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Official wants fines for swearing at cops & firefighters - $118

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Liberal_in_LA Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 02:40 PM
Original message
Official wants fines for swearing at cops & firefighters - $118
Official wants fines for swearing at cops

KENOSHA, Wis., Aug. 13 (UPI) -- An official in a Wisconsin city says he is pushing for an ordinance that would impose $118 fines on people who swear at police officers and firefighters.

Kenosha Alderman Patrick Juliana said that while the city already has an ordinance banning profane, vile, filthy or obscene language within the city limits, complaints must be filed by a third party and his proposed new rule would allow police and firefighters to write citations for language directed at them, WITI-TV, Milwaukee, reported Thursday.

However, WITI said some citizens speaking anonymously raised concerns about the proposal, which has the backing of the city's Public Safety and Welfare Committee, on First Amendment grounds. Some said the proposed ordinance seems more like a ploy by officials to get more money for the city than a plot to protect its public servants.

http://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2009/08/13/Official-wants-fines-for-swearing-at-cops/UPI-54681250196051/
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sakabatou Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 02:41 PM
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1. WTF?!
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coconuted Donating Member (130 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 02:42 PM
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2. Well kiss my ass!
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vadawg Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 02:42 PM
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3. shit i hope its not able to be aimed the other way, i swear all the time
luckily most people appreciate the difference in cultures and my accent hides it a lot, but the muthafecker does come from me a lot to people, especially when im tired. that would be an expensive swear jar for me..
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Mythsaje Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 03:07 PM
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4. How 'bout swearing at city officials?
In that case, "fuck you."
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Historic NY Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 03:44 PM
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5. Why $118 and did they ever hear of the Bill of Rights?
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Strong Atheist Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 03:51 PM
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6. Fucking
scumbag...
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niceypoo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 04:21 PM
Response to Original message
7. Hey official, "Fuck you!"
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Kievan Rus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 04:24 PM
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8. This asshat needs to be impeached
Edited on Sat Aug-15-09 04:25 PM by Kievan Rus
Wow, what a moran.
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blueworld Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 04:49 PM
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9. What a freakin' sphincter
Why don't they insist on having us genuflect whenever we see a uniform?

What is it with these people that they think it's right to legislate every good action? These are the same fools who believe government can't do anything right, though...
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BlooInBloo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 04:50 PM
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10. Hey cops: Fuck you, you worthless sacks of shit.
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Gothmog Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-15-09 06:52 PM
Response to Original message
11. SCOTUS-This would be unconstitutional
The SCOTUS has ruled on this and such a statute would be unconstitutional http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=482&invol=451
Second, contrary to the city's contention, the First Amendment protects a significant amount of verbal criticism and challenge directed at police officers. "Speech is often provocative and challenging. . . . is nevertheless protected against censorship or punishment, unless shown likely to produce a clear and present danger of a serious substantive evil that rises far above public inconvenience, annoyance, or unrest." Terminiello v. Chicago, 337 U.S. 1, 4 (1949). In Lewis v. City of New Orleans, 415 U.S. 130 (1974), for example, the appellant was found to have yelled obscenities and threats at an officer who had asked appellant's husband to produce his driver's license. Appellant was convicted under a municipal ordinance that made it a crime "`for any person wantonly to curse or revile or to use obscene or opprobrious language toward or with reference to any member of the city police while in the actual performance of his duty.'" Id., at 132 (citation omitted). We vacated the conviction and invalidated the ordinance as facially overbroad. Critical to our decision was the fact that the ordinance "punishe only spoken words" and was not limited in scope to fighting words that "`by their very utterance <482 U.S. 451, 462> inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.'" Id., at 133, quoting Gooding v. Wilson, 405 U.S. 518, 525 (1972); see also ibid. (Georgia breach-of-peace statute not limited to fighting words held facially invalid). Moreover, in a concurring opinion in Lewis, JUSTICE POWELL suggested that even the "fighting words" exception recognized in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942), might require a narrower application in cases involving words addressed to a police officer, because "a properly trained officer may reasonably be expected to `exercise a higher degree of restraint' than the average citizen, and thus be less likely to respond belligerently to `fighting words.'" 415 U.S., at 135 (citation omitted).

The Houston ordinance is much more sweeping than the municipal ordinance struck down in Lewis. It is not limited to fighting words nor even to obscene or opprobrious language, but prohibits speech that "in any manner . . . interrupts" an officer. 10 The Constitution does not allow such speech to be made a crime. 11 The freedom of individuals verbally <482 U.S. 451, 463> to oppose or challenge police action without thereby risking arrest is one of the principal characteristics by which we distinguish a free nation from a police state. 12 <482 U.S. 451, 464>
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