Quinton Simon: Police Apply Ordinances To Control Large Protests

SAVANNAH, GA — The Chatham County Police Department is responding to the ongoing protests on Buckhalter Road in the aftermath of Quinton Simon's disappearance and death by enforcing two county ordinances.

Chatham County Police Chief Jeff Hadley said Friday that the amount of protesters outside of Simon's home have increased in the last three weeks.

Quinton, 20 months old, went missing from his Buckhalter Road home on Oct. 5. Hadley said early on in the case that he believes Quinton is dead.

Authorities have been searching for the toddler's remains in a landfill.

"While the Chatham County Police Department supports everyone’s right to protest peacefully, we also support the rights of citizens to live in a peaceful environment," Hadley said in a statement. "The people on Buckhalter Road calling themselves ‘protestors’ have made that nearly impossible."

Authorities said the police department has responded to more than 50 calls, making multiple arrests, since the "first YouTube protestors" arrived at the home Oct. 12.

"This has taken precious resources away from our department at a time when we are focused on the most massive investigation in the history of CCPD," police said in a news release.

Due to the protests, Chatham County authorities will be enforcing the parade and public assembly ordinance and the loitering ordinance.

The parade and public assembly ordinance requires a permit from the county manager upon recommendation by the police chief, police said.

The ordinance refers to "any meeting, demonstration, picket line, rally or gathering for a common purpose that interferes with the normal flow or regulation of pedestrian or vehicular traffic or occupies any public area or facilities open to the general public."

The loitering ordinance will be enforced from 7 p.m.-7 a.m. Signs will be placed on Buckhalter Road outlining the details, police said.

"Some may be wondering why we have waited to enforce these ordinances when disruptive protests surrounding the disappearance of little Quinton Simon have been going on for weeks. Clearly, the Chatham County Police Department supports the right to a peaceful protest. Therefore, we initially took a liberal position on enforcement of ordinances related to protests. But recent events – including an arrest for battery after a dispute between two groups of people identifying themselves as protestors – make it clear that now is the right time to take a stricter interpretation of the ordinances," police said in the news release.

Hadley said several people who say they want justice for Quinton have turned the "tragic and heartbreaking case into a money-making circus," calling it unacceptable.

He foreshadowed new measures to minimize the disruption to the local community in an effort to ensure the people living in the neighborhood can get back to a sense of normalcy.

“The behavior of many YouTubers and people calling themselves protestors has gone beyond anything acceptable in a civil society,” Hadley said. "We have to return the neighborhood back to the residents. It is their neighborhood."

Police said protesting at the department's headquarters, 295 Police Memorial Drive, is a more appropriate place.