For Now, Plymouth Township 'Annoyance' Code Shelved

A proposed “annoyance ordinance” in Plymouth Township is annoying to some local residents, who raised questions about its potential free speech violations, and now it’s on the back burner pending further review.

Supervisor Shannon Price, who proposed a Malicious Communications Ordinance that would require adults to live by the same rules as kids, told The Detroit News that he’s not giving up on the idea, but expects to call a citizens roundtable “so we can discuss ordinance language that no one finds objectionable.”

Officials from the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan, who raised concerns about the ordinance, could be involved in the discussion. Michael J. Steinberg, the organization’s legal director, said “the Constitution simply doesn’t allow turning people who are annoying into criminals.”

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Price told Patch in last month his goal wasn’t to squelch free speech, but called it an anti-bullying law of sorts that requires adults to observe the same code of conduct as students in the Plymouth-Canton school district, which has a strict anti-bullying policy.

“When our kids are taught policies and procedures and etiquette, how do we ask them to live by a set of rules we won’t apply to ourselves?” Price said at the time.”How do we not have those same rules apply to us?”

As currently written, the proposal would make it illegal to send or deliver written malicious messages, or to use telecommunications services or devices to threaten, harass, molest or intimidate others.

The proposed ordinance appears to be an anomaly in Michigan. Officials with the Michigan Municipal League and Michigan Townships Association told The Detroit News they’ve never heard of a similar ordinance in the state.

However, the proposed ordinance was modeled after a similar ordinance passed in Canton Township, but without controversy. The ordinance was originally passed in 2000, but did not include references to social media.

Price faced opposition from Plymouth Township Trustee Bob Doroshewitz, who thinks the ordinance is unnecessary and said he hopes it “dies a quick death.”

Several bloggers who have been critical of Plymouth Township politics feared the ordinance might be used to turn them into criminals, Doroshewitz told the newspaper.

He said there’s a big difference between a teenager being bullied and “two adults sending off messages to each other.”

“Schools have more leeway to regulate speech that disrupts the school environment but in a free society, the government cannot make it a crime to simply engage in ‘offensive’ or ‘annoying’ speech,” Steinberg of the ACLU said.