Wednesday, April 21, 2004 | 10:56 a.m.
Most of the time the cops are right on target when they're enforcing the law.
Then there are the times when they're just dead wrong.
On the evening of April 14, the cops were wrong when, at the request of Venetian security officers, they tried to stop Jim Webber and Tom Griner from preaching their brand of the gospel on the busy sidewalk outside the Strip megaresort.
And the street preachers have evidence -- a videotape they took -- of two Metro Police bicycle cops misstating the law while looking to deny them their First Amendment right to free speech.
So there can be no misunderstanding, here's how the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the highest court to rule on this subject so far, has said: "We conclude that the Venetian's sidewalk constitutes a public forum subject to the protections of the First Amendment."
In its July 2001 opinion, the appeals court affirmed a 1999 ruling by U.S. District Judge Philip Pro.
"Since the sidewalk performs an essential public function," Pro said, "the Venetian does not have the right to exclude individuals from the sidewalk based upon permissible exercises of their right to expression under the First Amendment."
This couldn't be any clearer.
But on the tape, Webber and Griner made, the bicycle cops acted as if they knew nothing about those legal opinions.
They told the preachers that the sidewalk was "part of their (the Venetian's) house" and that the resort had a right to kick them off the property.
Ultimately, however, after Webber and Griner insisted they had a right to be on the sidewalk and after Gary Peck and Allen Lichtenstein, of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, arrived on the scene to back them up, the officers relented and let the preachers go about their business.
But the obvious harassment and erroneous statements by the officers, all captured on tape, have enraged Peck and Lichtenstein, who earn a living protecting civil liberties.
"There's either two possibilities here," Peck said. "Either the police department is not enforcing the law in a professional and competent manner because of ineptitude, or it is flaunting the law and instructing its officers to do the bidding of the casinos."
What happened at the Venetian on April 14, according to the ACLU advocates, is what is occurring all along the Strip when it comes to dealing with people the casinos don't want outside their properties.
Sheriff Bill Young defended his officers, saying they are acting under a county ordinance that isn't aimed at clamping down on free speech, but rather preventing people from obstructing the heavily traveled sidewalks.
"I agree 100 percent with their First Amendment rights, but they don't have the right to block the sidewalks," Young said. "We're going to continue to enforce the law that's on the books. It's a good one."
But if the cops were enforcing that ordinance outside the Venetian on April 14, you never would have known it. Neither officer voiced any concern that Webber and Griner were obstructing the path of others on the sidewalk.
That's because it was obvious that the two preachers weren't blocking anything. You could see pedestrians freely walking past the officers in the background of the video. None of them were complaining.
The cops obviously are in a tight spot here trying to balance the interests of the casinos and the First Amendment rights of the public.
But in the end, it comes down to the rule of law, and the law sides with the First Amendment in this case.
The sheriff should make that clear to his officers.
Because, as Lichtenstein said: "If the police don't follow the law, how can we expect anyone else to?"
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