i agree with you a lot of the time rboy, and i'm no fan of police abuse, but that sign was up illegally, and a distraction to public safety. the cop gave them the chance to take it down, without a ticket, a pretty even deal. this is no 'skateboard cop' situation
This is WAAAY safer than those burgers Thunder. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN0oenuXLa8 (I'm the third wing in). JB
distraction? so we have a ton of signs all over the country to take down. trucks need to remove signage on their trailors. no more billboards? up illegally? they are holding it... they show absolutely no signs of being a danger to anyone. (until the cop struggles with it) if that is his concern, why doesn't he just ask them to move several feet to either side?
Damn! That looks incredibly exciting. I remember watching a show over 10 years ago, about how they train beginners. They had the pupils take little runs from small, shallow hills and progressively got them to go steeper and steeper. For a while, I thought I might give it a go some day. That day hasn't come, or if it did, I must have missed it.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/352851_protest27.html A state trooper will be receiving additional training following an altercation with a handful of student protesters Monday on a University District overpass. Six members of the student chapter of Justice Works, a group advocating reform in the criminal justice system, were holding a large mesh sign on the 45th Street bridge of Interstate 5 when they were approached by the trooper, said Jon Yousling, one of the students organizing the protest. Protesters had been holding the sign -- which read "Education not incarceration" -- for more than an hour without disturbance when the trooper arrived. Heated words were exchanged as the trooper demanded the protesters remove the sign, which the State Patrol now acknowledges was displayed within the law. "We knew what the regulations are," said Jaime Brown, a junior at the University of Washington. "He was still trying to get us to release the sign." The trooper grabbed the sign, then dragged it and one of the protesters into the street, Yousling said. As more officers arrived, it became clear that the broken sign was returned to the protestors.
Rat: >distraction? Yeah, I have no issue with the "distraction" issue (for the very reasons you point out). My issue only has to do with what would happen if these kids happen to let go or lose control of the large contraption. JB
PC bullshit aside, if I were a cop, I'd have done the same thing. The Sate Patrol may have subsequently acknowledged that the sign was displayed within the law (although I still think that allowing it to stand over an underpass is stupid), but the cop was dealing with a potential problem in the moment. There was nothing to validate the safety of the sign or that it was properly secured in such a potentially precarious location, particularly in view of its size. The cop should not have to make such a "structural" judgment call on the spot, and shoud have erred on the side of caution, which he did. My safety comes before your free speech.
like i said previously... if i were the cop and that was my concern? i would instruct them to move to a safer place. maybe 10 feet to either side. think about high rise window washing... accidents happen... we can't live life worrying about chicken wire hitting a car that is easily being handled by these kids... we could "what if" about a lot of things. a smart cop would handle the conflict differently and looks like seattles finest agrees...they will be teaching him just that.
If I am not mistaken, window washers place sign on the sidewalk below, advising pedestrians that they are overhead. This allows the pedestrian to sidestep the area if he so chooses. Further, high rise window washers are trained in safety protocol and know what they are doing. Otherwise, they would not be there. As for chicken wire hitting a car, and quite apart from the possibility of the poles striking the windshield, can you imagine the shock value of something of that size falling on your car "out of nowhere" while you are driving at the speed limit? (Why am I wasting my time on this thread?)