Nothing against religion, but nobody likes to have someone yell at them about how they’re going to hell when they’re attending a convention.

In today’s story, a street preacher who almost crossed the line of hate speech parked himself right outside  the convention center.

The convention organizers were really annoyed by his presence, but then they came up with a great way to annoy him right back!

Let’s see what they did.

How rock beat paper… Cosplayers 1, Street Preacher 0.

One of the fun parts of doing public safety consulting is the wide variety of clients and experiences.

One of my favorites was an Anime Convention.

Although it isn’t my thing, the event was always a ton of fun and the people were awesome.

This sounds like a huge upgrade!

One year, they changed venues.

It had been previously held at a University but it outgrew that space and moved to a downtown convention center.

With tons of space and a huge pedestrian street between the two main buildings, it was a great space.

There was a new problem.

Being in charge of public safety and emergency management, I knew this came with new challenges.

Primarily being very visible with far more public interaction than ever before.

As much as my emergency plans were very, very comprehensive, I soon discovered something I’d overlooked.

A Street preacher.

He barely abided by the law.

This is a preacher that was well known in the city and walked a very thin line between free speech and hate speech.

He also came with an amplifier.

He had been doing this for a long time, so he was always just on the edge of what the law allows.

He parked himself between the two buildings and started harassing attendees.

Yet it wasn’t anything you could arrest him for.

Not enough to meet the legal definition of harassment, but definitely unpleasant and not something patrons should be subjected to.

I discussed the situation with the police liaison officer, and as I suspected, they couldn’t do anything besides ask him to leave.

Which they did, and he didn’t.

As we were working to figure out a solution, he jokingly said “Well, you have a sound permit, maybe just get bigger speakers?”

That’s it! It was the perfect idea.

Lightbulb.

We had bigger speakers.

Much, much bigger speakers.

I put a call out over the radio to my emergency management team and we mobilized.

It sounds like it was one big party!

Before he could say “repent”, we’d set up an impromptu DJ booth in the entrance, big speakers outside (and taped down all the cables, because safety).

Sandstorm had always been a bit of a meme for the con staff…so…

He was rude, but we were Darude-er.

About 400 patrons started dancing, laughing and having a great time.

The Street preacher soon found himself surrounded by all the people he hates, and they were having the time of their lives.

The preacher was not happy.

Nobody could hear him over the music and the cheers.

He was absolutely livid.

About half an hour later, I got a call from the police liaison officer.

He made a complaint about….amplified harassment.

The police were on the convention’s side.

They told him to pound sand, we had permits and were totally legal and if he didn’t like it, he could leave.

I’ve done a lot of things in my 20 year career in Emergency Services, but drowning out hate with happiness is one of the things I’m most proud of.

That preacher brought this all on himself by giving the people running the convention the idea to drown out the preacher with their own speakers.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person thinks the con and preacher sound very familiar.

Is it a sin to go out to eat?

This person loves the revenge.

It doesn’t get better than that!

Good thing they had big speakers!

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.