Truck seen displaying anti-woman signs in Va. Beach

[Blue_Tires]

Yup, in my own hometown....


VIRGINIA BEACH

Disturbing? Yes. Illegal? Probably not.

That's what police, residents and free-speech experts say about a truck seen driving around the city displaying handmade signs disparaging women. The placards, stuck to the back of the dark purple pickup, include messages such as "All women are Satan" and "A perfect woman is a dead woman."

The display is protected as free speech, according to prosecutors and state and local police.

"These signs, while particularly obnoxious and degrading to women, are part of a long tradition of free expression found on automobiles," Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said in an e-mail.

"Short of a court finding them to be 'fighting words,' they are legal."

The signs may be on the margin, said Josh Wheeler, associate director of The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression.

"I think these signs would certainly justify the police investigating whether they represent an actual intent to do harm to someone," he said. "However, whether or not these signs themselves actually represent a true threat is a much more difficult question."

http://hamptonroads.com/2010/04/truck-seen-displaying-antiwoman-signs-va-beach

[Orsino]

1. "I can't get laid without paying for it."

"And prostitutes with taste charge me extra."

[mzteris]

2. that latter remark

sounds pretty damn threatening to me!

[SteppingRazor]

3. If an investigation does decide that those signs are a threat ...

the cops should totally send a policewoman to tell the guy to remove them. :evilgrin:

[Darth_Kitten]

4. Lazy coward couldn't even burn his own signs.

Had to get his "girlfriend" to do it for him. What a spineless wimp.

[flying rabbit]

5. Way to air your laundry dude

Get some anger managemant ASAP.
I feel sorry for the GF, but damn, it's time to cut bait girl.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

6. SO explain the difference between "Fighting Words" and "Killing Words"

and who they apply to.

[TheMightyFavog]

7. That's the nice thing about free speech...

It lets you know who all the assholes are.