Town wants to fine people for cussing.

[Dissent]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304821304577439192334221350.html?K EYWORDS=town+wants+to+ban+cussing



Do these morons not realize there is something called the first amendment? Geez.

[CCTelander]

What the Fuck?

Hey, somebody HAD to say it.

[tod evans]

Fines and cops aren't the answer.

Respect is learned and earned neither job is suitable for ANY government employee.

Return the freedom to correct children to the adults and this'll come to an abrupt halt.

[jdmyprez_deo_vindice]

What is amazing here is that this was not passed by a city council or put into effect by an out of control Mayor. Nope, the people of this town voted this into law themselves and by quite an impressive margin. Some people just love their chains.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/06/11/middleboro-town-meeting-to-vote-on-20-fine-for-swearing/

[Seraphim]

Shit. Fuck. Cunt. Piss. Fuck. Whore. Slut. Bitch. FUCK. ANAL RAPE. FUCKING ANAL RAPE SHITASTIC WHORE MONGERING SLUT PARADE.

Huh?

[Anti Federalist]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz4HEEiJuGo

[FrancisMarion]

The Tyranny of the Majority. (http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/DETOC/1_ch15.htm)

Here is a picture of the leader of our local gov't. Let's just say that our town and the state have a misunderstanding.

http://media11.dropshots.com/photos/692604/20120611/191105.jpg

[Victor Grey]

Damn.

[kylejack]

They're going to lose. SCOTUS has already ruled on this and while there is such thing as "fighting words" that can be legislated against, simple profanity cannot.

[John F Kennedy III]

Shit. Fuck. Cunt. Piss. Fuck. Whore. Slut. Bitch. FUCK. ANAL RAPE. FUCKING ANAL RAPE SHITASTIC WHORE MONGERING SLUT PARADE.

Huh?

This post is JF FUCKING KIII approved.

[Legend1104]

yeah my town band sagging pants.

[PursuePeace]

yeah my town band sagging pants.

Your town has a band, and they wear sagging pants?

Damn. What the hell?

: p

[noneedtoaggress]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dz4HEEiJuGo


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvJiYrRcfQo

[Eisenhower]

Shit. Fuck. Cunt. Piss. Fuck. Whore. Slut. Bitch. FUCK. ANAL RAPE. FUCKING ANAL RAPE SHITASTIC WHORE MONGERING SLUT PARADE.

Huh?

MOTHER FUCKING +1

BITCHES


also, the article describes this happening in another town other than MA one. it said the attempts to pass similar legislation discontinued after "much discussion"... have any of these FUCKING idiots heard of the first amendment in the constitution?

[No Free Beer]

"Residents in Middleborough have voted to make the foul-mouthed among them pay fines for swearing in public.

At a town meeting on Monday night, residents voted 183-50 to approve a proposal from the police chief Bruce Gates to impose a $20 fine on public profanity.

Officials insist the proposal was not intended to censor casual or private conversations, but instead to crack down on loud, profanity-laden language used by teens and other young people in the downtown area and public parks.

I'm really happy about it,' Mimi Duphily, a store owner and former town selectwoman, said after the vote. 'I'm sure there's going to be some fallout, but I think what we did was necessary.'

The measure could raise questions about First Amendment rights, but state law does allow towns to enforce local laws that give police the power to arrest anyone who 'addresses another person with profane or obscene language' in a public place.

Matthew Segal, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the government cannot prohibit public speech just because it contains profanity.

The ordinance gives police discretion over whether to ticket someone if they believe the cursing ban has been violated.

Duphily, who runs an auto parts store, is among the downtown merchants who wanted take a stand against the kind of swearing that can make customers uncomfortable.

'They'll sit on the bench and yell back and forth to each other with the foulest language. It's just so inappropriate,' she said.

Middleborough, a town of about 20,000 residents perhaps best known for its rich cranberry bogs, has had a bylaw against public profanity since 1968.

But because that bylaw essentially makes cursing a crime, it has rarely if ever been enforced, officials said, because it simply would not merit the time and expense to pursue a case through the courts.

The ordinance would decriminalize public profanity, allowing police to write tickets as they would for a traffic violation. It would also decriminalize certain types of disorderly conduct, public drinking and marijuana use, and dumping snow on a roadway.

Segal praised Middleborough for reconsidering its bylaw against public profanity, but said fining people for it isn't much better.

'Police officers who never enforced the bylaw might be tempted to issue these fines, and people might end up getting fined for constitutionally protected speech,' he said.

Another local merchant, Robert Saquet, described himself as 'ambivalent' about the no-swearing proposal, likening it to try to enforce a ban on the seven dirty words of George Carlin, a nod to a famous sketch by the late comedian.

'In view of words commonly used in movies and cable TV, it's kind of hard to define exactly what is obscene,' said Paquet, who owns a downtown furniture store.

But Duphily said, 'I don't care what you do in private. It's in public what bothers me.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2157833/Swearing-fine-Middleborough-Massachusetts-considers-20-fine-public-cursing.html#ixzz1xgnE1oet


What about our 1st Amendment Rights?

Edit: Spelled Massachusetts wrong.

[ShaneEnochs]

I think this is the second or third thread about this. Either way, it's sickening.

[No Free Beer]

I think this is the second or third thread about this. Either way, it's sickening.

I'm sorry, I haven't been on here much lately. Didn't see it.

[oyarde]

I have heard about this for weeks , but have yet to see what is "foul" or what the penalties on failure to pay $20 for a first amendment violation are going to be.

[No Free Beer]

I have heard about this for weeks , but have yet to see what is "foul" or what the penalties on failure to pay $20 for a first amendment violation are going to be.

just more bullshit. it seems that everyones answer to everything these days are more laws.

[aGameOfThrones]

INB4 AF's "everything is illegal in MA" video.

Damn MotherFornicators. Sons of Promiscuous Women. Fudge! Fudge! Fudge! Damn penis lactating anuses.

[MoneyWhereMyMouthIs2]

I have heard about this for weeks , but have yet to see what is "foul" or what the penalties on failure to pay $20 for a first amendment violation are going to be.

This.


The ordinance gives police discretion over whether to ticket someone if they believe the cursing ban has been violated.

The list is gonna get quite large, I suspect, especially if you "curse" at a cop in some form. Better not even blink.

[DamianTV]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/12/massachusetts-town-puts-20-fine-on-profanity/


The residents of Middleborough, Massachusetts, have had enough of this *#%@&!

And on Monday night they voted to make those who curse put their money where their potty mouths are - to the sum of $20, that is.

Police in the town of 22,000 will be writing tickets bearing fines in that amount to those who foul its public places with profanity after residents voted 183-50 Monday night that they were mad as *#%@& and weren't going to take it anymore.

Overheard on CNN.com: What the $%#;!? Choice words for town's profanity fine

"If I didn't hear 10 kids drop the F-bombs between my store and a block and half I would be shocked," local business owner Mimi Duphily told CNN affiliate WHDH. She was one of those who pushed for cops to clean up the *#%@&.

Not everyone was pleased with the plan.

“This comes under the context of trying to legislate morality or good parenting,” resident Adam Bond told those gathered at the annual town meeting Monday night, in the town that calls itself the "cranberry capital of the world."

So what words are over the line in Middlleborough?

That will be at the discretion of police, but they'll be directing their enforcement efforts at those using profanity to accost others, Officer Steven Nelson said Tuesday.

“It's not going to be just someone walking down the street dropping the F-bomb; it's going to be when you're actually making it uncomfortable for everyone else,” Duphily told WHDH.

Note that Middleborough is only 38 miles from Boston and Fenway Park, where Red Sox fans bestowed a profane nickname on New York Yankee Bucky Dent after the light-hitting shortstop homered in the seventh inning of a tiebreaker game in 1978.

Call him Bucky "Bleeping" Dent in Middleborough and it'll cost you $20.

Fuck that shit. And I really hope someone in that mASSachusetts town reads this post!

[Lindsey]

What happens to the kid with Turret's; do his parents go broke?

[nobody's_hero]

Tourette's.