No Free Speech for You
By: Mr. Wilson on
June 22, 2006
Bottom line, I believe an officer may have thought our policy was not to allow petition circulators in that area.That's a pretty big goof. Oughtn't officers be well-informed of their jurisdiction's regulations regarding things like free speech? Sorry, that's a leading question. Still, officers on a college campus should be trained well enough not to make that kind of a goof. UNL doesn't need any lawsuits created by something as simple as this.
Comments
See what your friends and neighbors have to say about this.
IF the petitioner was creating a disturbance or they received a complaint it ceases becoming free speech and becomes disturbing the peace, or creating a public distubance, or whatever UNL PD calls it. The article stated as much, that petitioners, protesters, whatever, are welcome as long as they don’t creat a disturbance. Im all for free speech, but if in infringes on someone else or creates a public disturbance, well, UNL PD was justified. Happens all the time across the country. I don’t think a petitioner, paid or unpaid should be able to camp out whereever the public gathers. There was one at the Lincoln DMV in May when I renewed my registration on my car. WTF? The guy was a paid petitioner and standing right outside a State office. Then there was the guy bicycling up and down 11th stree the next day trying to get signatures for gambling and he barely spoke English, nor could he explain what he was petitioning about.
....Addendum
Plus, while UNL PD may have house rules in place on how to handle student protests, this probably wasn’t a student, so I would venture that a more strict application of the law was probably applied.
Share your thoughts with the community.
Commenting is no longer permitted on this post.