{"id":9791,"date":"2006-11-01T10:25:32","date_gmt":"2006-11-01T17:25:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2006\/11\/01\/the-first-amendment-is-not-the-stupid-amendment.html"},"modified":"2006-11-01T10:25:32","modified_gmt":"2006-11-01T17:25:32","slug":"the_first_amendment_is_no","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/01\/the_first_amendment_is_no.html","title":{"rendered":"The First Amendment is not the Stupid Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Somewhere along the way, being outrageous to make a point crosses the line into just being plain stupid<\/a> — which carries consequences to it.<\/p>\n

\n

Thomas J. Connolly, of Scarborough, a prominent defense attorney and 1998 Democratic candidate for governor was charged with criminal threatening this morning after an incident beside Interstate 295.<\/p>\n

South Portland police were notified around 9 a.m. that a man wearing a rubber Osama bin Laden mask was standing on top of a berm along the highway carrying a sign that said \u201cI Love Tabor,\u201d and waving what appeared to be an assault rifle.<\/p>\n

Four South Portland officers and two state troopers converged on the man. They drew their guns when he did not respond to their demand that he drop his weapon.<\/p>\n

Police said instead he walked toward them dropping plastic hand grenades. His costume included fake dynamite and bandoliers, police said.<\/p>\n

He eventually did drop the rifle, which turned out to be a toy and was arrested, at which time the man was identified as Connolly. He was taken to the Cumberland County Jail.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Um … dude is lucky he didn’t get shot.<\/p>\n

\n

Connolly met with reporters briefly after posting bail to secure his release. Criminal threatening is a misdemeanor.<\/p>\n

“There was a First Amendment this morning when I woke up. I don’t know how it evaporated with the dawn,” he said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I think it went somewhere with your brain<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I mean, jeez, standing by the highway dressed up like OBL, festooned with fake dynamite and waving a fake assault rifle? Again, dude is lucky he didn’t get shot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Somewhere along the way, being outrageous to make a point crosses the line into just being plain stupid — which carries consequences to it. Thomas J. Connolly, of Scarborough, a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-zt-pc"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33328,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/23\/second-amendment-supporters-still-have-first-amendment-rights.html","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":0},"title":"Second Amendment supporters still have First Amendment rights","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 23-Apr-13 1:38pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Stupid move by the school -- let alone the police -- here. \u00a0I'm no fan of the NRA, but the kid has the right to wear the shirt. Eighth Grader Jailed Over Wearing NRA T-Shirt To School An eighth grade student in West Virginia was arrested and taken to jail\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36616,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/05\/29\/paul-lepage-is-a-dolt-censorship-freedom-guns-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":1},"title":"Paul LePage is a Dolt (Censorship! Freedom! Guns! Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 29-May-13 3:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Governor-of-Maine LePage,Parliamentary gameplaying is not censorship. \u00a0It's frustrating (when on the receiving end), and perhaps even rude (or perhaps not), but it's not censorship.And a state legislator\u00a0refusing to let you speak out of turn at a committee hearing has nothing to do with Benghazi. Or, for that matter, with\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5612,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/02\/11\/sacramental.html","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":2},"title":"Sacramental","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-Feb-04 7:23am","format":false,"excerpt":"Word is that Bush will today back a constitutional amendment defining marriage as a heterosexual-only institution, at least so far as the Federal Government is concerned (and as it impacts...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2004"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2004","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2004"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5821,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/07\/13\/yeesh_2.html","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":3},"title":"Yeesh","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Jul-04 9:25pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A correspondent writes me, regarding today's Federal Marriage Amendment shenanigans: It\u2019s a fun day at work today\u2026 The real \u2018muricans are in an up-roar today over the stupid amendment. First...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50035,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/04\/09\/pride-in-prejudice-2.html","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":4},"title":"Pride in Prejudice","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 9-Apr-15 6:31pm","format":false,"excerpt":"South Carolina is actually arguing that the original intent of the Fourteenth Amendment was only regarding equal protection under the law for Blacks -- it wasn't until the mid-50s that the Supreme Court started applying it to other groups like women and Hispanics -- so all those Originalists on the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":48610,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/01\/cops-have-first-amendment-rights-too.html","url_meta":{"origin":9791,"position":5},"title":""Cops have first amendment rights too"","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 1-Dec-14 6:55am","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, they do, and I don't think anyone has denied that. Nonetheless, the St Louis Police Officers Association is unhappy because some members of the St Louis Rams have also made a public expression of their opinions, coming out onto the playing field protesting police violence against the African-American community.The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}