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Originally Posted by Radar
It most certainly is not. Solicitation would be if they were selling voter registration forms or magazine subscriptions, etc. They were handing out a government form and had nothing to gain by doing it so it is not solicitation.
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The dictionary lists the definition of solicitation to be : 1 : the practice or act or an instance of soliciting. The Dictionary defines soliciting to be: 1 a : to make petition to : ENTREAT b :
to approach with a request or plea 2 : to urge (as one's cause) strongly.
The request was to please take a flyer. That falls under the very definition of soliciting someone.
I used to volunteer for a group that had Canned Food Drives several times a year. We did it for the local food bank which then gave the food to poor and homeless members of the community. We always held them in front of a local grocery store. It was a win win situation. People would see us going into the store and buy cans specifically to donate on the way out. The grocery store made money off our food drive.
We "had nothing to gain" by putting on the food drive. Yet
EVERY SINGLE TIME we wanted to hold a drive we had to get permission from the store first. Sometimes they didn't give it to us, and we respected that choice and held it at a different store (getting permission from that store). Its private property (yes the sidewalk between the store and the parking lot belongs to the store), and we had to get permission. A grocery store that only profits from a food drive still has the right to tell a group no they cant hold one. So why doesn't the theater have a right to tell a woman no when she hands out flyer's without permission?
Someone comes to my house and does something I don't like, I then ask them to leave. They leave my house but mill around my driveway for several more min. They haven't actually left yet. The driveway is still part of my property. The theater is the same, whether they lease or own the property they still have rights to the parking lot. If they own the property then there is no question that the parking lot is also theirs. Why would someone buy a theater and not the parking space in front of it? If they lease the property they also lease the right for their patrons to use the parking lot. That makes the parking lot every bit their property as if they were the direct owners.
A manager of a store or business has the authority to act on the owners behalf. If I am a manager and I see some kid stealing merchandise I am not going to try and get the owner on the phone and ask if he wants me to let the kid steal the stuff or if he wants me to call the cops. A manager is hired to MANAGE things. That means he is in charge of dealing with anything that comes up and has the authority to act in the owners behalf. That means he has the right to call the cops and tell them someone has been asked to leave and is still milling around the property. Parking lot still equals property.
Was the theater management over reacting on this matter? I think they might have been. Were they within their right to call the cops on her? Hell yes. Both her and the police say she was asked to leave and she refused. Her own words "For them to have stopped me from doing it seemed improper and
that’s why I didn’t leave.". She says she didn't leave so she was trespassing. Thats what she should have been charges with but regardless she is not an innocent victim being oppressed by the mighty corporate movie theater. She is in the wrong as much as anyone else who played a part in the whole overreaction.