New Bern, North Carolina- When I spoke to adult store owner Greg Sakas the week before last, www.adultfyi.com/read.php?ID=23155, he said that the Christian Coalition was determined to wage “holy war” against him. Apparently they took the first shots Sunday morning with a picket line.
Sakas, whose store was raided in January and has a trial scheduled for July 27, said there were a handful of protestors outside his store Sunday morning- the gathering occurring right after church services.
Sakas re-opened his store this month after police confiscated store equipment, computers, records and adult merchandise. However he was assured by the city and police there’d be no further police intervention. But Sakas claims he can’t get a straight story from the police dept. regarding the picketing.
“They have to have a permit to do that and the permits come from the police chief’s office,” says Sakas. “And we can’t find out if a permit was issued or not. We want to find out, because if it hasn’t, this is an illegal assembly. Which means if this is illegal, the police need to arrest them. And we’re not getting any cooperation. Now that’s public record and we should be able to get that without a problem. But it’s a problem and a never-ending battle here.”
In a recent interview, Sakas mentioned that the assistant police chief also belonged to the Christian Coalition.
“So I’m having flyers printed out with a 20% discount coupon for good Christians,” says Sakas. “I’m handing them out to them saying by the way we’ve got the store totally re-stocked- not like the last time when you were here.”
From Sakas’ understanding, he’s going to be picketed every Sunday.
“Right after church they just move down the street to the store.”
Sakas, who was at another one of his stores, got to the New Bern store Sunday just as the picket line dispersed.
According to Sakas, the police were well aware of the pickets because they were watching from both sides of the street.
“The Christian Coalition is upset that we’ve been allowed to re-open,” says Sakas.
Sakas also notes that the local press hasn’t touched the story since the time his store was raided.
“You would think,” replies Sakas. “But this has been squelched. There’s no stories. The only one that ran was the original story. Doesn’t that amaze you? What does that tell you?”