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Blowing a whistle is not necessarily constitutionally protected though, there can be reasonable restrictions on noise levels.
Regarding City of Houston v. Hill, striking down a law that is too broad does not mean that none of the activities included in the law could be constrained by law.
The behavior of these people does not seem constitutionally protected to me. They are, in a coordinated way, mobbing officers of the law in the process of enforcing the law for the purpose of helping people escape, in such a way that they are actually successful a lot of the time. https://tiktok.com/@raebaebae28/video/7596446605474057527?_r=1&_t=ZP-93BispJ7Wlb
I hope a case like this goes up to the Supreme Court so we can get a clear ruling on this.
It could potentially violate noise ordinances, yes. But the way the Minneapolis ordinance is worded makes it clear that it almost certainly doesn't violate the law there:
There are obvious evidentiary problems here in that you have to know what the ambient noise level is and whether the sound exceeds it by the specified amount, but the problems go beyond ones of evidence; the statute is worded in such a way that there is no violation without a measurement. This could be a case of bad drafting, but if you look at noise ordinances generally they seem aimed at specific problems like noise emanating from point sources or adjacent apartments. They aren't really designed for intermittent loud noise coming from outside.
At least in the present situation there's no chance of that happening. Federal law requires that any interference with law enforcement be "forcible", and Minnesota caselaw does so as well. On the state side there are some limited exceptions, but warning people of police activity is specifically exempted. I can't speak for other states, but nobody in Minneapolis is able to be prosecuted for this.
But where is the line here? A lookout for a bank robbery is presumably an accessory to the crime, even though his only role is to use his constitutionally protected speech to alert the other robbers to the crime.
A lookout for a gang is presumably an accessory to a crime if they whistle out as soon as a police officer comes onto gang territory, even if they don't know which specific crime the police officer is investigating. Or is that protected speech but the lookout for bank robbery isn't? What is the deciding factor?
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