"Don't eF with another man's livelihood."
#GuidoTheKillerPimp
Posted on 06/26/2015 5:23:23 AM PDT by JoeProBono
SEATTLE -- Panhandlers carry them. Protestors call them essential.
But one Seattle man's sign -- warning of a speed trap -- has been dubbed illegal and could end up costing him $138.
"I thought it was nonsense," said Daniel Gehlke, who made the handwritten sign "Cops Ahead! Stop at sign and light!" with a marker and a Rubbermaid top. "I am a believer that the Constitution, the Bill of Rights are there specifically so they can't be modified or restricted. This clearly is not a stop sign."
Gehlke was holding the sign near 14th Avenue S. and S. Washington Street about 10 days ago to warn drivers of traffic enforcement at a nearby intersection. He said he stood down the street from police for about five minutes before officers saw the sign and confronted him.
"I'm Officer Elliott. I'm with the Seattle Police Department, and I'm letting you know that's against the law," a motorcycle cop is heard saying on the interaction, which was caught on cell phone video.
Gehlke asks the officer to clarify what is illegal.
"What specifically am I breaking, Officer Elliott?" Gehlke asks.
"11.50.560," replies the officer, referring to municipal code, "which is forbidden devices or signs."
"So I can't hold a sign?" Gehlke responds.
"No you can't," the officer says.
"The specific issue is that he was giving instructions to motorists through the words that he chose, like 'slow down' or 'caution,' " said Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, a spokesman for the Seattle Police Department. "That's exactly the issue. It's the words that give people orders referring traffic."
Municipal code outlaws any sign or device "bearing any such words as 'danger,' 'stop,' 'slow,'" and more. "Directions likely to be construed as giving warning to or regulating traffic," it says.
Gehlke believes he's being targeted because of the content of the sign, not because of the crafting of the language.
"I do think this is police overstepping their bounds and using, twisting laws," he said. "(The code) doesn't read like it's meant for stop signs like this. It's clearly meant for people trying to put up 'no parking' signs or stop sign or a yield signs on a public right-of-way. Not someone who made a sign on a Rubbermaid."
He wonders if protestors holding signs reading "stop police brutality" in a city intersection would also be cited for the same infraction, or suburban families who post notices reading "slow, children at play."
He plans to appeal -- and use a modified sign in the future, with the word "stop" removed.
"I wasn't trying to bother the cops," he said. "The idea was to get people to look and say, 'oh, there are cops. Maybe I should slow down.' "
"Don't eF with another man's livelihood."
#GuidoTheKillerPimp
I notice that they never put police cars in the “high risk” areas where they tried putting up revenue generating traffic light cameras (and were overruled by the public).
Amen to that!
A judge in Sanford ruled Tuesday that a Lake Mary man was lawfully exercising his First Amendment rights when he flashed his headlights to warn neighbors that a deputy had set up a speed trap nearby.That decision is another victory for Ryan Kintner, 25, who sued theSeminole County Sheriff's Officelast year, accusing it of misconstruing a state law and violating his civil rights, principally his right to free speech.
He was ticketed Aug. 10 by a Seminole County deputy, but Kintner alleges the officer misapplied a state law designed to ban motorists from flashing after-market emergency lights.
Circuit Judge Alan Dickey earlier ruled that that state law does not apply to people who did what Kintner did, use his headlights to communicate.
On Tuesday the judge went a step further, saying people who flash their headlights to communicate are engaging in behavior protected by the U.S. Constitution.
A Google search turns up many similar stories.
-PJ
Don’t eat from MY rice bowl or else.
And else is whatever...
Committing suicide is illegal in some places.
So if I tell someone not to commit suicide according to line 3 have I committed a crime?
Just asking.
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