NOTE BY NORSE: While the below story may seem far away from “progressive” Santa Cruz, consider that tomorrow City Council will be passing a law to go into effect in a month that will make it a crime for anyone who “by his or her conduct,or by threatening, abusive, or profane language, willfully molests or unreasonably interferes with the use of a City park or beach by any other person”. Penalty up to a year in jail or $1000 fine. With an additional unprecedented 24-hour stay away order for any person who receives any kind of a citation (sleeping, smoking, urinating when a bathroom is closed).
See http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/06/10/18738230.php (“Round Two–The New Anti-Homeless Laws Return for a Final Reading”
See http://www.indybay.org/
06.10.13 – 2:13 PM
New York Senate Makes It Felony to Annoy or Alarm the Police, Which Won’t Be At All Problematic
by Abby Zimet
Arguing “too many people in our society have lost the respect they need to have for a police officer” – and we can’t imagine why – the New York State Senate has passed a bill creating the felony crime of aggravated harassment if anyone makes physical contact with a police officer with the intent to “harass, annoy, threaten or alarm” – a term so impossibly nebulous it could apply to virtually anyone, anytime, doing pretty much anything in the vicinity of said officer. And yes, he or she gets to decide just what is annoying, and obviously he or she will be totally honest and accurate about what went down in any given encounter.
“At a time when shocking incidents of disrespect and outright confrontation are at an all-time high, the men and women who patrol the streets of our cities deserve every possible protection we can offer them…We need to make it very clear that when a police officer is performing his duty, every citizen needs to comply and that refusal to comply carries a penalty.”
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