Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

Journal by DannyB

Judge Ignores First Amendment, Misreads Town Law, While Ordering Resident To Remove 'Fuck Biden' Signs

A municipal court judge in New Jersey who apparently doesn't understand either the First Amendment or local ordinances has just ordered a resident to take down some f-bomb-laden signs from her yard. (h/t Peter Bonilla)

A municipal judge on Thursday ruled that a Roselle Park homeowner’s owner’s anti- President Biden flags including the F-bomb on her fence were obscene and must be removed because they violated a borough ordinance.

Roselle Park Municipal Court Judge Gary Bundy ordered the Willow Avenue homeowner to remove the signs with profanity within a week or face a $250-a-day fine. Patricia Dilascio is the property owner but her daughter, Andrea Dick, had the signs, three of which include the F-word, on display.

The signs, which can be seen in this photo, are certainly colorful in terms of language, and very definitely convey their owner's displeasure with the current regime.

(More information in link to original article.)

Opinion:

The first amendment absolutely prevents the government from censoring your speech, ESPECIALLY political speech. That is its entire purpose. ESPECIALLY political speech. Because we no longer have a king, nor do we want one. (unless it is Trump)

The 1st amendment does not limit private property owners, nor corporations from controlling their own platforms and moderating as they see fit. But it absolutely does (A) limit government, and (B) ESPECIALLY when you are displaying speech from YOUR OWN property (not someone else's property, where they could choose to not allow your speech on their property).

If people do not like Biden, they should have the right to say so as loudly and even offensively as they wish. (clue: a clear non offensive message can be more persuasive) A mildly offensive message can be effective in expressing one's outrage, without suggesting any intention of harm.

The problem here seems to be that there is a town law which forbids the use of offensive language. I like to avoid such words, for example, not using them on SN (other than quoting someone) because IMO it lowers the intelligence level. But that's just my preference. I happen to understand that other people are fine with using such language.

Perhaps this law should be focused on offensive messages rather than specific language or words. An obscene message is one thing. An F-bomb may be something different entirely, even if it could have been better worded.

In the 1977 Star Wars movie, after R2D2 emits a series of tweedle-beeps, C3P0 tells R2D2 "you watch your language", without needing say something like "watch your F'ing language".

N.J. woman must remove anti-Biden F-bomb signs or face $250-a-day fines, judge rules

F-bomb, bird flipping anti-Biden flags outside house near N.J. school infuriate neighbors

N.J. homeowner with F-bomb, anti-Biden flags ticketed, given court date

 

Reply to: Re:define obscene

    (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 22 2021, @07:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 22 2021, @07:48PM (#1159206)

    Talk to these people sometime. I am not conservative, but I did grow up in the South, and I am increasingly at odds with what passes for "liberalism" in America. The reason is because of what will happen during that chat. You're like to find they'd be happy to have you in, give you some tea, and have a nice fun back and forth. Try to do the same thing in San Francisco and you will likely be met with condescendence at best, and very likely outright hostility. They will likely try to hurt you, perhaps not physically (immediately), but in things like trying to get you fired if they can, or doing anything they can to otherwise try to destroy your life.

    People don't seem to understand that this is precisely what fascism is. The complete abuse of Karl Popper's Paradox of Tolerance is so incredibly dystopic:

    Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.—In this formulation, I do not imply, for instance, that we should always suppress the utterance of intolerant philosophies; as long as we can counter them by rational argument and keep them in check by public opinion, suppression would certainly be most unwise.

    But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should claim that any movement preaching intolerance places itself outside the law and we should consider incitement to intolerance and persecution as criminal, in the same way as we should consider incitement to murder, or to kidnapping, or to the revival of the slave trade, as criminal.

    When he said this, he obviously was not endorsing the idea of attacking anybody who doesn't abide the same ideology, ignoring/censoring their arguments, and ultimately trying to destroy them. Popper was a Jew and saw the gradual rise of the Nazis in a population where their tendency towards violence and suppression of the opposition was never really dealt with. This was in part apathy, but also in part because people often didn't really like the people that the Nazis were trying to destroy. Hence, this is where get things like "First They Came For" poem:

    First they came for the Communists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Communist

    Then they came for the Socialists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Socialist

    Then they came for the trade unionists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a trade unionist

    Then they came for the Jews
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Jew

    Then they came for me
    And there was no one left
    To speak out for me

    But alas, it seems humanity is ever incapable of learning from the mistakes of others, doomed to forever repeat the exact same patterns, hoping for the future to learn from "our" mistakes - so little different than the countless episodes we could and should have already learned from ourselves.

Post Comment

Edit Comment You are not logged in. You can log in now using the convenient form below, or Create an Account, or post as Anonymous Coward.

Public Terminal

Anonymous Coward [ Create an Account ]

Use the Preview Button! Check those URLs!


Score: 0 (Logged-in users start at Score: 1). Create an Account!

Allowed HTML
<b|i|p|br|a|ol|ul|li|dl|dt|dd|em|strong|tt|blockquote|div|ecode|quote|sup|sub|abbr|sarc|sarcasm|user|spoiler|del>

URLs
<URL:http://example.com/> will auto-link a URL

Important Stuff

  • Please try to keep posts on topic.
  • Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads.
  • Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
  • Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about.
  • Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page)
  • If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account.

If you are having a problem with accounts or comment posting, please yell for help.