Pathetic News Story Of The Day
on 08/21/2005 at 08:26 AM
The only SAD thing is that the dogs had already been fed! What a shame.
Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
The key word there is “peaceably”, Rokky. If the protestors had applied for and gotten a permit, they could have marched back and forth all night long and the police would have been dispatched to the scene to protect their right to demonstrate. As it is, they had no permit and the protest was unauthorized so the police asked them to move along. At that point three of them pitched a fit and were arrested for their trouble. There is a right way and a wrong way to do anything, including protest.
It seems to me the key is that Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people to assemble. Reading that as requiring permits seem a bit activist to me. It makes no mention of permits. If a permit is denied, the freedom to assemble is abridged.
Are we to pick and choose the parts of the Constitution that we adhere to?Also, the article doesn’t say the protesters were unruly or violent, or “pitched a fit”. It says they refused to disperse.
No, Rokky, we can’t pick and choose the parts of the Constitution to adhere to. The Constitution does not make any mention of permits, nor does it have to. The concept of a permit is to establish an orderly process of protest. The permit also gives administrators a heads-up to dispatch the police for crowd control. Applying for a permit is easy: you just go fill out a form and that’s it. As evidenced several years ago when the KKK got a permit to parade through downtown Atlanta. The city had to give them a permit (the Constitution forbids any attemp to abridge the freedom of assembly for protest) but the city also prepared for the protest march, which eventually included 10 Klansmen on parade with their banners surrounded by 2,000 Atlanta policemen who were surrounded by over 10,000 African-Americans just waiting for a chance to jump the KKK’ers.
By your argument, the Klan or anyone, for that matter, has a “right” to go out and parade at any time and march onto the White House lawn if they feel like it. Be reasonable. No one is “abridging” anything with a permit. It’s just a way of protecting public safety.
As for the protestors and their actions: I haven’t seen a policeman yet with K-9’s and plenty of backups around him willfully and, without provocation, attack protestors. Have you? I have seen how these anti-war protestors act, up close and personal. They taunt the police with obscene name-calling and gestures and quite often throw things at the police. It has happened repeatedly and the only purpose is to incite physical force from the police so they can file a lawsuit and claim abuse by “the man”. From reading the article, I can glean the fact that the police “advanced in formation” to force the protestors to disperse. No one was billy-clubbed or shot. One lady was taser’ed. Cops don’t do that just for the fun of it. The other lady was bitten by a K-9 dog. Those dogs are even more highly trained than their human “partners”. They will not attack unless (1) ordered or (2) see the partner getting hurt. I can easily guess which one occurred.
This is not to say I know for a fact exactly what happened since I wasn’t there but Ive been a witness to several incidents like this and I know how it usually goes. I can read between the lines.
Having been clubbed in the back of the head with a nightstick in Ann Arbor Michigan in 1971 just for holding a sign might give me different perspective on things.
I can see how that might slant your opinion, Rokky. Are you sure you weren’t “collateral damage” caused by some other asshat’s behavior? I’ve been on the other side of that equation and I know the mettle of the men and women who serve as policemen. Maybe 5% are not suited for the job and don’t need to be there and are responsible for incidents like happened to you. On the other hand, this story was about 60 protestors, of which only three were arrested and two were injured. It seems like the percentages match pretty well if only 3/60th of the group experienced a problem. That’s about 5%, I think.
It’s always the few members of any group that make it hell for the rest of us.
Amendement I:
CONGRESS shall make no law....
Those laws for permits weren’t passed by Congress, were they?
(As opposed to Amendment II, which just says ”shall not be infringed” at the end.. not ‘Congress shall not, but simply ‘shall not’ and that does mean everyone down the line...)
