Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

Second rate reporter says what?

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

White supremacy is terrorism.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

I was promised a recession.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Thanks for reminding me that Van Jones needs to be slapped.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

“I never thought they’d lock HIM up,” sobbed a distraught member of the Lock Her Up Party.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

I really should read my own blog.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Racial Justice / Post-racial America / When They Wrote Exercise Your Right of Freedom of Speech, They Didn’t Mean Calisthenics While You Talked

When They Wrote Exercise Your Right of Freedom of Speech, They Didn’t Mean Calisthenics While You Talked

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Glad to see this idiotic tactic has been pointed out to be nothing more than police harassment:

A federal judge ruled on Monday that the so-called five-second rule, a police tactic sporadically used in Ferguson, Mo., that required demonstrators to keep moving while they protested, is unconstitutional.

“The practice of requiring peaceful demonstrators and others to walk, rather than stand still, violates the Constitution,” Judge Catherine D. Perry of District Court wrote in the ruling.

The judge added that law enforcement “must be able to use the full range of lawful means to control crowds and to protect people and property from acts of violence and vandalism.”

Protests in Ferguson have persisted in smaller numbers since the death of Michael Brown, 18, on Aug. 9. Mr. Brown was shot by Darren Wilson, a Ferguson police officer, a killing that prompted weeks of demonstrations and a response from the police that included tear gas and rubber bullets.

Yelling “Keep moving! Not that way! Hold still! Keep moving!” while pointing semi-automatic weapons and aiming sniper rifles was pretty obviously a pretext for arrest and to end people’s rights to protest, or, if the cops got lucky, a chance to shoot someone and cash in on some of that sweet, sweet, racist wingnut money. It won’t be missed.

Reader Interactions

42Comments

  8. 8.

    Anoniminous

    I’m reading The Swerve: How the World Became Modern by Stephen Greenblatt. Won a Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. So far, I’m only on page 111, it’s a good take-down of Christian stupidity, anti-intellectualism, and bigotry. Naturally the Christianists are going apeshit on Amazon.

  9. 9.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Major Major Major Major: Odd. Not really up my alley, but it sounds fun for the right readers.

    I am doing the Bond things again for sentimental reasons. I read them first when I was about 10. I’ll probably do the same thing to the Sherlock Holmes canon fairly soon. It was an X-mas present the year I was 11. It is interesting to see how one’s views and readings change with experience. I do this every few years.

  11. 11.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Major Major Major Major: Yeah, Douglas Adams is another one that I do this with. I am just not on that track right now. Having lived and traveled in Europe, I always travel with a towel.

    ETA: Not kidding about the towel.

  19. 19.

    TheMightyTrowel

    I feel like I should interrupt just on principle but don’t have much to add. Have you heard the new Interpol album? isn’t it great?

  20. 20.

    PurpleGirl

    It’s 2:46 here in NYC. I can’t sleep so I’m reading stuff on-line and playing jigsaw puzzles. My favorite Kitten Cam isn’t live right now so I can’t see the kittens. But I got to hold a couple of them over the weekend when I helped with the Pet Expo in Hartford. (BTW I read the Ian Fleming Bond novels when I was in the 7th grade. I read the whole series, one after the other.)

  23. 23.

    opiejeanne

    @Major Major Major Major: I know where both my trowel and towel are.

    I’m reading the second book in the Inspector Banks series, A Dedicated Man. Pretty good British police procedural murder mysteries.

  24. 24.

    Major Major Major Major

    @opiejeanne: I’ve been enjoying Christopher Fowler’s ‘impossible crime’/’locked-room murder’ series recently myself, if you’re into a British duo version of that particular kind of genteel murder mystery. I’ve been meaning to check out the Banks series…

  26. 26.

    opiejeanne

    @Major Major Major Major: Always looking for something new to read. Thanks.

    Louise Penny just brought out the next book in her Inspector Gamache series and I need to download it, and Barbara Fradkin will release her newest book in the Inspector Green series, both set in Canada but in different areas. Gamache is in Quebec but most of his dealings are with Canadians of British descent. Inspector Green is set in Ottawa.

  27. 27.

    NotMax

    Planned to go into town solely to swap out the cable company’s modem, as internet access was getting increasingly wonky.

    On the way there, the tread on one front tire separated. Pulled over, put on spare.

    So it became a full day excursion. Third tire place I tried finally did have the size tires required in stock. The tread on the other front tire was getting worn too, so had them do both front wheels. Price not bad, all things considered, but over two hours sitting outdoors in the energy-draining heat twiddling the ol’ thumbs.

    However, the new modem is working like a charm.

  31. 31.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I just finished Ancillary Justice, which someone here recommended. Well written, interesting plot, and the main character’s alien viewpoint is fascinating. I was particularly impressed by her (I suspect artificially induced) complete inability to identify gender.

    I am currently reading Stormdancer, the first book of the Lotus Wars. Just started. The idea of Japanese fantasy steampunk intrigued. The prologue should be removed and is a mass of every Japanese fantasy cliche ever, but now that it’s over things are getting more interesting by the moment. The book might yet turn out. Honestly, prologues almost always need cutting out.

    MY book just spiked in sales again, which is always wonderfully motivating. My life has been a series of dramatic turnarounds, and suddenly becoming a successful author looks like a huge one. I hope I get the editing notes on the sequel soon.

  32. 32.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @opiejeanne:

    Those Peter Robinson books (Inspector Banks) are good. Be warned, there is an odd one early that (I think) is kind of a prequel but smacks of being an early MS. that got dusted off and published when the series got popular.

    Now I am reading Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Department Q novels. Quirky but good.

    And I highly recommend Hakan Nesser’s Inspector Van Veeteren novels.

  33. 33.

    Steeplejack (tablet)

    @Major Major Major Major:

    That’s an issue with many series. I tend to binge-read them in order, and it’s sometimes strange to see years of a writer’s development in a few weeks. Like time-lapse photography of a flower blooming.

  34. 34.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Frankensteinbeck: Got your blog bookmarked; you’re the R.R. advertised on the side I presume? The book in question being Please Don’t…?

    Congrats! Getting published at all is really hard (I should know, I’ve never done it ;) but successful sales, that many reviews, and sequel interest? That’s awesome!

    I’ll have to check it out.

  35. 35.

    PurpleGirl

    @Frankensteinbeck: Congratulations on the good book sales. Enjoy your success.

    I had a client I did typing for — plays, poems, a few novels, other assorted items. She had two novels printed and a friend was doing marketing for her. From what I’ve been told sales weren’t very good. I wish that she had had the novels sell better. A few of her plays were produced by small local acting companies. Sadly, she passed away this past spring.

  36. 36.

    LesGS

    @Omnes Omnibus: An actual phone conversation:

    My kid, having misplaced a library book lent to her by the Director of Religious Education at our UU church, to her adult youth group leader: “OMG! OMG! I can’t find the book the DRE lent me!!!”

    Youth group leader: “Don’t panic!”

    My kid: “But all the towels are in the wash!”

  37. 37.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Major Major Major Major: and @PurpleGirl:
    Becoming a successful author is… hard? Unreliable at best? Certainly getting published was a wild ride by itself. Yes, the book that by far outsells the others is Please Don’t Tell My Parents I’m A Supervillain. All my books are great books, but I think it’s the title that makes people pick up the book and find out.

  39. 39.

    Zach

    Here’s hoping that Robert’s ridiculous ruling preserving the right to harass women and their doctors (banning 35-foot protest buffer zones around clinics) at least has some positive effect as a precedent that can be used to strike down restrictions on protests that are actually unwarranted… such as this 5-second rule, unduly burdensome permitting processes, and “protest zones” erected far away from what people seek to protest.

    Edit: I know he was joined by all the liberals on this decision. I’d rather they force him to join the conservatives and at least get a stronger precedent that can be applied to all speech rather than something that will still effectively end any attempts to prevent abortion clinic harassment.

  40. 40.

    Matt

    @Edmund Dantes:

    In a statement, Hammond police defend the officer’s actions:

    “The Hammond police officers were at all times acting in the interest of officer safety and in accordance with Indiana law… In general, police officers who make legal traffic stops are allowed to ask passengers inside of a stopped vehicle for identification and to request that they exit a stopped vehicle for the officer’s safety without a requirement of reasonable suspicion.”

    Y’know what? The police spox is right. It’s not that the individual officers overstepped their authority, it’s that the state has handed them ENTIRELY TOO MUCH AUTHORITY.

    Also, if these officers are so worried about their “safety” that they feel the need to assault random citizens about it, they can turn their badge / gun / pension in right over there and GET THE FUCK OUT.

  41. 41.

    CONGRATULATIONS!

    You have the right to scream for your mommy while you slowly bleed to death in the middle of the street.

    That’s what cops think the First Amendment is all about.

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