Donald Trump’s security team has been put on legal notice: Don’t interfere with the people’s right to protest your boss.
A New York Supreme Court justice has ordered Trump’s security crew not to interfere with a group of protesters outside of Trump’s Manhattan office.
The order stems from a lawsuit filed by a group of Hispanic protesters who claim that they were attacked and had their property destroyed by Trump’s security detail in September while protesting on the sidewalk adjacent to Trump Tower.
According to the lawsuit, one of the activists was seized “with considerable force” and violently shoved, while another was forcefully grabbed by the wrist and thrust down onto the sidewalk. The complaint also says that Trump’s bodyguard, Keith Schiller, struck one of the protesters with a closed fist after taking a sign reading, “Trump: Make America Racist Again.”
Trump’s team had concluded that, as a property owner, Trump has a responsibility for maintaining the sidewalk next to his property, and that the protesters’ signs were creating a safety hazard by blocking the entrance and exit from curbside pickups and dropoffs by taxis and car services.
In his order, judge Fernando Tapia found that Trump’s rights as a property owner and the protesters’ First Amendment rights where thrown out of balance when Schiller “found it incumbent upon himself to approach the protesters and take their signs resulting in a confrontation, which given the potentially volatile nature of the atmosphere, he provoked.”
“To paraphrase a famous quotation, the freedom to move my fist is directly limited by the proximity of your chin,” the order reads.
The judge has prohibited Trump’s security team from “Interfering with the plaintiffs’ lawful demonstration on the sidewalk, and from [u]nilaterally interfering with the plaintiffs’ demonstrations or confiscating their signs without first resorting to the proper authorities, unless there is a danger presented where safety concerns require immediate intervention.”
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.