Berks County District Attorney John T. Adams has withdrawn charges against a man who was arrested when he arrived to preach Christianity at a city LGBT pride event in Reading, Pennsylvania.
“There was insufficient evidence that would warrant a charge of disorderly conduct, and, quite frankly, when you consider all the nuances of the First Amendment, freedom of speech, we also believe that under the facts and circumstances, it was not appropriate for charges to be filed as a result of this incident,” Adams told The Epoch Times. “I think that the officer was trying to prevent a disturbance from occurring. At the point that he interceded, a crime had not occurred.”
Street preacher Damon Atkins, 41, wore a T-shirt that said “You must be born again.” He held a two-sided sign with Bible quotes. One side said, “Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life,” and the other said, “Jesus said go and sin no more.”
He would have preached in a loud voice to the crowd gathered across the street from where he stood, but he did not get an entire sentence out before an officer with the Reading Police Department arrested Atkins, put him in handcuffs, and removed him from the pride event.
Video Exonerates Atkins
The description of the arrest, written by police in the criminal complaint, does not match the video of what happened.“He began to yell to the people at the event. I immediately approached him and told him not to yell comments intended to disrupt the event. Atkins said he understood,” the complaint said. “Less than a minute later he resumed yelling derogatory comments to the people at the event.”
“Because I had already given him a warning, I immediately told him he was being arrested for disorderly conduct,” the complaint said.
But video shows Atkins was not yelling before the officer approached him, and he was arrested before he was able to speak a full sentence. The First Amendment protects speech, religion, and the right of the people to peaceably assemble.
The group Reading Pride Celebration partnered with the city of Reading for the June 3 ceremony to raise the “progress pride” flag over city hall. The progress pride flag—which is similar to the familiar rainbow flag, with the addition of a triangle of stripes on the side representing transgender and racial minority LGBT individuals—is flown at Reading City Hall during June, which has been designated nationally as pride month.
Members of the LGBT community had gathered for speeches and to witness the flag raising before marching in a short parade to a park where they had a day of festivities. Many were dressed in rainbow colors. Some men were dressed in drag.
On the other side of the street from city hall, four or five people arrived to either protest the event or to preach. City police stood in the street ready to keep peace.
Witness to Arrest
Street preacher Matthew Wear arrived before Atkins and preached for about 10 minutes, he told The Epoch Times. When police told him to stop, he did stop preaching and started recording video on his phone. About that time, Atkins arrived. That is how Wear got the video of police arresting Atkins.The pride event took place on June 3, and Adams said he learned about the arrest the evening of June 6. The following day, June 7, his office withdrew the charges.
“As soon as we were notified of this, and had an opportunity to review body cam, and the videos, and analyze the facts along with law, we knew right away that a crime had not been committed,” Adams said. “That happens. It’s not the first time, it’s not going to be the last time, that prosecutors review decisions that are made by police officers, and many times we have a different determination, as we are trained in the law, and police are not trained in the law.”
