Danny Glover arrested...
 

He was arrested after a protest outside the sudanese embassy. Not that Interesting in it's self, I know. However I was interested to read what he was charged with:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertain...lm/3600520.stm

Can any americans just tell me, what is an "Unlawful Assembly"? I got a bigbrother vibe from that statement and was wondering whether I misunderstood. Do you have to get permission in the US for a certain number of people to gather to protest, or is it just outside an embassy/certain buildings?

Well, you got a Big Brother vibe because it's a Big Brother move. It's supposed to be a right to assemble peacefully. Unless the protest was damaging public property or hurting people, (which doesn't seem to be the case,) there shouldn't have been an arrest. I think what we have here is a case of a few petty cops who seized the opportunity to take a "stuck-up actor" down a few pegs.

And as far as stars protesting go, I really don't have a problem with it. If they're asked to speak, fine, go ahead. Sure, they may think that people will listen to them more because they're famous, but unfortunately, they're right. What pisses me off is stars protesting for PR purposes, not because of their own beliefs, and when they have no ****ing idea what they're talking about. This doesn't seem to be the case with Danny Glover. The Sudan protests, despite being against the "biggest humanitarian crisis in the world today," have gotten relatively little press compared to the everyday anti-war protests. For a celebrity to get behind it shows that he really cares about it.

Hello, Dom!

Actually, Unlawful Assembly is a criminal act defined by law (whether or not it is BIG brother is another thing altogether). Law describes it as: A disturbance of the public peace by three or more persons who meet together with an intent mutually to assist each other in the execution of some unlawful enterprise of a private nature, with force and violence; if they move forward towards its execution, it is then a rout (q.v.) and if they actually execute their design, it amounts to a riot. This basically appeals to the Clear and Present Danger clause as well. If a public disturbance has the "vibe" of turning violent or stirs of violent speech, emotional reactions, etc. then the gathering can be deemed Unlawful Assembly under the Clear and Present Danger clause. This may also mean that there is proof that those "assembling" were in the middle of planning some kind of illegal act, such as property damage, etc.

Maybe this makes sense. But, hey, it's U.S. criminal law. It doesn't need to make sense, right? ;)

Kirk

Thanks for type informative replies. I must admit I happen to find both somewhat disturbing, though obviously we don't know the details of the incident.

I know the first amendment guarentees freedom of speech and peaceful assembly, and the law you quoted Kirk doesn't seem to contradict it. So it must come down to exactly what happened there.

I have though, to say I am getting concerned about the way the united states is seemingly going, with the idea that to preserve freedom you have to restrict it (even if thats not whats necessairily going on in this case).

Hmmm, we also have a similar law here.

--Erwin

Even though I'm not a fan of the way politics work in the USA, I have to disagree with the underlined statement. Freedom without restrictions isn't freedom at all. It's chaos. It's just a way of making the restrictions "people friendly", the way that isn't hard to understand or live by.

But it's knowing when to stop thats important, and I for one think the "war on terrorism" has been used to push the boundries too far.

And if another attack or two kills ten thousand, perhaps the boundries weren't pushed far enough. It's hard to say where the line is to be drawn.

Meanwhile ... 100,000 plus protest yesterday at the Republican Convention in NY.

"If you're not ready to die for it, put the word "freedom" out of your vocabulary."--- Malcolm X

Only a coward and a fool would loosen his grip on liberty for a greater sense of security.

Amen.

I don't even think that "war on terrorism" is what it's posing to be, but I'll just leave it at that.

And I think that we should leave out qouting the extremists. Although I respect him, his concept of freedom is not the healthiest one. If you know what I mean...

One's words can often rise above themselves...

In other words, who actually said it and what they were actually like as a person is irrelevant to the meaning inherent in the statement.

Republicans for Voldemort!

Maybe, but I always (is it just me?) associate the quotes with the people who were quoted.

"What we have to fight for is the freedom and independence of the fatherland, so that our people may be enabled to fulfill the mission assigned to it by the creator"
or
"Those who want to live, let them fight, and those who do not want to fight in this world of eternal struggle do not deserve to live."

It's pretty similar stuff, and coming from the guy who said stuff like:

"The personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew"

Not a good idea. Even those who seem good are often corrupt and hypocritical beneath the surface and oft times the most intelligent of statements can come from the most evil of men. The problem with the Hitler quotes you chose are that they can't really be construed as good, even out of context, while my Malcolm X quote can very much be applied to American idealism. A better one would have been:

"There could be no issue between the Church and the State. The Church, as such, has nothing to do with political affairs. On the other hand, the State has nothing to do with the faith or inner organization of the Church" --Adolf Hitler

The fact of the matter is that if I didn't bother to say who I was quoting in my original post, you probably wouldn't have commented at all. Considering such, how can the addendum of a name to the words change their meaning? How have the words changed? They haven't.

Anyway, how about that Danny Glover guy??? ;)

Got me there Bastich, the victory is yours to take! :)

BTW I heard Danny got arrested. :D