In Light Of Federal Court Ruling, OCPD ‘To Tread Lightly’ With Boardwalk Street Performers This Summer

OCEAN CITY — Keeping the peace and finding a balance on the Boardwalk street performer issue are the challenges facing the Ocean City Police Department (OCPD) on the eve of another summer season in the resort.

After two successful challenges in federal court to the resort’s ordinance regarding street performers, the latest of which came down last fall, some of the teeth have been removed from the town’s somewhat stringent laws regarding the omnipresent street performers and buskers on the Boardwalk. However, on the eve of another Memorial Day weekend, the OCPD is intent on acknowledging the First Amendment rights of the buskers while looking out for the interests of the public and the Boardwalk merchants.

Last November, a federal judge ruled against the town of Ocean City in a civil suit that challenged the 30-foot noise ordinance for street performers on the Boardwalk. That ruling came on the heels of a 2011 federal court ruling that the town’s ordinance in part violated a spray paint artist’s First Amendment protections for freedom of speech and expression. As a result, the federal court ruling allowed street performers and artists to sell or collect money for certain expressive materials.
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