Courting Arrest; Crying Victim; Wah.
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/07/31/pub-chicago-man-charged-disorderly-conduct-praying-outside-planned-parenthood/
Fox News is trying to get sympathy for this guy on the grounds, "Is it disorderly conduct for a man to pray on the street?" Yadda yadda, isn't this America, what happened to free speech, what happened to free exercise, etc., etc., etc.
What happened to other people's right to go about their business without harassment? This sounds like it's about abortion or free exercise of religion, but it's not.
The state has a law that if you're protesting, handing out leaflets, trying to start a conversation, praying at, etc., you can't approach within 8 feet of someone entering or exiting a clinic.
The man's complaint? "The law doesn't say the building has a bubble zone! That guard approached me!"
(Okay, but because patients have to go through the door, doesn't the door have a bubble zone?)
The clinic, "He was blocking the door."
The man, "No I wasn't!"
Look at the video. The average person entering or leaving through the clinic door would have had to walk within 8 feet of the man. The clinic worker told him he needed to move 8 feet back. The man made it sound like the clinic worker could run him further and further down the street by walking within 8 feet of him, etc.
This isn't about abortion. It's a straight up case about your right to free speech and free exercise of religion doesn't give you the right to harass others.
Send the guy there and have him stand two feet farther down the building away from the door. So that he's not within 8 feet of the door. Then if he gets arrested for disorderly conduct for standing there praying, I'll be concerned.
Just another idiot doing everything he can to either nullify laws protecting others from him so he can do to them what he wants, or get himself arrested and wrap himself in the cloak of martyrdom and victimhood.
Of course, if I were a clinic worker I'd have taken a tape measure and measured from the corner of where the sidewalk is even with the door hinge, in a straight line over to where the man is, then written down the distance. Then I'd have measured out to 8 feet, put a chalk line on the ground, and said, "Here is the line where you're not, under the law's definition of harassment, harassing the customers."
Seems simple, doesn't it? Put a chalk line on the ground?
This idiot disgusts me, and the people getting on his bandwagon disgust me, too.
I don't care what your position on abortion or aliens or the price of wheat or cats' attitudes are, the line at which your rights stop is when you start harassing others, and the state made a reasonable--in the sense that it's not vague and doesn't drive you back 500 or 1000 feet, like a restraining order would--attempt to define harassment in a way both rancorous sides could understand so that it's crystal clear what is and isn't okay.
The door (and it's physical entranceway, since the door itself is slightly recessed) doesn't have a bubble zone under the law? -- which is really what this guy is saying. Get real. Your right to swing your fist ends at the other guy's nose. The state did a reasonable job of defining where the other guy's nose is that everyone on both sides is likely to hate as not enough or too much.
This isn't about abortion. It's about engaging in harassment--the whole purpose of praying there and not a couple of feet further along the wall--and when you get called on it being a crybaby.
Fox News is trying to get sympathy for this guy on the grounds, "Is it disorderly conduct for a man to pray on the street?" Yadda yadda, isn't this America, what happened to free speech, what happened to free exercise, etc., etc., etc.
What happened to other people's right to go about their business without harassment? This sounds like it's about abortion or free exercise of religion, but it's not.
The state has a law that if you're protesting, handing out leaflets, trying to start a conversation, praying at, etc., you can't approach within 8 feet of someone entering or exiting a clinic.
The man's complaint? "The law doesn't say the building has a bubble zone! That guard approached me!"
(Okay, but because patients have to go through the door, doesn't the door have a bubble zone?)
The clinic, "He was blocking the door."
The man, "No I wasn't!"
Look at the video. The average person entering or leaving through the clinic door would have had to walk within 8 feet of the man. The clinic worker told him he needed to move 8 feet back. The man made it sound like the clinic worker could run him further and further down the street by walking within 8 feet of him, etc.
This isn't about abortion. It's a straight up case about your right to free speech and free exercise of religion doesn't give you the right to harass others.
Send the guy there and have him stand two feet farther down the building away from the door. So that he's not within 8 feet of the door. Then if he gets arrested for disorderly conduct for standing there praying, I'll be concerned.
Just another idiot doing everything he can to either nullify laws protecting others from him so he can do to them what he wants, or get himself arrested and wrap himself in the cloak of martyrdom and victimhood.
Of course, if I were a clinic worker I'd have taken a tape measure and measured from the corner of where the sidewalk is even with the door hinge, in a straight line over to where the man is, then written down the distance. Then I'd have measured out to 8 feet, put a chalk line on the ground, and said, "Here is the line where you're not, under the law's definition of harassment, harassing the customers."
Seems simple, doesn't it? Put a chalk line on the ground?
This idiot disgusts me, and the people getting on his bandwagon disgust me, too.
I don't care what your position on abortion or aliens or the price of wheat or cats' attitudes are, the line at which your rights stop is when you start harassing others, and the state made a reasonable--in the sense that it's not vague and doesn't drive you back 500 or 1000 feet, like a restraining order would--attempt to define harassment in a way both rancorous sides could understand so that it's crystal clear what is and isn't okay.
The door (and it's physical entranceway, since the door itself is slightly recessed) doesn't have a bubble zone under the law? -- which is really what this guy is saying. Get real. Your right to swing your fist ends at the other guy's nose. The state did a reasonable job of defining where the other guy's nose is that everyone on both sides is likely to hate as not enough or too much.
This isn't about abortion. It's about engaging in harassment--the whole purpose of praying there and not a couple of feet further along the wall--and when you get called on it being a crybaby.