monday’s meeting that would make it against city code for anyone to picket or protest on a city residential street if it’s targeted at a particular person or that person’s home or if it impedes that homeowner’s ability to get in and out of the home.
This comes more than two months after the neighboring city of Hugo passed a very similar ordinance. That was in response to a tumultuous Saturday this summer when protestors filled the street surrounding the home of Minneapolis Police Union President Bob Kroll and his wife, WCCO-TV Anchor Liz Collin. In that instance, some of the protestors shouted vulgarities and made threatening remarks, and neighbors feared for their safety.
Lino Lakes leaders say they heard from residents about concerns something similar could happen there, and they wanted to enact a rule that would allow for free speech and protests in the city, just not in front of anyone’s home. So, as part of the ordinance, the city would allow for protestors to gather at a designated location, like a park, in order to voice their opinions about a given subject.
“It really gets to one person’s right to express their opinion–free speech–against another person’s right to have privacy at their own home,” said Lino Lakes Public Safety Director John Swenson, who presented the ordinance at the meeting. “That’s the balance we’re trying to strike.”
Second and final reading of the ordinance will come before council at its next meeting on Monday, November 23. That meeting is scheduled to convene via Zoom and will be available on North Metro TV and streaming online.
