Cheney and Free Speech

[Pa(b)st Prime]

Quote from Avid_Consumer:


in the case of this guy, if we take his story at face value, he was not acting outside his rights. do we agree on that?

Two feet away? I'm not sure. Yea I think the SS over reacted in so far as arresting the guy but no I think only an asshole would say something to Cheney in that setting. Let's say you saw Drew Bledsoe in a mall today. Perhaps he's there endorsing a product. You approach him while he's conducting his spiel and say politely, "you're washed up, you have no business in the NFL and you cost the Cowboys a victory Sunday." In my book if you did that, you'd be an asshole and as I said before I believe assholes should be beaten with sticks. If Bledsoe spit in your face I'd say he appropriately used his rights, LOL.

i wonder if there were any legal challenges to the partisan pledge required to attend bush campaign events

A legal challenge based on what? Dear judge, can I be allowed to disrupt a man's function by heckling and other asshole behavior? You can hold a party and require people sign a pledge that they'll attend in the nude, if that's what you desire. Like I said earlier, attend the U.S. Open and use your "free speech" to heckle Tiger. I remember a few years back a guy heckled Singh at a tourney and got what he deserved. Any diff than Cheney's reaction?

As Vijay Singh's ball rolled toward the pin today while he was finishing Saturday's makeup round of the Buick Classic, a spectator yelled, "Keep rolling."
Singh, a winner of both the Masters , in 2000, and the P.G.A. Championship, in 1998, took offense at the comment and asked a security guard to take care of the matter. Three officers from the Harrison Police Department escorted the man from the Westchester Country Club, Detective Paul Harris said. . .

Today, Singh went over to the man after he yelled the comment and asked why he said it, Harris said. The spectator told Singh that he had been to the tournament before and did not like his behavior.

"I just told the security," Singh said as he signed autographs after the tournament. "That was it." Singh finished the event at six under par, seven strokes off the pace.

http://www.ericmcerlain.com/offwingopinion/archives/002188.php

 

[pattersb]

Quote from Avid_Consumer:

lol fair enough. the metal bars where i really meant to characterize the same type of complacency we saw throughout europe in the 20th century, were more directed at the defense of fox news disinformation tactics. doesn't seem like a shreik to me ... but try to beat me with sticks if you all want to lol

between voting machine conflicts of interest, mainstream media engaging in blatant identity disinformation tactics, campaign events requiring a written pledge of partisanship ... i see a disturbing trend in the bush presidency. no shreiking here, just cautious acknowledgement

if cheney can't be approached in person with a calmly presented criticism while he's doing the rounds in a mall, like the man said, he shouldn't appear in public. it sounds like there's general agreement, if the story is as this man claims (undetermined), then it was wrong of cheney to have him arrested

anyway the same theme seems to keep coming up, people prioritizing their partisan politics over the actual rights in question

You quoted the Frist Amendment, which gaurentees "Freedom of the Press". Aside from libelous reporting, Fox News, I believe, has the constitutional right to be wrong. Would you ban the "National Enquirer".

I certainly don't advocate voluntarily using "disinformation tatics", but really Fox News, outside of Brit Hume's show, is hardly a pure-news source and Brit Hume is beyond reproach. Most of their shows offer commentary not news.

This Cheney flap is somewhat ridiculous as an example of an encroachment of our constitutional rights. The party of massive-regulation is the Left. Beauracrats have a far greater hand in abridging our rights on a day-to-day.

Chenney probably measured the situation, and like Iraq, grossly over-estimated the threat the guy posed. The claimed victim is an opportunist hoping to win a big settlement from the US Tax payer, and jump on the Cindy Shehan tour.

 

[FanOfFridays]

Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

The latter could well fit the legal definition of an assault, which only requires a reasonable fear of harm.

Could you cite the law there please?

 

[Pa(b)st Prime]

Quote from traderNik:

Could you cite the law there please?

You're seemingly adept with search functions. Can't you find an example?

Assault and BATTERY is a physical confrontation. As AAA alluded, simple assault can be nothing more than verbally confronting one in a "threatening" manner. More and more there's municipalities passing statutes prohibiting public vulgarity!

 

[AAAintheBeltway]

Quote from traderNik:

Could you cite the law there please?

assault
1) v. the threat or attempt to strike another, whether successful or not, provided the target is aware of the danger. The assaulter must be reasonably capable of carrying through the attack. In some states if the assault is with a deadly weapon (such as sniping with a rifle), the intended victim does not need to know of the peril. Other state laws distinguish between different degrees (first or second) of assault depending on whether there is actual hitting, injury or just a threat. "Aggravated assault" is an attack connected with the commission of another crime, such as beating a clerk during a robbery or a particularly vicious attack. 2) n. the act of committing an assault, as in "there was an assault down on Third Avenue." Assault is both a criminal wrong, for which one may be charged and tried, and civil wrong for which the target may sue for damages due to the assault, including for mental distress.






The People's Law Dictionary by Gerald and Kathleen Hill Publisher Fine Communications

 

[FanOfFridays]

Quote from AAAintheBeltway:

assault
1) v. the threat or attempt to strike another, whether successful or not, provided the target is aware of the danger.

Thanks.

 

[Sam123]

Cheney had nothing to do with it. Steve Howards is a dumb ass. He stood out to the secret service like a nerd with a “kick me” sign during a middle school recess. You don’t pass a crowd around a vice president, and then turn around and move in to the center to make a comment. Normal people turn around and hang out in the back to get a glimpse. They probably wanted his name to rule out that he’s not a Hinckley or an Oswald doing a dry run. But this guy was an ass (as if he wanted to get arrested)… so he got arrested. If he wants to challenge this in court, he better make sure he can appeal it in the 9th Circus.

 

[Alex_in_Oz]

Cheney was in Tokyo in May 2003 I think, and stayed at the U.S.A. Embassy not a 5 star hotel. Paranoia?