UPDATE: The Wilmington City Council announced Thursday morning that Ordinance 24-036 would be tabled for now, pending further public input. It will no longer appear on tonight’s meeting agenda, but the public is free to comment remotely or in person on the proposal.
Why Should Delaware Care?
The First Amendment protects the right to free speech and public assembly, which has historically been used to protest public officials. Those efforts are increasingly being brought into residential spaces, however, creating debate over a property owner’s rights versus those of the protesters, which could set precedent statewide.
Wilmington City Council is considering an ordinance that would prohibit protesters from employing noise disturbances that target a particular residence.
The legislation comes after Palestinian protests on the streets outside of U.S. Sen. Chris Coons’ home in the city’s Highlands community have raised the ire of neighbors in recent weeks. While non-violent and non-obstructing, protesters have employed bullhorns, recordings of exploding bombs and drums to direct their messages at the senator’s home off Delaware Avenue.
Proposed Ordinance 24-036, sponsored by Councilperson Nathan Field, the Democrat who represents the 8th District where Coons’ home lies, would prohibit the targeting of noise disturbances at residences in the city at any time.
Notably, the law does not rely upon decibel levels but would be measured based upon whether a judge believed that the conduct constituted a disturbance of a person’s peace in their own home, according to City Solicitor Robert Goff Jr.
Protesters would receive a warning that their conduct was in violation of the ordinance before a city police officer would cite or arrest a continued offender, according to Goff.
Voice Your Opinion
The Wilmington City Council’s Public Safety Committee voted 3-2 on June 10 to move the proposal to a vote of the entire 13-member council. Originally scheduled to be considered tonight, the proposal has since been tabled, but the public is free to voice its input starting at 6:30 p.m. at the Louis L. Redding City/County Building at 800 N. French St. For remote access to the meeting, read the agenda here.
A history of protest
Wilmington has long been home to protests over the last few decades, including over abuses by the police, abortion care, the equity of its courts, and the slave-owning history of one of Delaware’s Founding Fathers.
In the last few years, however, protesters have largely eschewed public squares for their rallies and instead have increasingly been taking their demonstrations to the private homes of public officials.
Notably, longtime protester Keandra McDole brought demonstrations calling for a new investigation into the 2015 police shooting that killed her disabled brother, Jeremy McDole, to the homes of Attorney General Kathy Jennings, Wilmington Mayor Mike Purzycki and Gov. John Carney.
In 2021, the Delaware Court of Chancery denied an appeal for a temporary restraining order for protests that targeted the home of then-Delaware Deputy Attorney General Mark Denney, who was the head of the state’s Division of Civil Rights and Public Trust.
After an expedited holiday weekend hearing, the judge ruled that there wasn’t enough of a threat posed by the protesters to warrant overriding their First Amendment rights to assemble and protest.
Advocates have pointed to that ruling as a warning that the latest proposal was not legal either, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware called upon the city council to reject the measure, saying it “silence the voices of residents.”
“Protest is one of our democracy’s main tools to hold people and institutions accountable and helps to shed light on injustice. We should be fostering a culture of respectful, but widespread dissent, not squelching peoples’ ability to speak out,” said Javonne Rich, policy & advocacy director for the ACLU of Delaware, in a statement.
Residents exhausted
About a half dozen residents of the Highlands community attended the June 10 committee meeting to express their frustrations with the ongoing protests.
“I believe in the First Amendment right of protesting. However, because I live near Sen. Coons, I feel like I’m being protested against,” said resident Mercedes Migliore, questioning where the line between protesting and harassment lies.
She noted that the bullhorns and drums were audible within her home two blocks from Coons’ home, and that other neighbors had reported that the chants regarding “Coons murdering children in Gaza” had upset their young children.
Another resident expressed her frustration with the protests because she is caring for a dying parent, and the protests have disrupted her sleep – they’ve allegedly started as early as 7 a.m., defying the city’s noise ordinance that doesn’t begin until 9 a.m.
“I have been a First Amendment purist my entire life, but this is crossing a line,” she added.
Karl Wagner, who lives a few blocks away, also said that the noise is audible in his home.
“I just feel like I should be able to have peace and quiet inside my house,” he said.
Goff, the city’s attorney who drafted the ordinance, said that the proposal was designed to be as narrow as possible.
“[The protest] might be for a good cause, and that is certainly subject to public debate, but what’s happening here is harassment,” he said. “If you want to get a message out and protest, that’s great, but there’s a right here for people to be secure in their homes.”
Protesters express concerns
More than a dozen people attended the committee meeting to oppose the legislation and express concern that the proposal would inhibit their First Amendment rights to protest.
Most were unapologetic for the reaction by locals around the senator’s home.
“A protest is not supposed to let anyone have ‘peace.’ It’s supposed to cause a disturbance to your everyday routine,” said Dounya Ramadan, a leader of the local Palestinian protest movement.
Emma Abrams, co-chair of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA) at the University of Delaware, who has helped to educate the protesters on local laws, said the take-it-to-their-homes strategy has been a necessary escalation of protests nationwide.
“In November last year, a Huffington Post article reported that congressional staffers were being told to let constituent phone calls go to voicemail rather than speak with constituents about concerns. This is why many of us have chosen to occupy physical space and refuse to be ignored about this when our elected officials will not pick up their phones, will not respond and will not be receptive to widely held public opinion about an ongoing genocide, then we will go to them,” she said.
Michaelena de Jesus, a lifelong Wilmingtonian who has helped to organize seven protests outside of either Sens. Coons’ or Tom Carper’s home, noted that public speaking and political rallies are specifically exempt from the city’s noise ordinance.
“Just because the truth is uncomfortable, it doesn’t make it violent,” she said. “So you want us to go to buildings that they’re never at? More importantly, who gives you the right to dictate our freedom? You have a whole noise disturbance subsection, so this [proposal] is specifically political, specifically to silence the people, specifically us.”
McDole added her voice in her support for the Palestinian protesters.
“I believe what [city council] should do is to go contact your lawyers and tell them that they need to be fired because you’re just cooking up a whole bunch of lawsuits,” she said. “I don’t think that [the protesters] are loud enough. And after today, I will be joining the protest because enough is enough.”
Have a question about or feedback on this story? Reach Jacob Owens at jowens@spotlightdelaware.org.
