Police ticket drivers for honking to support strikers

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 10/14/4 | Jaxon Van Derbeken

[SmithL]

Honking motorists found themselves being pulled over and either ticketed or issued warnings on Wednesday when they sounded off in support of San Francisco hotel workers embroiled in a labor dispute.

San Francisco police issued $50 citations to a dozen motorists for their sympathetic honking on behalf of picketing hotel workers at the Palace Hotel on New Montgomery. Many more were warned verbally and had their license numbers recorded.

Police Capt. Denis O'Leary said that in answer to complaints about the racket, he asked the union for the workers to stop holding signs that urged motorists to "honk for health care'' -- a request they agreed to. But people honked anyway.

O'Leary said he has received 20 faxed letters from businesses along New Montgomery near Market Street. "A lot of them are consultants, therapists, they need to talk to people and they can't be heard.''

Meanwhile, in another effort to lower the volume, the Fire Department banned its crews from sounding air horns in solidarity with the workers.

Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White said the department has received six complaints this week that crews used horns and sirens in front of the picketed hotels. Workers struck four hotels two weeks ago and were then locked out of 14. Hayes-White said firefighters could be subject to discipline for violating the policy.

[SmithL]

It would seem that the union supporters think that their freedom of speech allows them to silence all others' freedom of speech.

[A Balrog of Morgoth]

Sounds to me like it's not the union that's the problem here..it's the SFPD.

A $50 fine for honking you horn at a picket line? Huh? WTF is that all about?

[Right Cal Gal]

Man, I work in S.F. and I've got the trifecta from Hell - the Sheraton on one side, the Argent on the other and Four Seasons up the street. They have made it impossible to transact any business at all with their whistles and drums. The other morning I was taking the alley to bypass the strikers and a guy was stationed there with an oversized noisemaker was blowing it directly into people's ears as they passed him.

But the "horn honkers" are the worst - they lay on the horn for five, six seconds. I'm glad to see SFPD is doing SOMETHING!