By Johanna Kaiser, Development & Communications Associate
It’s easy for a lover of the arts to find something to enjoy in our Creative Capital. Providence’s theaters, galleries, studios, and concert halls offer great shows, exhibits, and music, and often times its streets, sidewalks, and parks do, too.
One musician who has taken to Providence’s sidewalks is Manuel Pombo. A 62-year-old former factory worker and laborer, Mr. Pombo plays his saxophone for the love of it and for the unsolicited donations that help him make ends meet. Unfortunately, Mr. Pombo has been threatened with arrest many times over the past two decades and was once arrested for playing his saxophone on public sidewalks and street corners. Mr. Pombo, like anybody else, should be able to exercise his free speech rights on the city’s sidewalks without interference. That’s why we’ve filed suit against the City of Providence seeking a court order allowing Pombo to exercise his right “to perform on public property, free from harassment or orders to move by police,” and declaring the “existing permitting and enforcement policies and practices” to be “in violation of established interpretation of the First Amendment.”
Even if you’re not a fan of the sax, it’s clear that busking, or playing music publicly for money, has a long history and is clearly part of a person’s First Amendment right. As one of our volunteer attorneys pointed out: “Mr. Pombo has Benjamin Franklin, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, and Sting as models. If busking was good enough for Benjamin Franklin, it should be good enough for Providence.”
It should come as no surprised that it’s not just music that we’re working to protect. The ACLU has taken on a number of cases to protect free speech rights in Rhode Island. Recently, we have:
- filed a federal lawsuit against the Providence Police Department for violating the "clearly established" free speech rights of two protesters in 2013 at a fundraiser in Roger Williams Park for then-Gubernatorial candidate, and now Governor-elect, Gina Raimondo. The suit alleges that the police department's actions amounted to a "willful" violation of the "constitutionally protected right of people to peaceably assemble and demonstrate in public parks"
- successfully challenged a state law that made it a crime to circulate anonymous political literature, including unsigned newspaper editorials. We sued over the legality of the statute last year to halt the Town of Smithfield’s stated plans to enforce it. The statute, which carries a potential one-year prison sentence, bars the distribution of any anonymous political literature that relates to ballot questions or that criticizes a political candidate’s “personal character or political action.”
- filed a successful federal lawsuit charging Providence police with violating the free speech rights of a local resident who was threatened with arrest for leafleting on a public sidewalk. We asked a federal court to rule that police engaged in a clear violation of the free speech rights of a local resident in 2010 when she was barred from peacefully leafleting on a public sidewalk in front of a building where then-Mayor David Cicilline was speaking.
You can read about the many other free speech cases we've taken over the years here. Be sure you know your free speech rights by reading our pamphlet on protesting.