Street Preacher Faces Trial for Pioneer Square Sermon
A street orator's right to speak on public planking sparks a debate over whether the Salvation Army's influence creates a double standard for public space.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Judge Glasgow will probably decide today whether F. Patterson, a street preacher or orator, was guilty of obstructing the streets a few nights ago when he talked to a crowd on Pioneer Place. The evidence in the case as to the number of people in the crowd and the distance they were from the sidewalk that runs in front of the Pioneer block were conflicting, owing to different judgments by different people. One thought there were between 150 and 300 people there, another between fifty and seventy, and still another judged there were about 100. The same state of affairs came out about the distance from the sidewalk, the estimates running from fifteen feet to sixty. It was practically agreed that the crowd was on the planking and listening to Mr. Patterson, who claimed that he was not obstructing the street and that he was doing what the Salvation Army is allowed to do every evening.
“He claimed that he was not obstructing the street and that he was doing what the Salvation Army is allowed to do every evening.”
The tension between public expression, police enforcement, and the use of 'planking' or public thoroughfares in Pioneer Square remains a central, often contentious, part of Seattle's civic discourse today. Much like Patterson's appeal to the Salvation Army's established presence, modern street preachers and activists continue to navigate similar arguments over public space and freedom of speech.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.