Pair Arrested After Telling Lawyer Jokes

fembots writes "Two men were arrested for telling lawyer jokes while standing in line leading into First District Court. A spokesman for the Nassau courts said the men were causing a stir and that their exercise of their First Amendment rights to free speech was impeding the rights of others at the court."

The summary leaves something out:

[Xshare]

These guys weren't randomly standing in line telling lawyer jokes. They purposely and continually go to courts and heckle the lawyers.

The pair said that for years they have stood outside courthouses on Long Island and mocked lawyers. The summary appears to inflame, when it shouldn't.

Re:I dunno, something smells fishy...

[IdleTime]

I saw the 2 guys and their lawyer on The Abrams Report on MSNBC today and it was hillarious. They were telling jokes while waiting to get through the metal detectors and one single lawyer got offended and reported them, anonymously...

I did RTFA

[Orion Blastar]

Good thing they weren't making fun of Police Officers in front of a Police Station or while in one. ;)

Anyway for those who didn't RTFA:

>>>
The men are founders of Americans for Legal Reform, a group of outspoken advocates who use confrontational tactics to push for greater access to courts for the public and to monitor how well courts serve the public. One tactic is driving a truck around the Huntington area emblazoned with the slogan "Stop The Lawyer Disease." They said their rights to free speech were violated Monday.
>>
But Dan Bagnuola, a spokesman for the Nassau courts, said the men were causing a stir and that their exercise of their First Amendment rights to free speech was impeding the rights of others at the court.
>>
"They were being abusive and they were causing a disturbance," Bagnuola said. "They were making general comments to the people on line, referring to them as 'peasants,' and they were causing a disturbance. And they were asked on several occasions to act in an orderly manner, not to interfere with the operation of the court."
>>
Bagnuola said he did not have the name of the lawyer who complained to officers.
>>
Kash said he and Lanzisera were merely saying out loud that the public was being treated like peons or peasants while attorneys, who wave their security passes to court officers and don't have to stand on line, are treated like kings.
>>
"I'm not surprised this happened because anybody who stands up for their rights is put down because these people want only one thing, and that is control," Kash said.
>>
The men were given desk appearance tickets and are due back in court - as defendants - next month.

Judges are lawyers too, this could get interesting. I wonder if they will show the court case on pay-per-view? I got the popcorn all ready just in case it airs. ;)

Re:The summary leaves something out:

[stratjakt]

They were talking to a specific person, it was a specific person who levied the charges.

I just saw these two guys interviewed on MSNBC not a couple of hours ago. I missed the beginning of the interview, but it gradually became clear to me that they were there to cause shit, and found it.

They were all blathering about the fact that the cops wouldn't take them to the lawyer who levied the charges, as if that violated their "right to face their accuser", which AFAIK doesn't mean you get to get up in the guys face at the time of your arrest.

They came off like a couple of assholes, frankly. As much as I'd love to see this as a huge black eye to the joke of a legal system we have, I can't.

Citizenship

[rattler14]

Not completely off topic, but this is totally legit, if these 2 claim priveleges under the US constitution as US citizens.

Very few people realize the difference between State Citizenship (commonly referred to as being a US national) and US citizenship.

I'll cut to the chase, but the main difference is that a US national has rights guaranteed and protected by the constitution, while a US citizen has priveleges granted to them by the federal government. Like every privelege, it can be revoked at any time.

Some links to get you started here [famguardian.org] and
here [famguardian.org]

The funny thing is, I remember a SNL skit by christopher walkin where he made about having dual citizenship, US and florida. At the time I couldn't stop laughing...

Enjoy :)

And the highschool slashdot poster has been found

[dknj]

legal definition of nuisance [lectlaw.com].. and this link has a lot of references as well [google.com]

Now go to your state's statutes and look up alcohol and noise complaints, those are the two spots you will most likely find a statute about public nuisances. Just because you are too dumb to understand the law doesn't mean you are exempt from it.

-dk

Strange dimensions...

[ebyrob]

The key word here is "outside"...

From the article:
The line leading into First District Court in Hempstead Monday morning was long and frustrating...

Hmm... so the line to get into the court was inside the court? You must come from a truly interesting physical realm.

Re:And in other news . . .

[rcastro0]

And in other news . . . A pair is arrested for telling bomb jokes at the airport.

Details on the "other news" follows. Miami. Two Brazilian Surfers. It has all been widely published and discussed in the Brazilian press [tinyurl.com]. The following is quoted from an article in English about the incident [tinyurl.com]:

(...) two Brazilian surfers were arrested in Miami's International Airport under terrorist charges. Mizael Cabral, born in Paraíba, and Daniel Correia, from Rio de Janeiro, spent a good amount of time in Uncle Sam's land working hard to save money so that they could start a surf board factory in João Pessoa. They bought as suction pump here that would make their job a lot easier, but something really weird happened in the airport while they were going back to Brazil. According to the American authorities, they were joking about having that suction pump*. The man from Paraíba supposedly asked the inspector in the airport: "Haven' you found the bomb in the bag yet?" And the one from Rio would've said: "If you open up my bag, it will explode". In cuffs, the two men were taken to Miami's Jail under the charges of "false information about explosives, with malicious intentions, irresponsibility and disregard for the human lives safety". They can be sentenced up to five years in prison and they will have to pay US$ 250 thousand dollars each. They have been in jail for almost a month and the press has no access to them.(...)