Women gets ticket for anti Bush bumper sticker

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ Oct 17 2006, 03:42 PM) [snapback]334074[/snapback]</div>

The ticket was for the obscenity part, not the anti-Bush part of the bumper sticker. Although the slogan wouldn't have been nearly as clever, she would have gotten the same ticket if "Bush" had been replaced with "Democrat" on her bumper sticker.

Yet the knee-jerk reactionaries only see what they want to see.

 

What does she expect from Georgia??!! I will say that she's got more balls then I do... I'm afraid someone in my conservative town will "key" my car if they don't agree with my political candidate stickers (which come OFF my car the moment the polls close).

I live close to Quantico Marine Base. There was a story in our newspaper about a group of young Marines that bullied some poor person in a mall parking lot in to removing a John Kerry for Prez bumper sticker from his car. Nice!!

 

Free speech is a clever facade.

h34r:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ Oct 17 2006, 03:42 PM) [snapback]334074[/snapback]</div>

I think the issue was the word that followed. I am not sure what it said but if it were a "curse" word there could be interesting questions raised about that.

If the NY Times would not print it on its front page - would be my quasi-parameter on this issue - as it pertains only to the wording.

Your thoughts on the Columbia University incident with the Minutemen or the Univ of Arizonia incident with Ann Coulter?

 

i've seen much worse anti-bush bumper stickers. i've seen much worse general bumper stickers.

when i was a kid there was a bumper sticker that said "ssdd: same s###, different day" that was all over the place in my town. then again, i'm not from georgia.

 

It's not the ticket or freedom of speech.

I think she's just another one of those sue happy people. She's after the MONEY...

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tbstout2 @ Oct 17 2006, 04:00 PM) [snapback]334095[/snapback]</div>

I do see other profane bumper stickers down here in GA; mostly "s**t happens" stickers and pickups with that Calvin dude peeing on Ford or Chevy logos.

I think the profanity decal charge was something they used to pull her over for suspicion of something else. I don't think the fact Bush was named on the decal had anything to do with it.

I also suspect that GA police act pretty much like those in the rest of the country, even those in uppity-Northern VA.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jared2 @ Oct 17 2006, 04:10 PM) [snapback]334104[/snapback]</div>

Even so, that was the basis for the ticket. But for the knee-jerk reactonaries, the headline "Woman given ticket for obscene bumper sticker based on law ruled unconstitutional" is not nearly as juicy as "Woman given ticket for anti-Bush bumper sticker".

Whether or not the officer incorrectly applied the lewd decal law, unless you can cite examples where that officer ignored other obscene bumper stickers, particularly obscene anti-Democrat or pro-Bush bumper stickers, then it's a stretch to jump to the conclusion that the obscenity had nothing to do with the ticket, and that it was really the anti-Bush part that got the ticket.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dbermanmd @ Oct 17 2006, 04:07 PM) [snapback]334101[/snapback]</div>

It seems kind of silly to have the word censored on the prisonplanet site, but I think the sticker was one of these from the description of it.

http://www.antibushbumperstickers.com/imag...redBushit-t.gif

I'd put this more in the "off color" than "obscene" category, after all, Cheney's said worse in public with no apparent legal impact.

 

This situation originally occurred earlier this year (March I believe). Here's a link that includes her version of what the officer told her:

http://www.grannymary.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=211

Vince

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Beryl Octet @ Oct 17 2006, 04:32 PM) [snapback]334135[/snapback]</div>

Bushit? What's wrong with bus hits?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(VinceDee @ Oct 17 2006, 06:18 PM) [snapback]334208[/snapback]</div>

I like the part there about "bushit" as a new term. Bush It. Got habeus corpus? Bush it! Got budget surplus? Bush it! One too few civil wars in the Middle East? Bush it!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Beryl Octet @ Oct 17 2006, 10:28 PM) [snapback]334283[/snapback]</div>

Faith based initiatives? Bush it! Constitutional rights? Bush it! Universal health care? Bush it! Hey this is fun! Homeland security? Bush it! Party of values? Bush it!

 

Without reading through her story I think the cop just wanted to hassle her enough to go to court and have it dismissed. If she doesn't want to take the time for court she pays the fine.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Marlin @ Oct 17 2006, 04:25 PM) [snapback]334127[/snapback]</div>

So the titling was off, but I think it's worth mentioning that this bumper sticker was NOT obscene. I included the legal definition of obscene below - you'd think an officer would at least know the basic idea, and be well aware that profanity just doesn't fit the bill. I'd be interested to know if this was the first ticket he's ever written for bumper stickers with profanity on them, or if he's been enforcing the unconstitutional law for the last fifteen years. I'm constantly frightened by the ignorance in the general population, but ignorant law enforcement officers is a step scarier.



Legal definition of obscene, translated (perhaps improperly, point out errors as needed):

A work is considered obscene only if all three conditions are satisfied:
1) If the average person would find the piece of 'art' as sick or morbid when taken as a whole
2) If the work offensively depicts sexual or excretory functions
3) If the work as a whole lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

It's obvious the bumper sticker completely fails the SLAPS test - is it really possible that the officer had never heard any of this?

 

Arrogance and abuse of power is not religated to inside the beltway.

 

If they do not routinely ticket people for the common "s**t Happens" bumper stickers, then it's pretty clear that ticketing a woman for "I'm tired of all the Bushit" was a political ticket.

There was a wonderful bumper sitcker on a car that frequently parked near my apartment in Fargo. I never saw who it belonged to. It said merely:

FUGB

Nothing more. It expressed the idea without anybody being able to accuse the person of obscenity, though it clearly was obscene.

HA HA! I just did a "preview post" and I see that PC has inserted asterisks above, where I spelled out the word in full.

P.S. This reminds me of the time I wrote a profile for a dating site, and it would not allow me to include Moby Dick in my list of favorite books.