12 Responses to “Morning Links”

1. #1 |  Edmund Dantes |  October 21st, 2008 at 10:45 am

   Is it a public street corner? I’m not sure how you can get away with telling someone what they can and can’t say on a street corner. It’s kind of absurd really, but I guess “it’s for the children” so it’s all good.

      +0
2. #2 |  Kid Handsome |  October 21st, 2008 at 10:49 am

   I know that you can wear a shirt into a Courthouse that says, “Fuck the Draft,” and that is protected speech.

   I’m concerned about the disorderly conduct catch-all charge here. The police say he was arrested for failing to obey an order, but it’s pretty clear it was not a lawful order. Ultimately, I bet he gets fined for standing too close to the street (seriously, what does that mean), even though we all know it was about the sign.

      +0
3. #3 |  omar |  October 21st, 2008 at 10:56 am

   the cop should be charged with harassment. or fired. or taken out behind a shed and have the constitution read to him very slowly. this isn’t rocket science. even a coward in an APC wearing body armor should be able to comprehend “fundamental rights”. i expect better out of our janitor-uniform tire-store beat cops.

      +6
4. #4 |  qwints |  October 21st, 2008 at 11:34 am

   The only possible distinction I can see from Cohen v Cal. (the “Fuck the Draft” case) is that he was calling specific people “chickenshit.” I sincerely doubt that this could be considered inciting violence. The fact that the cop specifically referenced the fact that it was a councilman is perverse. Political figures are exactly the sort of people we have to be allowed to criticize. This is certainly a violation of the civil rights, but probably a minor one that the city should just apologize for.

      +4
5. #5 |  Ken Kennedy |  October 21st, 2008 at 11:38 am

   Good CDS link, Radley. Thanks.

      +0
6. #6 |  Cynical In CA |  October 21st, 2008 at 11:47 am

   From the CDS link:

   “I’m reminded of the great Dutch urban planner Jan Gehl, who made pedestrians safer by seemingly making streets riskier. The NYT explains how his invention, the woonerf, works:

   Pioneered in the Netherlands — the word roughly translates as “living street” — the woonerf erases the boundary between sidewalk and street to give pedestrians the same clout as cars. Elements like traffic lights, stop signs, lane markings and crossing signals are removed, while the level of the street is raised to the same height as the sidewalk. A woonerf, which is surfaced with paving blocks to signal a pedestrian-priority zone, is, in effect, an outdoor living room, with furniture to encourage the social use of the street. Surprisingly, it results in drastically slower traffic, since the woonerf is a people-first zone and cars enter it more warily. “The idea is that people shall look each other in the eye and maneuver in respect of each other,” Mr. Gehl said.”

   I cannot name a better real world application of anarchy than this.

   Violence compartmentalized is augmented.

   Violence diffused is diminished.

      +10
7. #7 |  Brandon Bowers |  October 21st, 2008 at 1:33 pm

   Great, first the French, then the Dutch one-up us in individual liberty. Also, I didn’t know “chicken” was a dirty word.

      +0
8. #8 |  Frank |  October 21st, 2008 at 6:04 pm

   #3 How about we take the cop out behind the woodshed, and type the First Amendment on his ass in braille with a push-pin?

   Then dump a bucket of salt water over his ass. And then if he asks for pain medication, call him a pussy, hand him some Advil(tm), and tell him to cowboy up. He’s too much of a coward to go after real criminals, he’s got to stomp on an unarmed peasant with a sign.

      +1
9. #9 |  KBCraig |  October 21st, 2008 at 8:04 pm

   Ah, the irony: “chickenshit” is exactly the term used by good cops to describe this kind of petty arrest.

      +3
10. #10 |  Kwix |  October 21st, 2008 at 8:35 pm

    I cannot name a better real world application of anarchy than this.

    Except this “application of anarchy” required urban planners, architects and urban officials, as well as government funding, to even begin to be approachable. Outside of the box thinking certainly, but hardly anarchistic.

       +1
11. #11 |  MacK |  October 21st, 2008 at 10:36 pm

    Man that pumpkin art is nothing, you should see my carving of the Blob.
    It is near perfect… No! I take that back it is a perfect Blob, there I said it.
    And it only took me 3 minutes to carve my perfect Blob.

    Although my Blob is perfect, I will concede that his pumpkins do have slightly more detail, realism, artistic expression, and skill needed to accomplish the end result.

       +0
12. #12 |  Frank |  October 22nd, 2008 at 1:39 pm

    #9: There are good cops?

       +1

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