Quote:
Originally Posted by RU OX Alum
I'm saying either way, it was illegal and immoral for the pigs to shut him down
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First off, I wouldn't be too quick to say what the authorities did was "illegal." It's well established that even Free Speech has its limits, such as the well-known "you can't shoud 'Fire!' in a crowded theater." There are laws against threatening assasination, so it was appropriate for the authorities to investigate,.
Second, at least get you facts traight before you start excoriating the "pigs"; they didn't shut him down. From yesterday's NYTimes:
Secret Service Detains Artist Over ‘Assassination’ Exhibit
Note a few relevant points (emphasis mine):
New York City police detectives and Secret Service agents briefly detained and questioned an artist on Wednesday morning as he installed an exhibition with the title, “The Assassination of Hillary Clinton/The Assassination of Barack Obama.”
The artist, Yazmany Arboleda, tried to set up the exhibition in a vacant storefront at 264 West 40th Street in Midtown Manhattan, and had finished stenciling letters of the title on the plate glass windows at street level.
The police and Secret Service agents arrived about 9:30 a.m., and building workers quickly covered over the title with large sheets of brown paper and masking tape.
. . . Shortly after 11:30 a.m., Mr. Arboleda called reporters to say he had been released. “The Secret Service had to do a whole questionnaire with me,” he said. “It was about an hour of questioning. They asked if I owned guns, if I was a violent person, if I had ever been institutionalized.”
Mr. Arboleda said he answered “no” to the questions. Nonetheless, he said, the Secret Service asked him to take down the exhibition’s title from the window.
. . . Special Agent Eric P. Zahren, a spokesman for the Secret Service in Washington, emphasized in a telephone interview that the agency was not seeking to shut down the show.
“We did not shut down that exhibit or request that anybody else shut it down,” Agent Zahren said. “This was brought to our attention, we went out there and had a conversation with the individual, but we did not shut it down.”
Speaking to reporters around noon, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Mr. Arboleda had been questioned because the police wanted to determine his motives. “Obviously, they could be interpreted as advocating harm to protectees,” Mr. Kelly said. “Both of the senators, of course, are now being provided Secret Service protection.”
. . . Comments touching on assassination during this political season have hit a nerve, and the safety of Senator Obama, the presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee, has been an issue. When he was assigned Secret Service coverage in May 2007, it was the earliest point in a campaign that a candidate had been given protection.
With any freedom comes the responsibility. This guy should be thanking the police and Secret Service -- without them, his "art" wouldn't have gotten nearly as much attention.