Why cant these teabag idiots be charged with LITTERING?

[OwnedByFerrets]

Seems to me that in most places littering is against the law. Yes or No?

[chemp]

1. Coupl'a mayors have threatened to do so

Georgia in particular.

Litter is litter. Anything thrown into the waters is a crime. $1000 fine plus jail time.

[TechBear_Seattle]

2. I think "eco-terrorism" might work

Deliberately throwing lots of known environmental toxins into fragile ecosystems? How many fish and amphbians have been poisoned because of these protests?

[mucifer]

3. Actually, Stephanie Miller just said that that is what is happening now in DC.

[JVS]

4. If throwing bags, I could see that. If dumping leaves probably not.

It's kind of a stretch to claim that any individual dumping a few ounces (and that would be a lot of tea) of dried leaves would qualify as littering.

[OwnedByFerrets]

5. I would agree if this were a TEA party, but they are using TEA BAGS

[JVS]

6. I had assumed that they would be using loose tea or cutting open bags.

Maybe I'm a bit more eco-minded than those stupid fuckers though.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

20. Teabags are biodegradable

[JVS]

21. So is a newspaper, but try chucking that on the ground rather than in a bin in front of a cop.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

22. True

[csziggy]

31. Most places, you show up with a baggie of "leaves" you're arrested for drugs

And held until tests prove the leaves are not pot. Why isn't this done to these idiots?

[theboss]

7. Do we really want to go down this "What actions constitute speech" path?

I don't think so.

Or is it okay to stifle dissent when we are back in charge?

[OwnedByFerrets]

8. I will betcha that if libruls were doing this, there would be arrests....

just use the RNC as an example.

[theboss]

12. And the arrests would be wrong

What's the point?

[TornadoTN]

16. Just look at most anti-war protests

There were police out in riot gear and the whole area cordoned off.

I'm not seeing that in this instance, despite their proclivity for violence and hate speech.

[blogslut]

There's a difference between speech and dumping

Some of these folks want to throw teabags into rivers and lakes. This isn't the 1700's with pristine waters.

[theboss]

13. Do you really think Boston Harbor was pristine in the 1770s?

My guess is that it was filled with human waste. But that's just me.

Obviously, there is a line here. Let's be careful with it though even if we don't like the people.

[blogslut]

15. I have no idea

The point is, there is a difference between speech and dumping and the world today is not the world of the 1700's. We know things now, like regular bathing promotes health and dumping junk in a river is pollution.

If these kids want to protest in the name of corporate interests, that's fine with me. However, that doesn't give them the right to trash the place. When I was involved in the peace movement we made damned sure we cleaned up any location where we held a protest.

[theboss]

17. Ha!

After you ever been to downtown DC after one of the WTO protests?

It's not exactly tidy.

I would say illegally dumping into a body of water would be illegal on any grounds. Dumping on dry land would not be.

How's that for Solomon-like wisdom?

[blogslut]

18. I would say that you're talking out the side of your neck

The fact that other protesters leave messes does not justify anything.

As for your claim that dumping in a body of water is illegal yet dumping on land isn't, really? You want to stand by that?

[theboss]

24. Yes

Non-communicative conduct may be regulated without regard to the First Amendment. However, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that some forms of symbolic expression are speech receiving First Amendment protection. The key in this matter would be the separation of the speech from the conduct. If you are arresting them because of the "speech" and using littering as the doorway to do so, you are violating their First Amendment rights.

Unless you can prove that all protestors have historically been charged with littering on public grounds, I don't think you can show that seperation. However, I think it would be much easier to show that separation when arresting someone for illegally dumping into a body of water. The damage caused by dumping into water is more damaging and less easily fixed. There is a compelling state interest to keep waterways cleaned. There is no such interest in keeping the streets clean, I would say.

That is at least a 4/5 on a Con Law Test.

[blogslut]

27. Protester gets attention, arrest for throwing cash

A California man leading a demonstration outside the Silver Spring headquarters of Discovery Communications was arrested for disorderly conduct Thursday after several hours of throwing money into the air to gather a crowd.

James Jay Lee, 40, of San Diego was also charged with littering for throwing what police said were thousands of dollars worth of bills at a crowd that grew after Lee began paying people to participate.

Police also said a man who gathered a significant amount of money from the rally was beaten up a block away during an attempted robbery.

Around 1 p.m. Thursday, before Lee was arrested, a man was hospitalized after being beaten by a group of seven men who followed him from the rally, said Lt. Paul Starks, a spokesman with Montgomery County Police. Starks said the man who was attacked was walking with an acquaintance to a bus stop at Georgia Avenue and Cameron Street when one in the group of seven approached him, shoved him, and told him to ‘‘give it up.”

link: http://www.gazette.net/stories/022708/silvnew200504_32364.shtml

[OwnedByFerrets]

28. Sheesh, way to distort.

The tea dumped in the boston harbor was in barrels. But, more importantly, it was a protest against a global corporate entity....and the tax breaks THEY were getting.
I dont want trash in my waterways, no matter what the source.

[theboss]

30. As I said, waterways are different than litter on the ground

I'm distinguising between the two.

But any distinguishing gets lost here.

[Winterblues]

11. Is it free speech to open up on a crowd with an AK-47?

Is it free speech to break other laws? Littering is against the law. Does free speech give one the right to disregard laws? Not in the world I live in but who knows about the world others live in.

[theboss]

14. I don't know. It's probably illegal to start a fire on the steps of the Supreme Court

Unless what is set on fire is a flag or an effigy of Scalia or Ginsberg.

There's a line here obviously. Depends on the speech. Depends on the law.

Throwing tea bags on the White House lawn is probably ok.
Dumping tea bags into the Reflecting Pond is probably not ok.

Do you want to give me ten possibilities and see which ones are cool and which ones are not?

[Stevenmarc]

9. Why? Because if you charge them you only make them important.

[NeedleCast]

10. Come on...really?

I'd hope the police in my area have something better to do than discouraging freedom of assembly by handing out littering fines.

[OwnedByFerrets]

29. Oh come on, yes really.

This can be a massive amount of paper inserted into the environment. Yes, I am against it in any form from any organization.

[NeedleCast]

32. LOL, okay...

Massive amounts of biodegradable paper inserted into the environment, what a nightmare!

Good lord, I doubt all the teabag parties combined will produce the same amount of litter that was left on the mall after the Inauguration. You think all those people should have been cited for littering as well?

[Norquist Nemesis]

19. Send a bill for cleanup to the organizers!

Calculate it at time and a half, too!

[theboss]

25. Yea, that's unconstitutional in a huge way

But I know this because I care about the First Amendment.

[ShareTheWoods]

23. At least the litter is not empty starbucks coffee cups this protest

I do not jest.

[AllieB]

33. Is that a slam at 'latte liberal' elitism?

Sure seems that way.

[ShareTheWoods]

34. Of course not.

Why would you draw such a negative conclusion?

[AllieB]

35. History.

[RalphieD]

26. Charge them with being Conservative

'nuff said.