Bergenfield acts to regulate protests

Last week, the Bergenfield Borough Council unanimously passed an ordinance regulating the time, place, and manner of protests and public gatherings.

“The ordinance was very content-neutral,” Ora Kornbluth, the council president, said. “We’re not stopping people from exercising their free speech, we just regulated the time, the manner, the place, of how they can express themselves. As a council, we all obviously value their free speech, we value their expression, but it must be exercised in a way that respects other people’s rights, the rights of all the citizens, the rights of people in their homes.”

Bergenfield residents, including some from the borough’s Jewish community, voiced support for the proposed ordinance during the public comment period. There also were speakers who opposed the proposal; most of them appeared to have come from other towns.

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“One of the main things [those who opposed the proposal] kept on saying is, you’re doing this for the Jews, because of what happened in November,” Ms. Kornbluth said, referring to a protest directed at a private home that took place on a residential dead-end street in the borough. “And that’s really not the truth. We did this for all our citizens.

“We want to offer all our citizens a certain quality of life,” she continued. “Holes in the [existing] ordinance came to our attention because of what happened in November. We realized we didn’t have the proper ordinances in place to do anything about hateful protests and blocking streets and megaphones. But this wasn’t done for the Jewish people of Bergenfield. This ordinance was put in place for everybody, and it’s going to be enforced across the board equally for everyone, no matter which group it is.

“We’re a very diverse council. We don’t always agree on everything, but we always work together to find resolutions. In this case, there were discussions, but it was unanimous. Everyone really felt the ordinance is important for all our residents.

“We need to do this to make sure that Bergenfield remains a town where everyone gets along,” she continued. “Hate doesn’t have a home in Bergenfield and it’s never had a home in Bergenfield. There’s never been a time in Bergenfield where communities have not gotten along and looked out for each other. [The November protest] just brought to light such hatred from outsiders that we felt [the ordinance] was important. The amazing thing about Bergenfield is that we’re a diverse community and we really do get along and look out for each other.

“We listened to everyone, we understood what everyone’s concerns were. At the end of the day, we felt we had a very fair, neutral ordinance that was there for everyone.”

Akiva Shapiro was one of the last to speak during the public comment period. He identified himself as a Bergenfield resident and a constitutional attorney. “I litigate cases up to the Supreme Court on First Amendment issues — on freedom of religion and freedom of speech — so there’s nothing more important to me than our fundamental freedoms, our First Amendment rights,” Mr. Shapiro began. “But the only way that all of our rights are protected, all of our rights of expression, all of our rights of free movement, all of our rights of free exercise, all of our rights to be safe, is if there are rules in place; content-neutral time, manner and place regulations for gatherings in the public space. That’s exactly what this wise council is putting forward in this well-reasoned ordinance.”

Mr. Shapiro went on to address some of what earlier speakers had said. “I think some of the individuals who were objecting to the ordinance are misreading the ordinance,” he said. He noted the repeated references to Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham, in which the Supreme Court struck down a city ordinance that required parade permits. The local government in that case had unfettered discretion on whether to issue a permit, Mr. Shapiro explained, while Bergenfield’s proposed content-neutral ordinance limits the government’s discretion and requires the borough administrator to issue permits except in very limited circumstances related directly to safety.

In response to concerns about the proposal’s requirement that applications for permits be submitted 10 days in advance, Mr. Shapiro pointed to the exceptions in the ordinance for when that is not feasible. “So if there’s late-breaking news or some reason you can’t apply 10 days ahead of time, the borough administrator must issue a permit,” he said.

Mr. Shapiro also addressed comments about a buffer zone around houses of worship. “The courts have repeatedly permitted buffer zones that are far greater than the one that this council is considering of 50 feet,” he said. “New York, for example has a 300-foot buffer zone around houses of worship for disrupting or disturbing religious services. That’s a criminal offense in New York. It was challenged and it was upheld as constitutional, with the court saying that the Supreme Court has explicitly held that an individual may not exercise his or her own constitutional rights and in the process infringe on the constitutional rights of others. The court went on to say that conduct proscribed by the challenged statute was intended to protect the rights of persons to exercise their own religious beliefs.”

After Mr. Shapiro spoke, John Schettino, the borough attorney, thanked him for accurately addressing other speakers’ concerns, and added that he did not believe there were any issues with the constitutionality of the ordinance.

Rabbi Zev Goldberg, who leads Bais Medrash of Bergenfield, an Orthodox shul, was at the council meeting. “It was really a moment of pride as a resident of Bergenfield and as the rabbi of a synagogue in Bergenfield to see the council so focused on protecting the rights of the citizens of Bergenfield,” Rabbi Goldberg said. “I think it’s also very important to highlight that this is not a uniquely Jewish issue. This is about the residents of Bergenfield feeling safe, about ensuring that everybody has a right to safety and everybody has a right to free speech.

“The ordinance does not limit free speech,” he continued. “It just creates protocols and regulations around free speech.” Many of the speakers who opposed the ordinance “did not speak to the substance of the issue,” he added. “They talked about geopolitical considerations that had nothing to do with the ordinance.

“The council did the right thing for the residents of Bergenfield — Jewish and non-Jewish alike.” The ordinance will help ensure that “the borough remains safe and a great place to raise children and to be a part of a diverse community.”