Subject:
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Re: Religious bigotry = Patriotism, say State Representatives
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Fri, 7 Mar 2003 20:43:02 GMT
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Viewed:
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252 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, David Eaton writes:
> Yeah, there's slightly more to the story... a history really...
Here's another take that makes it even more dubious that this guy (a judge?)
has much justification for complaining.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/ (scroll down to "Birth of an Urban
Legend" and I can't say how long this cite will work)...
-start-
Birth of an Urban Legend
"Man Arrested for 'Peace' T-Shirt" read the headline on the Tuesday Reuters
dispatch. "Marchers Protest Arrest of Man for Wearing Peace T-Shirt at
Crossgates" the Albany Times-Union reported the next day. (Crossgates is an
Albany-area shopping mall.) Sounds like an outrageous case of censorship,
doesn't it? But it turns out to be an urban legend.
First, as even the early news stories made clear, the man in the shirt,
Steve Downs, was arrested not for wearing a shirt but for trespassing.
According to Reuters' "report," a mall security guard asked Downs to remove
his "Give peace a chance" shirt or turn it inside-out. "When Downs refused
the security officers' orders, police from the town of Guilderland were
called and he was arrested and taken away in handcuffs, charged with
trespassing."
Although the mall may have the legal right to eject someone for wearing an
offensive shirt, the action as described by Reuters certainly sounds like
overkill. But Reuters leaves out a crucial part of the allegation, which
appears on the arrest report, obtained by The Smoking Gun: The security
guards had received complaints that Downs and his "partner" (actually his
son, according to the Times-Union) "were stopping other shoppers." The
security guard's deposition says that a customer had complained "that the
two gentlemen [sic] were having a verbal dispute with another group of
individuals in the mall. The customer was afraid of what may come out of the
dispute, so she wanted to let someone know." Sounds more like disturbing the
peace than protecting it.
There's another odd angle to this story: The New York Law Journal reports
that Downs is the chief lawyer for the state's Commission on Judicial
Conduct. "Last month, U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd in Utica, N.Y., shot
down as unconstitutionally vague provisions in the Code of Judicial Conduct
that restrain the political speech of judges and judicial candidates."
Downs's office had prosecuted a judge for taking part in political
activities. The law journal notes that "there are no allegations that Downs
violated any ethics code -- he is not a judge, and therefore not subject to
the Code of Judicial Conduct."
-end-
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