Re: [DMCForum] Christians arrested for peaceful demonstration

[Andrew <aos+yahoo@xxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 8 Jan 2005, ryanpwright wrote:

> 4 Christians have been arrested in Philadelphia and face up to 47 years 
> in prison.

I'm going to stick to our agreed upon rules and not bring religion or 
politics into this at all.  It'd be nice if the rest of you could try to 
do the same.

This needs to be viewed from a purely legal point of view, and one article 
in a clearly one-sided publication is hardly going to present that view.

There are three things to consider here, as there are in all such arrests:

1.  Were the protestors using obscenity or "fighting words"?  Chaplinsky 
v. New Hampshire defined "fighting words" as words "which by their very 
utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the 
peace."  Did we personally hear everything these protestors said (or, for 
that matter, what was said back to them)?  Do we have a transcript?  No. 
Therefore we cannot make this judgment on this list.  Presumably if this 
was the basis of the charges, there are witnesses.

2.  Were the actions of the protestors "likely to produce a clear and 
present danger of a serious substantive evil that rises far above public 
inconvenience, annoyance or unrest"?  Again, we were not witnesses to the 
event and, while we do have a small video excerpt, we do not have enough 
evidence to make this judgement on this list.  Again, if this is basis of 
the charge, presumably there are witnesses.

3.  Were the protestors blocking ingress, egress, or legal access to 
facilities at the site?  Once again, we were not witnesses to the event 
and cannot make this judgement on this list.

These three questions are the questions that must be asked in all such 
situations, and since we are unable on this list to answer any of them, 
this hardly seems like it can become a fruitful thread.  How about we let 
the legal system do its job and move on?

-andrew

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