More than 125 people showed up at a "tea party" to protest big government spending on the steps of the Johnston County courthouse on September 11. But police arrived and told the organizer to turn off the sound system because she did not have a permit.

"I just am really angry," said organizer Birmah Stemler. "I really am because I feel like I have gone round and round, the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing."

Stemler says she asked the town for a permit for the event in July. The town's planning director told her she did not need one.

Stemler's application shows that initially she did not plan to have a sound system. Weeks later, she changed her mind.

That's when she ran into the town's noise ordinance, which says she would need permission from the town council to hold an event with amplified sound.

"Most towns have ordinances regulating the use of amplified sound. You just can't set up a big loud speaker in the middle of town and start blasting songs or advertisements or protests or whatever," said Captain Bruce Gentry with the Smithfield Police Department.

Stemler says she tried to get on the town council's agenda.

But she missed the deadline, said Planning Director Paul Embler.

Stemler says she did not know that, and expected to speak before the council earlier this month. Embler told her not to bother going to the meeting, Stemler says.

"This is three months of this, going back and forth and back and forth," Stemler said.

Days before the tea party, Stemler still didn't know if she needed a permit, but she thought it was too late to cancel the event, she said.

Now, Stemler feels discriminated against.

"I wouldn't be at all surprised if it were political. I wouldn't be at all surprised if maybe it was because I'm a female," she said.

But police say they did not shut down the tea party.

"No one was ever told they couldn't speak. No one was told they had to leave," Captain Gentry said.

Officers did not arrest or cite anyone at the event either.

Stemler says she may try to hold another tea party next September 11.

"I'm just stubborn enough to try to do something like that," she said.