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I was just listening to the news on my way back from dropping off my daughter at school and out blared at me:
An Emory University oncology nusre just recieved a 100.00 citation for having an obscene bumper sticker on her car, from a DeKalb, Georgia police officer. What did it say? "No more Bushit" Now I have seen those all over the place.
I would like DU's opinion, because maybe I am over reacting:
My questions are:
First of all Bushit, isn't even a word, so how can that be obscene.
Secondly and more importantly: Isn't political speech supposed to be protected over ALL other types of speech?
I could see if it actually had the word "shit" in it, then maybe the cop might be justified in giviong her a ticket as a "test" case over thaty word. But this to me stinks purely of a political motive.
I would think the ACLU would wnat to get involved in this.
I guess the reason I react strongly is that I saw very clearly how laws that look harmless on their face can chill speech. 15 years ago I ran for US Congress against a very conservative and entrenched Democrat in name only opponent.
The city of Tacoma at that time had an ordinance (as did most cities in the state) restricting the time placement of campaign yard signs. This law was written by opponents to protect themselves, as for an under funded challenger the only resource basically is yard signs. I put mine out early and the city came to people's door steps and said take the signs out of the yard or out of your, OR face a fine for the first 5 days and then criminal sanctions. We took the case to the Supreme Court and won 9-0. The basis was that POLITICAL SPEECH IS TO BE PROTECTED OVER ALL OTHER SPEECH" collier-vs-tacoma 1993.
So my last question is: what are WE going to do about it? I feel that this is just one instance on the slippery slope to fascism. Let this go by and then what next might happen?
I would love to see a inundation of letters to DeKalb, may be protest or what ever.
Thanks for reading this long post, but to me, it is the "little" every day assaults that will nick us to death! -Peace-Mike
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