Pushy Police

[Kenneth Winslow]

When you go out to preach the Bible in public police officers will sometimes try and tell you what to do and control the situation. Often times they do it without any legitimate authority to do so and, deep down, they know it.  They will simply try to bully and lie to you.
This recent interaction with a police officer here in Murfreesboro is a clear example of that.

***Spoiler alert***
After this confrontation with this man we continued to preach until well after dark and I never saw him again.

You are welcome to fast forward this video to just before the 23 minute mark and you will see what I mean.

https://youtu.be/AMauwR6W6mM

[creationliberty]

By the way, I like how you phrased that: "This is God the Father talking to God the Son." That's good.

I guess I missed it, but I didn't see any police officer.

[Kenneth Winslow]

Sorry, that was the wrong clip. 
 Here is the video that I meant to post:

https://youtu.be/gFSRA5bIml0

[creationliberty]

It's interesting that he kept interrupting you. He wouldn't let you respond, even when you tried. He also wouldn't say what he would do if you didn't move because he knows that if he threatened you unlawfully, he could be liable. If someone complained (which is questionable if anyone complained at all), all he had to do was tell them it was an open event, and that you weren't causing any trouble, and that they should choose to do a closed event next time if they wanted to regulate who shows up. (I wasn't previously aware of the laws on events, but what you said made sense, and now I think I understand the rules a bit better.)

I loved the smooth transition from an experienced street preacher to ignore the police harassment and just keep teaching.

Ah, there it is... so I was right. No one complained. He just didn't want you there. That's why he said he would go talk with the event organizers. If he had already talked to them, he wouldn't have to go talk to them again, especially since you hadn't actually made an argument for your being there yet because he hadn't let you make an argument. Since you were not allowed to given your reasoning, then what reasoning did he get from you to take back to the event organizers if he had already spoken to them? He didn't have anything, which means going back to the event organizers would just be a waste of time because they would have had the exact alleged conversation they supposedly had the first time. Again, the reason it doesn't make sense is because he didn't talk to anybody before coming over there, and it is very difficult on the spot, in the moment, to discern those things; I wouldn't have been able to catch it on the spot either.

If he was a good police officer, he should love the fact that you are out there teaching those things. You are preaching against the sins of the very criminals he has to arrest. You aren't doing any wrong, you aren't doing anything unlawful, nor are you causing any trouble. You are, in effect, helping to make his job easier, but he doesn't want you there because of his own sin, and after seeing that, I'm not convinced it had anything to do with safety or event coordination.

That last remark probably wasn't necessary since he was starting to move on, but what he said there was contradictory. He said you were disrupting the event because people were trying to eat and they were listening to you. Yet, he wanted to move you 20 yards away, which would not have prevented the people eating from hearing you; it just would have put you in a position to be heard slightly less, but nothing would have changed. So he TECHNICALLY did not tell you to stop, but his reasoning wasn't sound, so something else was going on that he wasn't being straight-forward about.

Nonetheless, it does not change the fact that he has no right to tell you to move without a lawful reason, and if you moved every time a police officer told you to, without question, you'd eventually just have to quit and go home, which, for some people, is their goal.

*SIDE NOTE: I didn't know you used to be an alcoholic. It's good to hear you got out of that, and now I know why you have such passion to preach to drunks.*

[Kenneth Winslow]

//*SIDE NOTE: I didn't know you used to be an alcoholic. It's good to hear you got out of that, and now I know why you have such passion to preach to drunks.*//

Yes, I used to drink just about every chance I got from the time I was about 13 years old until I got saved when I was a 30. And I loved it.
My father drank beer and smoked cigarettes every day until the day he died in 2014 at 71 years of age. Even when his body could not tolerate alcohol anymore he would still drink non-alcoholic beer.
My brother, who is two and a half years older than I am, still drinks beer every single day as far as I know.  His eldest son, Bradley, is an alcoholic and a drug abuser also.

(Deuteronomy 5:9 KJV  ...for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me,)

The Lord was extremely merciful on me during my years of drunkenness. Unknowingly, I was quite blessed that I never became physically addicted. When I would go out to sea for weeks and months at a time I never suffered any type of withdrawals. I never suffered the DTs, as they say.
When I got saved the very first sin the Holy Ghost dealt with me about was my drunkenness. (Note: At that point I had no clue whatsoever who or what the Holy Ghost even was.) On my way home from that church meeting I realized that I should not be getting drunk anymore. I only recall getting drunk two or three more times after that point. And it was awful!
Yes, it grieves me to see the multitudes of people that are destroying their minds, bodies and souls for the want of drink. I know what it's like too steep yourself in alcohol day after day, not even wanting nor considering living a sober life.

[TheChickenWhisperer]

Thank you Kenneth for sharing that.  I once had police threaten to arrest me for protecting my own home with a ball bat (the only weapon I had).  It scared me at the time, but I now know that if someone is in my home, I am within my rights.  It is a shame how police can misuse their authority.

I, too, was interested in your testimony.  Chris covered all of that, so I won't repeat.  Just thank you for sharing it.

[zachshrader]

Wow Tonya!  I'm not surprised!  May I ask What happened??

[TheChickenWhisperer]

All I really care to say is that I asked someone to leave that had come to ask me a question and it escalated into threats against us.  I called 911, but they had left by the time the police arrive.  My ball bat was not appropriate apparently.  I was told I could go to jail if I used it.  I put it away for a while and didn't get it out again until I learned that I had every right to use it to protect my home, the same if I owned a gun.

[Benjamin]

All I really care to say is that I asked someone to leave that had come to ask me a question and it escalated into threats against us.  I called 911, but they had left by the time the police arrive.  My ball bat was not appropriate apparently.  I was told I could go to jail if I used it.  I put it away for a while and didn't get it out again until I learned that I had every right to use it to protect my home, the same if I owned a gun.

You would have loved the Sheriff out by my old place. When one of my daughter's ex boyfriends hurt his girlfriend, the cops came over to check on my daughter and asked "Do you have a gun"? She said "Yes" he said "GOOD"!