a creative guy built a bike that takes messages submitted online and writes them on the ground with water soluble chalk. it was to be demonstrated at an anti-bush bicycle event in nyc. before even using the device, he was arrested. in front of about a dozen cameras, and during an msnbc interview.
more info, and a video of the arrest, here.
the video clearly shows he was doing no harm to any property or any individual. he demonstrated that the chalk comes off with water. after consulting with superiors, the police still arrest him.
i was nowhere near the event, yet i still feel that my personal rights have been withheld here. it’s a true shame.
he was released on sunday, but faces vandalism charges, and his bike (and several thousand dollars worth of equipment mounted to it) have not yet been returned.
You know, even as a concervative I find that wrong. This is why I’m not against porn and stuff like that, it always gets carried away. NEVER touch the first amendment.
the first ammendment says you can say whatever you want. it also says that you *CANNOT* say it whenever you want. if they thought he was doing something to disturb the peace, the police can arrest him. the analogy of yelling fire in a crowded theater comes to mind.
“fire” in a theatre insights panic, chalking a sidewalk during a biking event is not the same thing at all.
didn’t you ever draw on the sidewalk as a kid? i do even as an adult.
Dude, the first amendment is there for exactly things like chaliking sidewalks. Distributing political pamphlets/messages was the reason the “free speech” part of the amendment was written in the 1700s.
ooh, sexy and historically saavy. impressive 😉
and taken i might add 🙂
no i havent. bu tlike i said, if they though he was doing something to disturb the peace the can act
he wasn’t even charged with disturbing the peace. he was charged for vandalism. and he had done nothing at all to boot.
except sidewalk chalk isn’t illegal…that’s why sidewalk artists use it in nyc…it’s not graffiti since it washes away and does not peramently deface property…
plus he was arrested *in the middle of* an interview on on national tv…not in the process of disrupting the peace or anything close…they were interviewing the guy and he was demonstrating the bicycle. not actually using it…
Let me get this straight: A man, who is in opposition of the current leadership, was arrested in a very public manner for a crime he did not commit. Doesn’t this reek of an oppressive regime of a certain European country during a certain World War?
when i was five or even younger, a neighborhood friend and i drew cutesy pictures on a neighbor’s sidewalk with chalk. the bitch old lady got pissed, and made us wash it off.
my friend ran to her garage, and said she was ‘allergic to water,’ so i had to scrub this $%&^*&’s sidewalk, through my tear-stained eyes. she died last year, and i’m still too pissed at anyone who could be so evil to make a terrified little girl feel that way.
i can relate to the biker. all i have to say.
“:except sidewalk chalk isn’t illegal…that’s why sidewalk artists use it in nyc…it’s not graffiti since it washes away and does not peramently deface property…”
but he was using spray paint, not chalk
no, he was using chalk. water soluble chalk. nothing permanent.
cans of water soluable chalk. cool.