An Idaho college town is set to pay $300,000 to three Christians who sued the city over their arrests for not wearing Covid masks at an outdoor church service during the pandemic.
The city of Moscow said it will settle with Gabriel Rench, and Sean and Rachel Bohnet, who were filmed being handcuffed at a communal psalm singing event on 23 September 2020 in footage which later went viral.
The trio sued city officials in March 2021, alleging their First and Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the undue and heavy-handed response.
They were part of a mass Psalm Sing in the parking lot of Moscow City Hall, organized as a protest against the mask mandate imposed by the City Council.
Local music teachers Sean and Rachel Bohnet were arrested seemingly at random from the hundred-strong crowd of singing churchgoers, comprising many families with young children.
Footage shows two police officers - a man and a woman - handcuffing the pair in tandem before leading them away from the congregation.
A second video showed Gabriel Rench - who according to local paper the Moscow Report was running for County Commissioner at the time - being handcuffed by two male officers.
He can be heard saying 'this is unbelievable' as he is led away flanked by the two cops.
'You guys should not be doing this, and doing this kind of crap for the mayor is embarrassing,' Rench tells the officers.
'You guys are stronger than this - you guys are tough people - you guys are cops.'
All three could be seen calmly speaking with officers for a long while before each arrest, attempting to persuade them to let them stay.
Videos shot earlier show how Christ Church Pastor Douglas Wilson directed the churchgoers to stay six feet apart if they were not wearing masks, in line with regulations at the time.
'The Moscow Police have told us they're going to issue citations if you don't have a mask or you're not six feet apart,' he told the crowd.
'The city has helpfully painted dots on the parking lot. If you don't want to risk a citation, you can find a dot and start on it.
'If you can also keep in mind that your whole family - you can fill in between the dots if you're a family.'
Later, the crowd can be seen confronting the half a dozen cops on the scene from a distance, with one man shouting: 'You've crossed a line!'
Another churchgoer - a mother with three young children - pleads with the officers to 'reconsider' their pandemic policing.
In March 2021, Rench and the Bohnets hit back against Moscow city, filing a lawsuit with the help of the Thomas More Society, according to the Moscow Report.
Their federal case claimed that the city violated its own public health laws, which exempted political speech activities from the Covid regulations.
It also accused the city of violating Idaho state law protections for free religious expression.
I wonder if Berkeley grad Latah County Prosecutor Bill Thompson had any part in persecuting these Christians.Inhibiting their free speech? Fits Berkeley's free speech movement perfectly. Free sppech for the left but not for the right in particular Christians.
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