Police in Watertown, Wisconsin, arrested a youth preacher and several others who were protesting a drag queen event targeted toward children at a local park. Marcus Schroeder, the preacher, was arrested while reading from the Bible.
Video shows Schroeder surrounded by police officers. One of the officers aggressively removed a microphone from Schroeder’s hands, and one officer explained that they were shutting down the preaching because Schroeder was using amplification.
“You guys are acting like thugs, straight up thugs. He has every right to be out here engaging in speech,” said an onlooker in the video.
“There are cars driving around with radios playing, that is amplified sound, people are standing out here with radios, that is amplified sound,” the onlooker continued. “The ordinance has to do with a decibel gauge, you don’t just get to pick and choose which amplification you like and which you don’t.”
“That is selective enforcement of the law, that is discrimination on the basis of speech, that is what you all just did,” the witness concluded.
According to The Sentinel, Schroeder was part of a group from the Mercy Seat Christian Church in Brookfield, Wisconsin, who were protesting the drag queen event at the Pride in the Park celebration in Watertown.
In Schroeder’s mind, it was completely worth the trouble of being arrested.
“It was worth it. It’s actually an honor to be counted worthy to stand with the cloud of witnesses who have gone before us and been arrested for the sake of spreading Christ and his kingdom,” he told The Sentinel. “If the police wanted to try and set an example for others or anything like that, the only thing I’ve seen is actually the exact opposite, where more and more people are seeing the severity of what’s going on and being called to more action.”
According to an official from Mercy Seat Christian Church, the police were acting on orders from city officials.
“The police, per orders from city leaders, arrested several young people. Three were arrested earlier in the day while inside the park praying and talking to attendees, and then released with warnings,” said Jason Storms, the church’s minister of evangelism. “It was open to the public, thus the public’s right to free speech carries with them. One was arrested later in the day for preaching on the public sidewalk outside the venue and is being charged with unlawful use of sound amplification and resisting arrest.”
Nick Proell, another young Christian who was arrested at the event, echoed Schroeder’s sentiments. “I’d do it all over again if it gives me an opportunity to share the good news and rescue innocent children being sexualized by their parents,” he said. “God will use it for good. We will stand for truth even if we stand alone.”
The drag queens at the event were reportedly sexually explicit during the event. Some of the performers were wearing lingerie and “dancing and gyrating in front of little children, who were invited to give them one dollar bills,” alleged Storms. This occurred despite a Wisconsin law that forbids causing minors to view or listen to sexually explicit conduct.
The event attracted other groups in protest, as well.
The Watertown Daily Times reported a “dozen men sporting black tops and khaki pants, face coverings and sunglasses” at the event. These men reportedly “waved flags bearing the swastika symbol, gave the Nazi salute to onlookers and yelled homophobic rhetoric.”
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, took the opportunity to connect those protesters to the Christians who were arrested at the event.
“This is a disgusting and direct attack on our state’s LGBTQ community, communities of color, and Jewish Wisconsinites,” said Evers in a statement. “Nazis, swastikas, and any other anti-LGBTQ, white supremacist, or anti-Semitic messages, symbols, or groups are unacceptable and unwelcome in Wisconsin. Period.”
How was it an attack on “communities of color” or “Jewish Wisconsinites”? The protest was about drag queens, not about race or religion.
“I am especially alarmed that these individuals chose to disrupt, intimidate, and harass kids, people, and families who were attending a local Pride event aimed at celebrating and honoring the LGBTQ community,” Evers continued. “This is dangerous, hateful behavior, and it should be condemned in all of its forms and by every elected official at every level, and that includes all those who continue to push radical rhetoric, divisive legislation and litigation, and falsehoods and disinformation about the LGBTQ community.”
“LGBTQ Wisconsinites deserve to be treated with dignity, decency, kindness, and respect,” he concluded.
And apparently, in Evers’ world, anyone who disagrees with the blatant sexual exploitation of children deserves to be arrested and silenced.
