Posted on 12/02/2005 3:57:20 PM PST by JTN
For a city with a reputation as being a bastion of liberal values, Boston has an equally rich history of censorship. In the latest crackdown, Boston mayor Thomas Menino has called for city Inspectional Services Division officials to seize all t-shirts bearing the message "Stop Snitchin'."
"It’s wrong," Menino said. "We are going into every retail store that sells the shirts and remove them."
The mayor's patience was apparently pushed beyond its limit when the mother of gang member wore one of the shirts to her sons trial for the death of 10-year-old Trina Persad.
It is unknown on what grounds the shirts will be seized, the move appearing to be in direct violation of the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Naturally, the local chapter of the Civil Liberties Union has already spoken out against the planned seizures and is prepared to go to court to stop the mayor.
"If the mayor doesn’t like the idea of these shirts the answer to speech you disagree with is more speech,” he said. “He can ask people not to sell them. What he can’t do is without any lawful authority go in and take them and not pay for them because he doesn’t like what they say on them."
The t-shirts having been getting a lot of attention from the press since their appearance earlier this year on the street of cities from Pittsburgh to New York.
Menino and other critics say the shirts are an attempt to intimidate witnesses into silence.
But Rayco "War" Saunders, who wore his "Stop Snitchin'" shirt to a court appearance during which he exercised his Fifth Amendment rights, says the meaning of the shirts is misunderstood.
"'Stop Snitchin' is a warning for the guys that are police informants but still stand on the corners selling drugs," he said. "The shirt doesn't say, 'don't tell the police,' or 'don't talk to the police. 'Snitchin' is a slang word a lot of street guys use. You have to look at the context."
Libertarian Ping.
And they'll win.
A shirt saying, "Stop Snitchin'" worn by a piece of dirt gang member or one of its vermin family could easily be interpreted as witness intimidation.
Don't stop selling the shirts.
Arrest and imprison the filth that wear them.
What a scholar. The shirt doesn't say to stop standing on corners selling drugs. It says "don't snitch." The context, then, is "don't tell the police."
Not, mind you, that I agree with the effort to seize the shirts. I'm just on an anti-Tookie rampage right now.
hmm wearing something like that to court should be illegal. I would see that as intimidating a witness. Selling it is about the same as selling a Che shirt.
Why was this pulled?
It wasn't pulled.
Perhaps I'm using the wrong term. All of the topics were removed (including "Constitution/Conservatism" in spite of the obvious Constitutional issues involved), and the thread is no longer available on the front page.
I've got to winder what the judge was thinking... I certainly believe that wearing that shirt in a courtroom could be conceived as intimidating to a witness on the stand... sort of offers a double-edged sword, doesn't it? One one side is the very real threat of reprisal... on the other is a proceeding that is open to being set aside by the hostile atmosphere should things go in favor of the defendant.
Now you're being rational. Please Stop.
No one pretends that actions should be as free as opinions. On the contrary, even opinions lose their immunity, when the circumstances in which they are expressed are such as to constitute their expression a positive instigation to some mischievous act. An opinion that corn-dealers are starvers of the poor, or that private property is robbery, ought to be unmolested when simply circulated through the press, but may justly incur punishment when delivered orally to an excited mob assembled before the house of a corn-dealer, or when handed about among the same mob in the form of a placard. - J S Mill On Liberty
A similar controversy erupted recently in my hometown of Pittsburgh PA, when a woman wore the 'Stop Snitchin' T-shirt to a trial. The newspapers made a big deal about it, should people be allowed to wear it into the courtrooms or not.
Easy - a no t-shirt dress code in the courtroom.
The essence of this matter to me is that trying to censor U.S. citizens is unconstitutional and impossible.The persons wearing such material as the "Stop Snitchin" shirt are labeling themselves as what another might interpret from the shirt's graphics.
I get the impression that the wearers of said shirts are unwilling to help the truth be known about some action (possibly against the state or other citizen) coming to light. Isn't that what the 5th amendment allows us to do? Do not our most lofty politicians and business leaders withhold knowledge of matters that they might think would bring discomfort to themselves or those they might care about?
In a perfect world we would all come clean about everything and that day will come - but it will be under the direct government of - (in my opinion) - The Kingdom of God.
I was raised to never have any business with priests, teachers, and police officers. Only bad things happen when you get too close.
They should support the sale and wearing of these shirts, even in the courts. It helps the police positively identify the idiots that need a watchin'.
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