Disorderly Conduct Charge or Posting a Sign that Includes a Swear Word

[Dogmatique]

BTW this is a U.S. case.

We gathered that.

[Antigone]

BTW this is a U.S. case.

Here I go being lyrical again: So freakin what???

[azsexe1]

So we should just throw the 1968 landmark case of California VS Cohen out the window along with our civil rights?? also the reason we have been harassed for 8 years by the police is because we are gay, if that makes us assholes that's your opinion! Now if any one has "real" legal knowledge instead of opinions, that would be great.

[Dogmatique]

So we should just throw the 1968 landmark case of California VS Cohen out the window along with our civil rights?? also the reason we have been harassed for 8 years by the police is because we are gay, if that makes us assholes that's your opinion! Now if any one has "real" legal knowledge instead of opinions, that would be great.

Please feel free to pay an attorney to listen to your teeny tantrums.

You're welcome!

[azsexe1]

http://blog.oregonlive.com/clackamas...es_free_s.html kind of looks like I do...But thx

[LawResearcherMissy]

also the reason we have been harassed for 8 years by the police is because we are gay

That's not what you said upthread.

Your sexuality is irrelevant to your using profanity for the sake of using profanity in a publicly viewable place. You doubtless violated some local ordinance, and now there are consequences. If you threw around half the attitude at the cops that you've thrown around here, it's no wonder you have problems. "Testing free speech", my plush and luscious ass.

Hit the Yellow Pages, kid, and pay someone to hold your hand and "tut tut, those heartless bastards" at you. I'm sure you'll find someone happy to take your money in exchange for telling you what you want to hear.

[Mr. Knowitall]

I was told by my husband to hang a sign on a wall on our property that said "stay off our roof and stop cutting our ****ing tree". My husband looked up cases before asking me to do this to make sure it was legal, he read cases on Cohen vs. California and Robert J Ekas.

Did he also attend law school and pass the bar? You might be surprised at some of the crazy notions laypersons get from reading case law.

He found out although in may be unappropriated it is well within our 1st and 14th constitutional rights.

You have a 14th Amendment right to use profanity in public? That would be... one of those crazy notions I just mentioned.

I hung the sign. 8 hours later a neighbor came to my door stating he ripped the sign down and then continued to yell and scream at me and my husband .

What was he yelling? Something like, "My kids can see that sign"?

I called the police and asked that my neighbor be charged with destruction of property, theft and disorderly conduct. When the police showed up, they refused to arrest my neighbor and instead arrested me for disorderly conduct simply on the grounds of hanging a sign that says "****ing tree" on it. I am pleading an obvious not guilty.

They arrested you, as in they handcuffed you, took you to the police station, had you post bail, etc., or they simply issued a citation? What is the exact statute you are charged with violating? Arizona Statutes, Sec. 13-2904(3) ("A person commits disorderly conduct if, with intent to disturb the peace or quiet of a neighborhood, family or person, or with knowledge of doing so, such person:... 3. Uses abusive or offensive language or gestures to any person present in a manner likely to provoke immediate physical retaliation by such person....")? That provision attempts to codify fighting words doctrine. See Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942). I question whether the sign would rise to the level of conduct necessary to avoid a reversal on appeal, should you be convicted, as to support a conviction the fighting words must create an actual threat of immediate violence, not merely present offensive content.

Note that, depending upon how much of a disturbance occurred after your neighbor confronted you, other provisions of ARS 13-2904 might apply to that confrontation.

Antigone, on the contrary, One mans profanity is another mans lyrics, We all have the right and we all need to test it . Otherwise we will loose it.

Nobody "needs" to swear in public.

So we should just throw the 1968 landmark case of California VS Cohen out the window along with our civil rights?

California vs. Cohen treated the epithet as falling outside of Chaplinsky's fighting words doctrine because no reasonable person could have believed that the expression was a direct personal insult. Would the police have been wrong if they inferred that your sign was specifically directed at your neighbor's household?

[PandorasBox]

There is a time and place for everything.
There is a polite and considerate way to do things....and rude and impolite ways.

Did you ever think of POLITELY speaking to your neighbor about not cutting your tree? That if it's hanging on the neighbors property, you would prune it yourself? Did you think of politely asking your neighbor to stay off your roof?

[Lehk]

I guess it is okay for you to scream fire in a crowded theatre as well, huh

You do realize the "Fire in a crowded theater" quote was from a SCOTUS ruling in favor of arresting a WWI anti-draft protestor right?