Associated Press – July 2, 2007:
Reverend Billy says he wants the New York Police Department to get right with the Constitution.
The performance artist — a cross between a street-corner preacher and an Elvis impersonator (but blond) — was arrested on harassment charges last week while reciting the First Amendment through a megaphone in Manhattan’s Union Square. On Monday, he donned his trademark white suit and returned to the scene of his alleged sin to demand that police repent.
“It feels so good to be back on the very spot where I was denied my First Amendment rights by reciting the First Amendment,” he told reporters over the din of an NYPD helicopter hovering overhead.
The video shows Talen preaching the “44 beautiful words of the First Amendment” to a visibly annoyed congregation of police commanders huddled a few feet away. At one point, an officer approaches and warns him that his sermon is breaking the law.
“What’s the law?” Talen asks.
“Harassment,” the officer answers.
When Talen persists, another officer comes up behind him and slaps on handcuffs. When being put in a police van, the satirist shouts, “We have a right to peaceful assembly!”
This is just stupid. His “performance” didn’t server any real purpose, but to annoy people. Maybe he should take his case to court. I bet he’d loose…
This is America. He has the right to annoy people, as long as he is not harming anyone else.
Man!, I wish that woman would shut up so I could hear his Billyness.
#0, “Happy Independence Day”
What independence? Everybody is dependent on something for their happiness (power, drugs, sex, money, status, affiliation, numbers, beliefs, family, girfriend/boyfriend, etc.).
Correction:
Happy Dependence Day!
P.S. The Statue of Liberty is still closed to people including Americans. I remember as a kid walking up the spiral staircase to the crown where you could see out of the small windows of Liberty’s crown the harbor where millions entered into our great country in the hope of Freedom. Who locked out Liberty? WHO?!?
What a maroon. You have the right to speak. You don’t have the right to blast away at others with a megaphone. The guy’s a idjut who was just looking to stir up trouble.
If you can throw a guy in jail because he’s talking, he’s annoying and no-one (apparently) wants to listen to him, can the arrest of the President and the Congress be far behind?
You should actually read a little of what rev billy is fighting for. His crusades are against hyper consumerism, corporate greed and government abuses of the common man.
http://www.revbilly.com
Rev Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping
Hey, I don’t live in the States… did he brake any law?
I don’t know if standing in front of a store screaming at people going in and slowing down business is protected speech. I don’t think he should have been arrested, but imagine how you would feel if you were the manager of the store and no one would come in because some nut is outside harassing people.
Communication is about being effective, and I guess it’s up to him to decide if he effectively communicated his point of view.
“NY’s Finest” is a misnomer.
very interesting performance. And the police dutyfully played their role in it.
Had they not arrested him, he would not have made the news with it. I think it’s an excellent reminder of where we stand in those days of (state) terror.
Aids, malaria, cardiovascular conditions, automobiles, obesity, even the common flu kill more people annually than terror attacks and that by orders of magnitude, but look at where the money is going. Isn’t it beautiful to have Santa’s little helper Al Quaida support our government in performing well while not tackling the real tasks at hand?
pj
The zionazi corporate fascist Mayor Bloomberg thinks the NYPD are his IDF and the citizens of NYC are his Palestinian problem.
[Duplicate post. – ed.]
I agree with the police. We don’t have the right to harass the public with excessive noise. I believe that we have the right to be as quiet as a church mouse in church and to say quietly that the church hierarchy is wrong and be arrested for that.
How dare he use the first amendment in that way! Doesn’t he know that if you’re under a Republican Rule the First Amendment only applies to things like “I hate wetbacks,” “I hate f*gs,” “I hate women with an education,” “I hate ethnic minorities that doesn’t have a strong legal representation” and “I hate anyone who doesn’t go to my church”?
You have a right to peaceful assembly, but only with the correct permits or street vendor license.
Papers please….
freedom doesn’t not include an absence of consequences for your actions. He made his point but he had to face the music . He at least seems to be a true believer in his case. I think he is a nut job though.
From 15 above: “I agree with the police. We don’t have the right to harass the public with excessive noise.”
From news article: “…he told reporters over the din of an NYPD helicopter hovering overhead.”
Oh the irony!
# 19. The courts have ruled justly that even though police chases are dangerous, the police have the right to chase speeding motorists that are breaking the law. Logically then, if the NYPD decides to use noisy helicopters to quickly investigate a civil disturbance or to photograph traffic congestion due to a lunatic with a megaphone, so be it.
I too agree with the police even though I also agree with what Rev. Billy was saying. Freedom of Speech is fine but Disturbing the Peace is something else. Once our freedoms are carried too far, they no longer should be freedoms.
This is how I see it!
This shows me, who here are the “good Germans”!
Crowd 1>) Those who would demand we all walk lock step with our governments public pronouncements. Crowd 1 are the “good Germans”
vs.
Crowd 2>) Those who shout we all should be questioning the legitimacy of our public officials and the accuracy of their “facts”. Crowd 2 are the Americans.
Let see Crowd 1 basically got us into to IRAQ and Crowd 2 wants us out.
Crowd 2 is alarmed at the governments attacks on the bill of rights and outright lies.
Crowd 1 get a warm fuzzy when Bush speaks.
I support Crowd 2 big time. The charges “harassment of a public official” sounds trumped up, just like Bushes lies. I never understood why people stopped being Americans and instead demand Government be not for the people but against the people.
Our good government was prior formed by people protesting. How do these “good Germans” think our government should redress peoples concerns?
I’m sure that you’d feel differently if the “Reverend” Billy was shouting through his megaphone at 100dB right outside your window, SN.
Your headlines are getting more and more sensational and pathetic.
And I’m sure that noname would feel the same if the same thing was happening outside HIS window, too.
#23 Frank IBC is a imbecile, he has no idea how loud 100dB is. 100 dB is typically as loud as a Chainsaw up close.
I doubt “Reverend” Billy un_powered cheer leader bullhorn is even capable of 85 dB.
Vintage 15″ Cheerleading Megaphone Fiberboard & Steel
Ha ha ha! Anyone that takes this guy seriously is a buffoon. He’s a sham. He’s there to create contraversy. He wants to be arrested. So they gave him what he wanted. He was annoying me too… And that other chick chanting was even more so annoying. Should have arrested the whole lot of them!
So here’s what I can’t understand. If this outlaw bike ride happens regularly, why don’t they just file a permit like the rest of the law abiding free world? I don’t get it…
But he is funny – I’ll give him that. I hope he likes jail – his blonde hair will make him really popular!
Max, Dissent is as American as apple pie.
Max, I have to ask, given your gestapo dislike of people practicing their American Rights, are you from Russia?
He’s not “dissenting”. He’s just screaming like a spoiled child at 100dB,
noname – I agree but how far can you go with dissent before it becomes criminal?
#29 hhopper #2 Kevin gave a eloquent enough definition.
#19 More Cheese Please, also has it right.
The police are using their authority, their power for their own interest and not the public Interest. He is being arrest because he annoyed the police, not the public.
Being annoying is not criminal.
Being a spoiled child is not criminal.
Using a megaphone in Manhattan’s Union Square is not criminal.
Not serving any real purpose is not criminal.
My question is, WHEN DID WE STOP BEING AMERICA?
Sorry, but if you are using a 100dB megaphone to, at best, invade the personal space of passersby, and at worst, risk damage their hearing, it is. And if you are depriving people living in the area of the right to quiet enjoyment of their homes, it most certainly is. How is this “stopping being America?”