ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) — A woman who was ticketed for having an obscene anti-Bush bumper sticker filed a lawsuit in federal court Monday against a county in the state of Georgia and its officials.
Denise Grier, 47, of Athens, Georgia, got a $100 ticket in March after a DeKalb County police officer spotted the bumper sticker, which read “I’m Tired Of All The BUSH**.”
A DeKalb judge threw out the ticket in April because the state’s lewd decal law that formed the basis for the ticket was ruled unconstitutional in 1990.
The ACLU is also filing a suit with Grier to have her bumper sticker officially declared constitutionally protected speech. As it should be, since there’s pretty much no way you can pretend that this incident was anything but an attempt to shut down political dissent. The “obscene” word wasn’t even on the bumper sticker, but merely implied. (Which goes to show how silly the idea of censoring “obscene” words is, because the euphemism brings the word to mind, which means you might as well have said it, but that’s another post for another time.)
As Aspazia notes, there’s a lot more offensive things that you can slap on a bumper sticker that won’t get censored because they are cruel to the people who aren’t powerful (her example being women who’ve had to terminate pregnancies in their past). What really makes me sad about this is that some cop got it in his head to do a little freelance punishment of someone who has the temerity to insult the cop’s beloved dictator. No doubt that cop would call himself a patriot, even though he doesn’t even respect this country enough to respect our basic principles like free speech.
24 Responses to “Worst part is the sticker’s not even funny”
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The “obscene� word wasn’t even on the bumper sticker, but merely implied.
It’s my understanding that the sticker actually did say “BUSHIT” and the naughty words are being hidden by the media who thinks they can’t actually say bad words when the story is about bad words.
I focus on the judge’s decision and see reason to hope more than I see ominous signs in the cop’s behavior. The police have always been disproportionately reactionary, in my experience. Probably goes with the job. I’m interested to see how the civil suit comes out, as well.
Here’s the first story about this incident, and it did say BUSHIT.
Which, I believe, is just fine and appropriate.
The “Bushit” stickers are fairly common in Portland.
Datapoint.
Interesting that C Diane thinks we’re all too “nice” up here in Oregonland. Looks like they’re even “nicer” in Atlanta. Personally, I think of Oregon as a place where people don’t hesitate to express their opinions, and a surprising number of them are able to be civil to people on the other side of the argument.
Kiva, that’s my point. The dirty word wasn’t even there, just implied.
I wonder if this vigilante cop would pull over and ticket a pick-up truck with bumper nuts on it.
I saw this story yesterday and cracked up. I’ve been waiting for my friend to be pulled over for his vanity plate that says “IMPECHW”. He lives in Kentucky and another friend of ours (KY State Trooper) keeps threatening (read: joking) to have him arrested.
Actually, Older, my problem was mostly that people were unfreundlich. Lacking hospitality. In my culture, you try to make newcomers feel welcome, and the people I worked with definitely didn’t do that. Several were openly hostile.
Atlanta is in the South. In case you hadn’t noticed or read any news, a lot of people in the South vote republican and support the president. You get a lot of these types of ill-founded tickets here, but i seem to recall a story somewhere up north (Midwest or Northeast?) where a woman was fired for displaying a Kerry sticker.
I live in the Chapel Hill area. I’ve seen a few BUSHIT stickers. There was a protest of Ashcroft when Campus Repubs brought him in.
Well, the dirty word is there, but it’s contained in a larger non-word.
well, right, which is even less okay than going after plain old curse words. it’s complete nonsense. also i am surprised; dekalb county is supposed to be the most or second-most liberal county in georgia.
and if we’re just talking about “what does the word LOOK like,” BUSHIT looks more like “bullshit” than like “shit”, and bullshit is ok to say on tv while shit is not, so the fcc has accidentally covered your ass, hasn’t it?
“Community standards” are generally interpreted quite differently by the parties in these disputes. In NYC, I saw a pushcart vendor selling a “good bush/bad bush” bumper sticker: the good bush was a a bikini bottm riding a little too low or a shave that was a little too high….the bad bush was of course the bad bush. Doubt that would have gone over well with the Dekalb county mounty.
BTW, veiled obscenity or double entendre are not necesarily inaccurate when the subject is certain Republicans in national government. If its dirty but true or not uncharacteristic, I think we are more than free to speak of it, we are covering up government malfeasance if we don’t expose wrongdoing, with or without humor.
I wonder if the driver of a truck I saw in Front Royal, VA has ever been pulled over for this gem: “The most dangerous place in America is inside a woman’s womb.”
Last night I was clicking on some links and I came across this editorial from some obscure paper in the U.S. It was titled “Shut up and sing”.
The writer had his or her panties in a twist because Barbra Streisand had the gall to critisize dear leader at a recent concert of hers.
I made a snarky (but clean) comment to the editorial, “Don’t try to “Dixie Chick” Streisand because she’s been around the block too many times to care”.
These wingnuts are all for free speech as long as it’s in somebody else’s country.
Having been raised in Orygun, I can tell you true that it is a very tolerant place - which baffles those who confuse “tolerant” with “progressive” when the fundies get in gear.
That said, this whole thing reminds me of about umptybillion conversations I have had with Teh Offspring about “why do we even have words in our language that we aren’t supposed to use?”.
Like I can honestly answer that? Fucking a.
Heh. So if I have a stereo made by Matsushita, I have to file the logo off? How about my “shiitake happens” T-shirt? Can I raft down the Washita River without getting arrested? Go prospecting for brushite without a fine? What if a shitepoke is my favorite bird. Can I put it on a bumper sticker? What if I speak Cushite? The language that dare not write its name?
The weirdest bumper sticker I’ve ever seen:
SOMEBODY I LOVE WAS MURDERED!
Red letters. Four inches high.
It was incredibly distracting - far more so than any political message I’ve ever seen. Who the hell even pays attention to those any more?
Political speech is protected by the Constitution?
Who knew?
Bad news, it’s not anymore. Our courts have made that clear.
The good news is that boobs are still ok.
I still want a bumper sticker that says:
SUPPORT BIODIESEL: EAT MEAT
(Which is actually true–most biodiesel is made from soybean oil, which is a secondary product from soybeans. Main product is soybean mash, which contains lotsa protein and is used as animal feed. Major difficulty with biodiesel production has been making sure of getting your hands on enough raw input material.)
From the above story:
“In addition to the offending bumper sticker, Grier’s white Chrysler’s rear window sports two other political statements: A crossed-out W and “Hillary 2008.”
Anyone supporting Hillary should be fined, no?
I believe she has yet to oppose the “war.”
Actually, if the cop wanted to “get” her, he
should have ticketed her for blocking her
own rear window with bumper stickers. Probably
could have got that to stick, without getting
into a First Amd. fight.
idlemind: perhaps you should take your concerns to the city council of the British resort town of Scunthorpe, who were distressed to find that browsers at UK public libraries were being blocked from making holiday reservations on-line.
That’s why putting an asterisk into a dirty word smoothes everything all right
(if you don’t look too close)….not.
But I still love it.
Also why I am -fuc*kin’ coward that I am- hesitating to put that ACLU sticker in my car window.
My bumper sticker says “Republicans For Voldemort”