Another town on the road to having thought police [Archive]

mczerone

02-23-2009, 09:43 AM

Change We Can Believe In: In December, the city council in Brighton, Mich., passed an ordinance making it illegal for anyone to be "annoying" in public, "by word of mouth, sign or motions." Violators can be ticketed and fined. [Detroit News-AP, 12-19-08]

http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html

I drive through Brighton every day on my commute. I think I'm going to make a huge sign that screams, in neon acrylic, "I'm not annoying you. I'm not annoying you. Honk If I'm not annoying you.", stand on the road in front of the State Police outpost, and shout all day!

This is a very typical "law" that is passed by those who consider themselves "progressive" - a law that "is just trying to help" that really just gives a tyrannical mob a piece of paper to back up their tyrannical actions. "See - this law here says we can throw you in jail, so I don't care about any so called "free speech" or "liberty", our city counsel must've taken that into consideration, so I don't have to."

As a liberty advocate, I must tell the Brighton residents that support this: YOU ARE ANNOYING ME! I SHALL HAVE YOU ARRESTED! You may not be, by word of mouth, or by sign, but by motion. The motion of going about your day without caring what your city counsel is doing is annoying me. The motion of acceptance of your lot as a patsy to the government's con man. The motion of printing and accepting this law into your books and community. And especially the motion of actually enforcing the law.

So, to ensure that I am not a hypocrite, I shall ask for no one to be punished for annoying me - I'll just stay within my natural rights, and walk away from the annoyance. Live and let live.

If, however, the Brighton City Prosecutor happens to see that a potential consumer of the city's goods has been ANNOYED by the MOTIONS of the Legislative Body, he may, as many a public prosecutor has done, bring the action "in the name of society". I would, of course, decry his abuse of power in seeking punishment when the victim has requested none, but I may enjoy the law being used only to punish those who passed the law.

PS: I shop at a Supermarket in Brighton weekly. That might change.

PPS: there are a pair of Ron Paul signs visible to I-94 near Brighton, thank you to whoever left them up, you *brighten* every day for me. (A lawn sign at the Flint Rd overpass, and a 4x8 at a dead ended road, both to the West of town on the Eastbound side of I-94)