MOCK TRIAL
MOCK FACTS
Peggy Jones, who just completed her junior year a college
located in the Midwest, is the leader of a national organization
known as "Students Against Homelessness". At the end of the
Spring semester for 1986, the members of this group decided
to travel to Washington, D. C. in order to stage a three
month-long demonstration in Lafayette Park to protest
homelessness in the United States. The group chose this location
because it wanted to attempt to influence the President of
the United States to propose legislation that will provide
funds to ensure that homelessness is eradicated in this
country. Lafayette Park is directly across the street from
the White House and the demonstrators would easily be seen
from there.
Jones and the members of this group demonstrated in
Lafayette Park for the months of June and July of 1986 by
erecting and sleeping in shanties there and carrying placards
that said "End Homelessness in the U.S.A. Now". The members
of the group chose sleeping in the Park as a part of the
protest in order to re-enact what they feel is the central
reality of homelessness.
As a result, Jones and her fellow protesters were arrested
on August 1, 1986 for violating a statute enacted by Congress
that prohibits camping in Lafayette Park. The statute provides,
in pertinent part, as follows:
Camping is defined as the use of park land
for living accommodation purposes such as sleeping activities, or
making preparations to sleep
(including the laying down of bedding for the
purpose of sleeping), of storing personal belongings, or making any fire, or using any
tents or shelter or other structure or vehicle
for sleeping or doing any digging or earth-
breaking or carrying on cooking activities.
The above-listed activities constitute camping
when it reasonably appears, in light of all the
circumstances, that the participants, in conducting these
activities, are in fact using the
area as a living accommodation, regardless
of the intent of the participants or the nature
of any other activities in which they may also
be engaging. Violations of this section are
punishable by a term of six months' imprisonment and a fine of
five hundred dollars.
Lafayette Park had originally been a part of the White
House grounds. President Thomas Jefferson set it aside as a
park for the use of residents and visitors. The legislative
history of the statute prohibiting camping there reveals that,
in keeping with Jefferson's intent, Congress wanted to preserve
the beauty of Lafayette Park for the American people
and for visitors from around the world.
The circumstances surrounding Jones' arrest on August 1,
1986 were as follows: In patrolling Lafayette Park for the
two month period during which the demonstrations took place,
the police department issued several written and oral warnings
to Jones and the members of her group, informing them that
camping in the park was in violation of the law. The police
repeatedly asked the protesters to remove all living
accommodations from the park, but compliance with these requests
was not forthcoming.
As a result, the police held meetings on July 26 and
28, 1986, in order to map out a plan of action to deal with
the situation. The decision arrived at as a result of these
meetings was to sweep the park in a raid on the evening of
August 1, 1986, arrest all of the protesters, seize their
personal effects for evidentiary purposes and demolish and
cart away all of the;shanties that had been erected.
At 9:00 p.m. on August 1, 1986, the police carried out
their plan as scheduled. At approximately 9:10 p. m., the
police burst through the closed door of Jones' shanty. They
placed Jones under arrest and gathered all of the personal
property located in the shanty, including a toothbrush, a
comb, a sleeping bag, several items of clothing and foodstuffs.
The shanty was then demolished by a bulldozer.
AMENDMENT 1 [1791]
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment
of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press: or
the right of the people peaceably to assemble. and to
petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Legal Cases | Peace Park
Proposition One | Pennsylvania Avenue