“Because of my declaration that I was going to take care of city business and not foreign affairs, the attention was turned towards me,” Whitmire said, adding that the protesters’ use of drums and blow horns at night have also disturbed other families in his area. “The First Amendment is critical, but I don’t think you have to sacrifice your right to have a safe, peaceful home.” Source
Noise, noise, noise; I guess he must not have neighbors who love to play music as loud as they can. I have a neighbor who used to play music so loud that the windows in my house would vibrate. If noise makes a residence unsafe, why is it that a non-emergency call to the police on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday could result in up to an hour of wait time? It could take a police car hours before it finally comes; sometimes, they don’t get there.
Music is not even a First Amendment right as a protest is, but you seem to think that your peace is much more valuable than that of other residents of Houston.
By law, when someone calls the Houston Police Department to complain about noise, a police officer has to be dispatched for a ticket to be written.
In a city dealing with the kind of crime that Houston has, even the police admit noise complaints are not always a high priority.
“We do struggle,” Houston Police Department Commander Michael Collins said earlier this year. “Staffing shortages and our code one and two – the priority, the life threatening type of calls – of course those are going to take precedence every time.”
Collins said when officers do eventually make it to the scene, a neighbor who complained about the noise has to meet the officer, sometimes at midnight or one in the morning or later, for a ticket to be issued.
The officer takes a noise measurement and if it’s above 68 decibels at the club late at night or more importantly, 58 decibels at a residence, the club can get a ticket. Source