Re: Ya think ya have free speech well---

Originally Posted by
Kid Lester
https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speec...g-protest-bill
So here's the deal:
If the Secret Service has a clearly defined restricted area designed to provide protection for someone, you can't knowingly be in there. It has to be well defined, otherwise anybody could claim they didn't know it was restricted and hence, are not in violation of the law. This law has existed for 40 years. The one difference now is, before, you had to knowingly be in a restricted area, AND you had to know that being there was a crime. Now all you have to do is knowingly be somewhere the Secret Service says you aren't supposed to be,
whether or not you new it was criminal trespass, and you can be charged with a felony.
Ignorance of the law has never been a defense to violating it. In the past, the Secret Service may have "overlooked" things out of deference to legitimate ignorance of the law, but it was the agency's choice. They've made a decision not to take ignorance into consideration any longer. They've always had that option; only now they're exercising it.

Originally Posted by
Kid Lester
The Secret Service, and political candidates, have a sincere interest in providing and being safe. If the Service says they need a section of street or a hotel lobby cleared for an hour, I don't have a problem with that. Our right to protest has to be tempered with the legitimate need to protect people from random lunatics who might well be assembled within an unruly or unmanageable crowd of people. What's the point in having a Secret Service at all if they can't be allowed the means to reasonably safeguard people?
I agree with you as do the rest of the 3-digit IQs in the country. However, I suspect that the point of the original post had nothing to do with starting a reasonable discourse on the subject and everything to do with stirring the troller pot by getting readers to infer this is due to the Obama Administration.
Mind you, this is only MY opinion; I have no direct proof. All I can do is survey the posts made by the original poster and point out a constantly recurring trend. I think it speaks for itself; but, others may well disagree.
By the way, where the hell have you been, KL. You've probably explained your absence in another post. However. I've been absent quite a bit myself over the past couple of months. Anyway, I hope you're back on regular basis; I enjoy reading your posts and replies.
Regards,
Joe Walther
Old age happens in increments. First you forget names, then you forget faces. Next you forget to pull your zipper up, and finally, you forget to pull it down.