is this a basic right?
I rarely do this...I don't want to make a new enemy on the road. And most of the times, I'm too busy smoking or singing. But from time to time, I do let a few fly. Others I know make it a daily ritual...including my dear sweet mother. I never really thought of it being a case of anything other then instant stress relief. But now...I wonder. Is it a basic human right or disorderly conduct? I understand the courts have other matters to attend to...but this is pretty important.
---------------------------------------------------------
A Pennsylvania motorist is going to federal court to protect a very specific part of what he claims are his free speech rights: the right to show his middle finger.
Thomas Burns of New Castle, Pa., was cited for disorderly conduct last April after he became frustrated with a PennDOT traffic delay and he flipped his middle finger at a construction worker. The worker reported the gesture to a police officer in Beaver County, Pa., who cited Burns.
The citation was dropped in October when the officer and the offended construction worker failed to appear at a hearing Burns requested to fight the citation.
But now Burns is suing in federal court in Pittsburgh saying he never should have been cited in the first place and was maliciously prosecuted. He contends he was denied his First Amendment free speech rights.
posted by HOOTEE @ 2:35 PM
3 Comments:
Free speech, why is it giving the world such a headache lately? Isn't it supposed to make us all live in harmony together, where nobody is oppressed and there are always empty seats in the bus? I am disappointed.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I am absolutely nØt dissappointed.
I love to honk and fly the bird at mØfØs who cut me off. I love it, it's my flag and I fly it, and in fact, I recommend it to you.
If my government said I could not stick up my middle finger, why, at 1800 Pennsylvania Avenue I would burn the US-flag-boxer-briefs that the President himself is wearing.
Here's why. My government, as (internally) quirky and (externally) vicious as it is, IS protecting my "speech" in so many ways. I can yell at cops. I can be naked for political reasons. I could even burn a US flag in front of the president.
And the government will nØt arrest me, it will protect me as it protects Daniel Carver and even Cher or Michael Newdow- but not perhaps Howard Stern. They hate him.
And sometimes the govt will even listen to me, change, apologise, and give the front of the bus to me.
(PS: Michael Newdow is a physician with a law degree, he has a five-year-old daughter and he feels that mono, poly, or otherwise-theistic religion is about as realisitic and productive as choosing to believe that purple monkeys live on the backside of Jupiter, he decided he wasn't happy about students at his daughter's school standing to say the Pledge each morning. One "god?" "Define that as non-religious" he said to the courts. So he took the Sacramento school district to court, charging the Pledge violated the establishment clause of the U.S. Constitution, which dictates a strict separation between church and state, and won 2-1 declaring that the Constitution guarantees people in public places protection from state-sponsored religious declarations. But then it was declared "moot" by the same court shortly afterward- and later the Justice Department demanded a full hearing on the issue.)
And that's the wØrd.
Frenchy
Post a Comment
<< Home