Chalk Graffiti and Other Absurdities of Our Times

[Vox]

Or better yet, instead of looking like thin skinned jack booted thugs, why not just collar these guys and give them the option of seeing the judge or clean up the mess they made on the sidewalk? Problem solved. Lesson learned. And the tax payers are spared a whole lot of unnecessary expense as well as justice being served.

the mess?

you have not seen kids playing using sidewalk all chalked?

The point is the guys did violate an existing city ordinance. I have no problem with the police calling that to their attention. But it would have served justice much better to give the guys a choice of a ticket and court appearance, or they could clean up the mess they made.

Here's a good example of how a good cop handles something like that:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRRTlrfTw0s]Angry Driver Pulled Over - YouTube[/ame]

agreed, though I still can not see where "the mess" is, if chalk will be washed away by the first drizzle

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

A recent story in the Las Vegas Sun, among others, cited four 'graffiti vandals' arrested and charged with a felony for writing criticism of the police on the sidewalk outside the police department. I found a story on this here:
4 face charges for sidewalk chalk protest in Vegas - Las Vegas Sun News

Fine them for graffiti, okay, because it was graffiti which is specifically addressed by Las Vegas city ordinances. Or better, just put them to work to clean up the sidewalk.

But these four could be jailed for up to a year. For writing uncomplimentary stuff about the local police on a public sidewalk. They used a child's washable chalk to do it.

I wonder if there would have been arrests if the comments had been complimentary about the police? I wonder if the police now plan to go after kids who chalk a hopscotch grid onto the sidewalk?

I found out about this at the Heritage Foundation site not really known for their excusing or condoning the handiwork of graffiti vandals. They deplore the overreach by the police in this case though. A short but interesting read:
Hard Time for Chalk Crime | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation

And, they are right. This is gross overreach in application of the law.

Maybe this thread could be devoted to such absurdities as they become more and more commonplace in our modern times?

Or perhaps the thread can be use to explain why something perceived as ‘absurd’ is indeed not.

With regard to the ‘Chalk Crime,’ for example:

This may not be a First Amendment violation as the graffiti prohibition is likely a justified time, place, and manner restriction, where there is ample opportunity for alternate communication of the message in another venue, such as private property, and the staff at the police department building clearly constitute a captive audience. See, e.g., Frisby v. Schultz (1988).

And this case is not like Cohen v. California, noted in the article, because in Cohen there was no alternate means of communication if the garment with the allegedly offensive message were to be disallowed.

As to the punishment fitting the crime:

That’s what four protestors affiliated with Nevada Cop Block and Occupy Las Vegas found out when they scrawled that accusation, along with some profanity, on the sidewalk outside MPD headquarters. Days after being cited, they tagged the pavement in front of the Regional Justice Center. They now face multiple gross misdemeanor counts of placing graffiti or defacing property and conspiracy to commit placing graffiti.

If found guilty of a misdemeanor imprisonment of up to one year is appropriate, particularly if there are multiple counts; moreover, the protesters were already given a citation days earlier, yet they returned again to commit the same crime after a clear and fair warning by authorities.

No right is absolute, including the rights enshrined in the First Amendment, and there is no ‘Constitutional right’ to deface public property.

 

[Old Rocks]

A recent story in the Las Vegas Sun, among others, cited four 'graffiti vandals' arrested and charged with a felony for writing criticism of the police on the sidewalk outside the police department. I found a story on this here:
4 face charges for sidewalk chalk protest in Vegas - Las Vegas Sun News

Fine them for graffiti, okay, because it was graffiti which is specifically addressed by Las Vegas city ordinances. Or better, just put them to work to clean up the sidewalk.

But these four could be jailed for up to a year. For writing uncomplimentary stuff about the local police on a public sidewalk. They used a child's washable chalk to do it.

I wonder if there would have been arrests if the comments had been complimentary about the police? I wonder if the police now plan to go after kids who chalk a hopscotch grid onto the sidewalk?

I found out about this at the Heritage Foundation site not really known for their excusing or condoning the handiwork of graffiti vandals. They deplore the overreach by the police in this case though. A short but interesting read:
Hard Time for Chalk Crime | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation

And, they are right. This is gross overreach in application of the law.

Maybe this thread could be devoted to such absurdities as they become more and more commonplace in our modern times?

Kind of silly of the police.

I saw something recently on a boxcar that floored me. Normally the graffita or pictures on boxcars are pretty crude. Yet, on this one boxcar was the portraits of Einstein, Heisenberg, and Szilard. No titles or anything else, just the very recognizable portraits of these scientists. I really wonder who the artist is.

 

[Moonglow]

you can't hurt the angelic/godlike egos of the police, why we wouldn't want to make them cry.

 

[Montrovant]

This sounds like bad conduct all around.

The protesters were, according to the article, given plenty of warning before finally having these charges filed; that said, if this is normal children's chalk it will be gone as soon as it rains or someone hits it with a hose. That's what it's designed to do. So it seems like it may also be an overreaction by the authorities.

 

[Lonestar_logic]

A recent story in the Las Vegas Sun, among others, cited four 'graffiti vandals' arrested and charged with a felony for writing criticism of the police on the sidewalk outside the police department. I found a story on this here:
4 face charges for sidewalk chalk protest in Vegas - Las Vegas Sun News

Fine them for graffiti, okay, because it was graffiti which is specifically addressed by Las Vegas city ordinances. Or better, just put them to work to clean up the sidewalk.

But these four could be jailed for up to a year. For writing uncomplimentary stuff about the local police on a public sidewalk. They used a child's washable chalk to do it.

I wonder if there would have been arrests if the comments had been complimentary about the police? I wonder if the police now plan to go after kids who chalk a hopscotch grid onto the sidewalk?

I found out about this at the Heritage Foundation site not really known for their excusing or condoning the handiwork of graffiti vandals. They deplore the overreach by the police in this case though. A short but interesting read:
Hard Time for Chalk Crime | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News Blog from The Heritage Foundation

And, they are right. This is gross overreach in application of the law.

Maybe this thread could be devoted to such absurdities as they become more and more commonplace in our modern times?

they were given misdemeanor citations and then they came back and did it again