This is my first chance to post here since last thursday, so here it is
Amanda and I arrived at approximately 5:45 pm, and parked in the walmart parking lot. Amanda bought a folding chair and something to eat, as she just got off work.
We walked across the street to the kingdom hall and stood on the shoulder of the road. Amanda proceeded to take pictures of me and my signs, and I also took some pics of her holding the signs with the kingdom hall in the background.
At approximately 6pm, Bob (Honesty) from JWD arrived wearing a Zorro mask and a hat, because his ex-wife attends that particular congregation.
So there were 3 of us there holding signs on the side of the road. We were really enjoying ourselves. At Approximately 6:40, Dave from central Tennessee arrived, along with his grown son. They had driven 3 hours just to meet us. Dave is an XJW himself and posts on another board.
We were really enjoying ourselves, and the response from the passerby's was tremendous. Alot of people passing by were waving and giving us the thumbs up sign.
Im hoping all of the "newly interested ones" read our signs and maybe gave them some things to research. This is the one night of the year that everyone attends, and im just hoping that someone took notice.
My signs say "jehovah witness destructive cult, 1000's of dead kids from the bogus medical dogma" and also I had some signs that say "Jehovah's Witnesses molest children" with an enlarged newspaper article stating "they have a practice of protecting known pedophiles"
Well at 10 minutes til 7 a county Sheriff's Deputy pulled up and turned on her lights. She rolled down her window and told us to leave as we were obstructing traffic, which was totally not true-we were standing on the shoulder of the road, not the actual road istself. We did not argue though and picked up our signs and went across the road to meet up with Jill, another XJW, who was standing across the road watching us. Jill posts here on JWD I believe.
This Deputy didnt show up by accident, im sure the elders called the police on us as they didnt want all of their potential bible study's to read our signs. The deputy then proceeded to pull into the kingdom hall parking lot and talked with the elders.
I work in a law enforcement field too, and I could have played my trump card, however for various reasons I didnt challenge her, nor try to argue our first ammendment rights.
I am temporarily suspending my picketing at this particular hall, but I will be visiting the various police chiefs and county sheriffs in my area soon and talk with them about my picketing and get their advice and input. I do have my 1st ammendment right, and I will use it !!!!!
All in all we had a great time and it will be a night I will never forget. We had a post picketing reception at our apartment, complete with cake, coffee, and lots of conversation. Im hoping to do this again next year on the memorial too.
Dave