|
2 Clever people/stories... I think the world could use more
creative individuals such as these...his license
plate
Man's right to substitute
'Taxationland' for 'Vacationland' is upheld
Boston.com
By David Sharp, Associated Press, 7/26/2001 13:44
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) A civil libertarian
accused of defacing his license plate by substituting ''Taxationland'' for
''Vacationland'' fought all the way to the state supreme court and won his
appeal Thursday.
The Supreme Judicial Court sided with David Chittim
because he altered the license plates before a law went into effect in 1996
making it illegal.
Chittim, of Lewiston, said he put a ''Taxationland''
sticker on his rear license plate because he thinks Mainers are overtaxed. He
put a ''Crawdad State'' sticker on the front license plate because he didn't
like the red lobster.
''I'm so pleased I'm getting my 20 bucks back,'' Chittim
said of the fine imposed by a judge. ''I'm just so happy about that.''
Chittim got into trouble the day after Christmas in 1999
when his son was stopped for speeding in York County while driving a car with
the altered plates as the family returned from ''dinner at Grandma's house,''
Chittim said.
The trooper appeared to be incensed over the license
plates and tried unsuccessfully to remove the stickers, Chittim said. The
trooper also arrested Chittim's son for driving with a suspended license.
The driving-with-a-suspended-license charge was dropped,
but the charge for the disfigured license plates stuck.
There was a trial in District Court in Springvale and
Chittim was found guilty. He was slapped with a $20 fine.
In a unanimous decision, the state supreme court agreed
with Chittim because he had made the alterations to the license plate in 1993,
three years before the Legislature made it a crime, effective July 1, 1996.
''This was, in my opinion, a no brainer. How can you have
someone violate the statute before the statute was passed? It was an abuse of
state power all around,'' said Chittim's lawyer, Kevin T. Cole of Portland.
Chittim, the city engineer in Rockland and a former
member of the Libertarian Party, said he felt so strongly about his right to
make a statement with his license plate that he paid out of his own pocket to
pursue the appeal.
His lawyer called the ruling a ''hollow victory'' since
it didn't address the issue of what would happen if Chittim defaced a license
plate after 1996.
Chittim said he has chosen not to alter his new chickadee
license plate. He avoided doing so by placing ''Taxationland'' on a license
plate frame that appears to be part of the license plate but isn't.
''I don't really want to break the law,'' Chittim said
Thursday. ''I don't feel I ever did break the law.''
|
Going To The Dogs-Anti-state.com
http://www.anti-state.com/harris/harris3.html |
|
by Emmett Harris |
|
Mabel Briscoe is one lucky lady.
Though Maryland officials claimed they had an airtight case against her,
they nonetheless decided not to go through with next month's scheduled
trial. Instead, they are dropping the charges. Yes, she is fortunate
indeed.
What, you might ask, was this octogenarian firebrand
accused of doing? She allegedly committed voter fraud by placing her Jack
Russell terrier mix on the voting rolls. (His name was not disclosed, as
he still lives at home.) Ms. Briscoe contended that she was only
attempting to bring to light how easily one could register to vote without
displaying proper identification. "His tags may have been in order," she
said. "But without a photo ID or his most recent heartworm test results,
how could they be sure?" Supposed "irregularities" during the presidential
election prompted her action.
Prosecutors called the 82-year-old's
stunt "childish."
The ruse was discovered when the canine
constituent received notification to report for jury duty. Since Briscoe
would not have been allowed to accompany the Jack Russell into the jury
chambers and since not doing so would have clearly violated local leash
laws, Briscoe had to fess up.
State officials were rabid. They
planned to throw the book, or perhaps a tightly wrapped newspaper, at the
elderly Briscoe. Making any state worker look like an idiot carries a
maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine, or imprisonment, or both. This is
especially true when the state worker actually is an idiot. However, an
aggressive countersuit brought by an attorney working pro bone-O on behalf
of Briscoe and her terrier stopped the Maryland juggernaut in its
tracks.
In the countersuit, the lawyer argued that Ms. Briscoe
suffered irreparable emotional trauma that prevented her from going back
to work. The suit went on to maintain that the Jack Russell terrier was
illegally discriminated against under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Because of discriminating policies targeting quadrupeds, policies that
provided only chairs geared towards bipedal mammals, the co-plaintiff was
barred from exercising his constitutionally protected right to serve on a
jury. Furthermore, hydrant facilities were located outside the building,
which placed the co-plaintiff at risk of contracting Canis Malodorous
Syndrome during periods of inclement weather.
Attorneys for the
state of Maryland were dumbfounded. Given the politically sensitive nature
of the counter charges, one false move would have led to a public
relations disaster for state officials. They would surely have ended up in
the doghouse had they pushed forward with the case. It is therefore
unremarkable that they quietly chose to withdraw all actions pending
against Ms. Briscoe. They also reached an out-of-court settlement with the
Jack Russell terrier, reportedly agreeing to provide 5,000 cans of Mighty
Dog in exchange for his assenting not to speak or roll over in
public.
Mabel Briscoe's only crime was daring to show that "voting
irregularities" are not the exception but the norm. For that, she was
nearly pilloried. This entire episode is indicative of the lengths that
the government apparatus will be used to censor anything that might
demonstrate its incompetence. Three cheers to Mabel Briscoe and her
terrier. They had the temerity to point out idiocy in action and they
didn't turn tail and run. They are the everyday heroes in the battle
against vapid bureaucracy. They are doing their part to prevent the world
from going to the dogs.
June 19, 2001
|
| Emmett Harris lives in
Dennis, Cape Cod. Visit his personal site at www.eeharris3.com. |
Regards,
Peter E Luke
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Diversions? Or what's really
happening?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Diversionz
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
