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Woodbury City Council bans 'targeted picketing' about:reader?url=https://www.startribune.com/woodbury-city-council-ba... <br />told the council that the ordinance would be unlikely to result in <br />arrests. <br />The council passed the ordinance 4-1. Council Member Amy <br />Scoggins, the sole vote against it, said, "One of the things that <br />bothers me is that nobody showed up to support the ordinance." <br />City Administrator Clint Gridley said the city believes "strongly" in <br />the right of individuals to exercise their First Amendment rights of <br />freedom of speech and assembly, but he said the city attorney <br />researched the proposed ordinance and concluded it was <br />constitutional. Maplewood, White Bear Lake and Shoreview all <br />have ordinances that forbid "targeted picketing," he said, and the <br />White Bear Lake ordinance was tested in the Minnesota Court of <br />Appeals and found to be constitutional. <br />The White Bear Lake ordinance was passed in 1990 after the <br />Planned Parenthood of Minnesota executive director, who lived in <br />the city, asked for the city's help to stop pickets in front of his <br />house. <br />The Woodbury ordinance will make punishable by misdemeanor <br />any marching, standing or patrolling "directed solely at a particular <br />residential building in a manner that adversely affects the safety, <br />security or privacy of an occupant of the building." <br />Alberio said the city doesn't want to deprive protesters of <br />constitutional rights but wants to preserve peace in the <br />neighborhoods. He said residents who called police said they <br />found the noise disturbing. <br />Woodbury also has an ordinance that prohibits behavior that <br />"annoys, injures or endangers the health, safety, comfort or repose <br />of the public," but the city attorney determined the subjective <br />2 of 3 3/17/2021, 2:37 PM <br />