Absolute Moral Authority

This is interesting. The ACLU is suing the town that I live in. They say that anti-war protestors rights have been violated because a few if them have been ticketed by the local police for causing a disturbance when they picket.

ACLU sues Ferndale over ‘no honking’ policy

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit today against the city of Ferndale and its “no honking” policy for demonstrators.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Detroit, alleges the city has arrested protesters who hold signs encouraging motorists to honk their horns as a sign of support. The city also has ticketed motorists who respond to the sign by honking, the lawsuit alleges.

“Holding up ‘honk’ signs and honking in support of sidewalk protests is a time-honored tradition that should be respected by Ferndale,” said Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan, in a news release.

“To censor the political speech of these protesters is to violate a fundamental right that has defined our society.”

A time honored tradition, huh? Where, Berkeley?

I drive by these losers every Monday and give them the old one finger salute. What the article is leaving out is the behavior of these “peace” protestors. Woodward Avenue is eight lanes wide at Nine Mile and has a large median running down the middle of it. For a couple of years, the protestors would cross Woodward and then block traffic for thirty seconds or so after the light had changed as they wobbled their way across the street, taking their time to make sure that they blocked as many people as possible on their way home during rush hour.

The cops told them to stop. They wouldn’t, so they got ticketed. After that, they would cross and then stop in the median waving signs at traffic from both sides of the road causing a mess as people tried to make sure that they didn’t get hippie juice on their cars by accidentally hitting one of the stragglers.

Again, it caused traffic backups during rush hour. One, where I was rear ended by some little old lady who was honking her support for the scum bags. Her loss, as I drive a big Dodge SUV. She didn’t seem to have any remorse or care that she ran into someone while honking for hippies. I let her go, but called the police to complain about the situation. They came out and chased the patchouli odored group back to the side of the street. Several hippies created a big fuss and their signs were taken and they were ticketed.

I really hope that I played some small part in bringing this to a head.

The ACLU has no chance in this one. Ferndale is the most tolerant suburb in the Detroit area. There is a large gay and lesbian community — their new community center downtown was just completed. It is an area of many art galleries and small shops and restaurants. Coffee houses and an actual tea shop for flower children to get their daily potion. In other words, not an area that shuts down freedom of expression or is foreign to tolerating the views of a wide range of different groups that run a little outside of the social norm.

Ferndale’s side was not told in the article. Big surprise.

The protestors were ticketed for repeatedly causing a disturbance and then when warned, to blatently ignore police requests to stop blocking traffic.

This has been going on for a while. For the past several months the hippie crowd has stayed on one corner, I’m guessing until this lawsuit came out.

They are a sad little group. Aging hipsters, young malcontents, a few fake veterans (guy had USMC and Army logos and didn’t know his rank) and a couple of angry, militant lesbians.

They’re gonna lose the lawsuit if Ferndale doesn’t buckle under.

I hope these folks keep up their little protest. They do a great job of showing the people driving by what kind of weirdos are behind the anti-troops movement.

Posted by: mesablue at 01:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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