Man gets disorderly conduct charge for writing vulgar message on check
Police dropped a disorderly conduct charge against a 45-year-old man who wrote a "vulgar message" (with the word "fuck") on a check he used to pay a $5 parking ticket.
Doylestown police Chief James Donnelly said the man was arrested because clerks who saw the shocking message on the mmo line were offended by the message.
"He was contrite enough to offer an apology, and I think that satisfies the people who were insulted by it," he said.Link (Thanks, Lauren!)
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ahh the police, school marms of the the real world*
*disclaimer: this is not my opinion on ALL police, having a sister who is an officer and several friends.
Bit of a stretch calling that disorderly conduct in any reasonable way. DC seems to be one of those catch-alls that lets cops bust you for "something".
That said, it's kind of prickish to write "fuck you" to the clerks who didn't give you the ticket and had nothing to do with your case. Fight it in court, protest, raise a ruckus, but this just makes him seem like surly asshole.
I lived in Doylestown for a year or so. When I left two years ago parking tickets were $40. I'd have written the f-bomb all over the check, too.
So, when the offended officer sees the word "fuck" written on a stall in a public restroom-- whom does he/she charge with disorderly conduct? Or do they just sue the owner of the restroom?
And what kind of prude can even exist in todays world without hearing or seeing that word somewhere?
"Offended"? Methinks the lady dost protest too much.
Considering cops regularly utilize the work "fuck" by the metric-boat-load, I find getting busted by them for using the word quite ridiculous.
Last I checked there was no law against being a surly asshole.
#4 - "And what kind of prude can even exist in todays world without hearing or seeing that word [FUCK] somewhere?"
I would say a majority of the people above the age of 60 are still offended by the word. That doesn't make them prudes. Remember, "bad words" were taboo back in the old days, you know, when words still meant something.
I still wince when someone pulls up next to me at a stop light with their stereo spitting out garbage from some non-talent rapper who has no idea how to express him/herself without saying "Fuck". Why not just rant "Umgawa, Umgawa". It would make more sense.
Sometimes I wish that "bad words" were taboo again. The richness of the English language is disappearing
My parents would still wash my mouth out with soap if they heard me utter that expletive.
I'm pretty sure that there have been court cases that have ruled that you can't get arrested for simply cursing at an officer. So did they think that writing a curse was different than saying one?
ill lich, thats your second hamlet quote of the day, did you read it recently?
While I don't think writing "fuck" on a check memo line does much to initiate social change, I don't buy the argument that one shouldn't in any way blame the clerk.
In many metro areas, the whole parking ticket system is deliberately designed to maximize revenue, and those who are part of making that machine run are as deserving of criticism as the person who wrote the ticket.
In Arlington, VA, cops seldom even write the tickets. There is a whole troop of people who drive around in county cars issuing tickets. Meters are often 15 minutes for a quarter, and many areas shift to no parking at various times and for various reasons.
It's even worse if you have to deal with the red light/speeding cam people in DC. The adjudication process is Kafka-esque, takes months and months to resolve, and frequently culminates in an encounter with a truly surly mouthbreathing clerk behind Plexiglas.
So, in short, if you're part of a system that deliberately inconveniences people for revenue, you deserve the f-bomb as well.
I did exactly that while writing an 'extortion' check to get my car back from the impound. The bank refused to honor the check and I'll be forever grateful to them for that.
Why was my car impounded you ask ? "Because it had foreign tags" said the cop. I would have rather set it on fire in the middle of their fucking parking lot than pay them extortion money. Fuck them and I mean it.
So, in short, if you're part of a system that deliberately inconveniences people for revenue, you deserve the f-bomb as well.
I can't believe I, as someone who assumes about 3-4 tickets a year as the cost of living in Chicago, am going to defend the meter people, but I think you're off base here.
While I agree that many cities are using hyper-aggressive ticketing as a revenue stream and not the intended purpose of reducing congestion and parking strain, the clerks who open the mail are hardly the people to blame for that. Yes, they benefit from the system, but they're hardly the ones setting policy. If you write and expletive filled invective to the Chief Meter Maid or city hall, at least your aiming your anger in the right direction. This is just misplaced rage and speaks more about the author's character than the justness of the policy.
That said, I got a ticket a few days ago at 9:04am outside my house, when the meters start ticket at 9am. It was an empty street except for my car. I had plenty of curse words to share on that one, just not with some mail room schlub.
That said, it's kind of prickish to write "fuck you" to the clerks who didn't give you the ticket and had nothing to do with your case.
If I wrote "fuck you" on a stupid parking ticket check, it certainly wouldn't be directed toward a clerk who opened it. It would be directed toward the stupid system that uses parking tickets to generate revenue for the city.
So, yeah, fuck them.
"Sometimes I wish that "bad words" were taboo again. The richness of the English language is disappearing"
I disagree. First, the richness of the language includes these words. The fact that people don't use a greater variety of words doesn't mean the curse words are to blame. Some people I know use the word "thing" for a large percentage of their nouns.
Further, I think the idea of creating words, then designating them inappropriate for use to be asinine. I hate that we can see all kinds of horrible concepts on tv (rape, murder, child abuse) but to have the f-bomb on tv is somehow beyond the pale. Or the fact that other words with the *exact* same meaning are acceptable. Poop!
I would prefer that the laws on the books be largely reasonable. And randomly choosing that some words are unacceptable doesn't seem reasonable to me.
Perhaps now people will begin to see the danger of giving the cops a "one size fits all" crime like disorderly conduct.
"That said, it's kind of prickish to write "fuck you" to the clerks who didn't give you the ticket and had nothing to do with your case. Fight it in court, protest, raise a ruckus, but this just makes him seem like surly asshole."
Really? How prickish is it for someome to think that they get to tell people what they can say? Seems pretty prickish to me, almost as if they should have some rule against it.
sorry, they are everywhere and everywhen.
Look on the bright side: "disorderly conduct" laws do slightly reduce your chances of being murdered by the police. If they have SOME reason to grab you they are less likely to kill you out of hand.
If you make the clerks uncomfortable or offended enough, they might quit. If enough clerks quit, it might be hard to fill those positions. If you can't hire clerks, it becomes more obvious just what a crappy system they're supporting. The guy made an ass of the police department with a fine anglo-saxon word on the memo line of a check. Mission accomplished.
"It would be directed toward the stupid system that uses parking tickets to generate revenue for the city."
I have to credit Bad Religion here, "Fuck the Government!/You are the government". The power to effect real change, not just toss a writing tantrum, is in our hands.
In Chicago people got tired of seasonal posting signs being torn down and their cars getting ticketed by clueless meter maids. They protested and got a more effective system of signs and warning lights. If they'd just stuck with writing "Up your ass meter man!" they'd be no better off.
Writing cuss words that will likely only be read by low-paid clerks and bank tellers is the ding-dong-ditch form of protest.
Jack booted thugs: 1, civil liberties: 0
Just another example of the overreaching long arm of the law. This man may have prevailed in court, but he opted to "go easy", and I can't say I blame him. Faced with court fees, lawyers fee, and lost time, he was officially harrassed and forced to prostrate himself.
As to his demeanor, well we all act out from time to time in our frustration, often to regret things after the moment. Thankfully, being an ass, bufoon, or idiot is not yet an actual criminal act, though this article shows that the government is inclined to such a view.
Simplehuman (12), they gave you four minutes? In my previous neighborhood, they wrote the tickets out in advance and started awarding them about ten seconds after the status changed.
I agree that there's no use swearing about it. They'll just pretend to be affronted, and you'll get in trouble.
Yikes. Any time I write a check to a friend, I almost always write something horrible on the memo line. I anxiously await the follow-up call/email.
More breaking news: the Supreme Court of the United States requests that its binding precedent in a more or less analogous case be taken into account (see Cohen v. California).
Seriously, though: the legality of this issue was settled 27 years ago.
(In other breaking news: some podunk town in PA declares SCOTUS irrelevant).
Or, in other words, no fucking apology ought to be required for the charges to be dropped.
As my last follow-up (seriously) in light of what I just said: I would rescind my apology, stand up for my first amendment rights, and dare them to refile charges.
DC meter maids are notorious for ticketing you twice for the same offense, but not putting anything on your car so that you don't know you have an offense and are in default. Then one gets booted the next time they get you. "Street cleaning" is the usual offense--never mind that they don't clean the streets and that half of the signs mentioning the forbidden times have been knocked down or are faded to illegibility. DC also uses the newfangled scanners so that a car can drive around at 4 am and scan the plates of everyone on a street and auto generate tickets.
I used to live in Boston and the meter maids would patrol back and forth on a two block stretch and issue rounds of $100 tickets, mostly to delivery vans that double parked, but also to the people parking in meter spots that are for impracticably short periods of time.
I'm delighted that prudes still exist to be shocked by certain little four letter words. If it weren't for the prudes among us, it wouldn't mean so much when I tell meter maids and their ilk everywhere: Go fuck yourselves. Twice.
Although, really, my usual parking ticket check reads something more subtle like "Sixty-Five Dollars and NO SENSE."
Oh, and another thing. If you're in LA, or DC, or one of the other fucking cities that contracted Lockheed Fucking Martin (look it up) to do their ticket management dirty work: contest every ticket, no matter what. Even if you're parked on top of a fire hydrant in the middle of a parade route, contest that ticket. Last time I checked, Lockheed's deal with each city was to split revenues 50/50. However, they agreed to pay all managerial expenses, such as checking into a contested ticket--which, supposedly, costs them about 40-50 on average. SO...if you contest a 40 dollar ticket, and LM has to deal with it for 40 dollars, and they still make you pay it, at least the city gets 20 and Lockheed Martin makes a profit of NEGATIVE 20. w00t! To me, this seems like the easiest corporofascist shit to deal with, because all you have to do is remove the profit incentive.
Note to Lockheed Martin: Fuck you. Twice.
I once got a ticket for parking too long at the public library (longer than 1 hour). When I mailed them the money order, I made it out to the "Porking Enforcement" division, intentionally misspelling "parking" as my form of protest and writing it in caps in both the envelope AND the money order itself...
Well, they must have gotten pissed off because about a month later I got a letter saying that I never payed the ticket and that I now had to go to court. Unfortunately for them, I had mailed the letter with a certificate of mailing ($.80); I simply photocopied the certificate of mailing receipt (thank god I kept it!) and the money order receipt and mailed it back to the "Porking Enforcement Division".
Never heard from them again :D
I got condescended to by a police officer a few months back for saying something-or-other was "fucking stupid" to a university library clerk. Disorderly conduct was the threatened charge. I still smolder a little thinking about it.
However, I didn't intend to direct that particular F-bomb (which I don't drop often) at the clerk, but rather at the system. And not even at the library system in general, but at the specific intersection of circumstances that produced a bizarre situation at hand. In cases like that, I think it's perfectly legitimate to be upset and annoyed, and being told to clam it or be carted out in cuffs in no way serves to lessen that annoyance.
This said....
There are lots of people in the world with different values than us, and sometimes I kind of wish more people -did- get a little offended at hearing cursing. I wholeheartedly disagree that police action is an appropriate response to a mere "fuck," written or spoken, but if someone had asked for an apology from me for saying it at the time, I probably would have given it.