Capt. Nicholas:
I am Catholic, go to mass on Sunday and pray the rosary. Concerned about a large group of people who take to Main Street praying the rosary in the evening. A few days ago, the group was about seventy people and I heard they do this on a regular basis. They were gathered at the park on Main Street at Electric Avenue. A man from the group was standing up on the concrete planter while the group filled the sidewalk at Main Street. He had a microphone to amplify himself. They then took off towards the ocean along Main Street chanting, with the leader using a microphone. It was loud and their chanting could easily be heard a half block away. As people were entering and exiting shops and restaurants along the east side of the street, they continued boisterously chanting and briskly walking to the point of lacking charity to people on the sidewalk enjoying a summer evening and disturbing the peaceful nature people expect at Seal Beach.
It felt like insinuating the city is a bunch of heathens and lacked Jesus’ message to love your neighbor, not pray in their face, as one is so holy and everyone else isn’t.
So my question for the cop, when would a group like this with around 70 people, using amplified sound and not giving courtesy to other pedestrians need a city permit to hold such a “march”?
And concern if this group continues their rosary walks, who else might come into Main Street corridor and start holding marches, for whatever their cause might be?
Please define what are the parameters for walking down Main Street and holding a “march”, with a large group of people and amplified sound.
Thank you,
Anonymous
Hi Anonymous,
This is an interesting question because it brings together two things that are both important: the right of people to peacefully gather and express themselves, and everyone else’s right to safely use our sidewalks, visit businesses, and enjoy public spaces.
The first thing to understand is that the message does not determine the rules. Whether a group is praying the rosary, supporting a political cause, promoting a charity, protesting an issue, or advocating for something else, the city cannot decide who gets to use a public sidewalk. Public streets, sidewalks, and parks have long received strong First Amendment protection, although government may enforce reasonable rules concerning the time, place, and manner in which expressive activity occurs.
That brings us to the permit question. Seal Beach actually has a specific chapter of the Municipal Code dealing with parades. Under Seal Beach Municipal Code Chapter 7.25, a “parade” is a procession of 25 or more people, animals, or vehicles, in any combination, on a city park, sidewalk, street, or other city property. The code requires a parade permit before conducting that type of procession. An application is generally required at least six days before the proposed parade.
So, if approximately 70 people assemble and then proceed together down Main Street as an organized group, that activity would generally fit the Municipal Code definition of a parade. The fact that the group is religious does not exempt it from the parade rules, but it also does not subject it to additional restrictions. The same analysis would apply to another organized group of 70 people marching for an entirely different cause.
What about the microphone? Amplified sound does not determine whether something is a parade. A group of 30 people walking together could meet the parade definition without using any amplification at all, while one person speaking through a microphone would obviously not become a parade simply because a speaker is being used. Amplified sound can, however, raise separate issues involving the city’s noise regulations and the manner in which the public space is being used.
The same principle applies to pedestrian traffic. Courtesy is certainly something we hope everyone brings to Main Street, but courtesy itself is not the legal test. People speaking, praying, protesting, or demonstrating in a public place are not required to make their message comfortable for everyone who hears it. At the same time, expressive activity does not give a group exclusive use of the sidewalk.
Main Street still has to function as Main Street. People need to be able to enter and leave stores and restaurants, pedestrians need to be able to move safely, and a group cannot simply take over a roadway or create a safety hazard because its activity involves protected expression. If the conduct crosses from peacefully communicating a message into actually obstructing access, interfering with pedestrian movement, creating a traffic hazard, or violating a valid permit condition, that becomes a different issue.
That is also the answer to the concern about what happens if other groups decide to march down Main Street. They can. Peaceful assembly and expression are not limited to any particular religion, political position, organization, or cause. Our job is not to decide which causes belong on Main Street. Our job is to apply the same rules fairly while protecting public safety, access, and constitutional rights.
It is also worth pointing out that seeing a large group walking down Main Street does not, by itself, establish that a violation has occurred. We would need to know the number of participants, whether the activity meets the definition of a parade, whether a permit was issued, what the permit authorized, where the group was walking, and what was actually occurring at the time. Those details matter before we make an enforcement decision.
If you see an organized group and believe it is blocking pedestrian or business access, creating a traffic or safety problem, or otherwise causing an immediate concern, call the Seal Beach Police Department’s non-emergency line at (562) 594-7232 so an officer can evaluate what is actually occurring.
Public spaces belong to all of us, and that means sharing them with people whose messages we may support, disagree with, or simply have no interest in hearing. The balance is allowing people to exercise their rights while making sure everyone else can continue to safely use and enjoy the same public space.
Keep your questions coming, Seal Beach! Email us at as*****@*********ca.gov today!