Thursday, November 3, 2005

News: Man imprisoned for 24 hours for snapping photos of a balloon. In the continuing criminalization of photography, MSNBC reports on a man who was imprisoned for 24 hours and had his name and mug shot broadcast on local news reports for..... taking "artistic photographs" of a balloon and a table at a state fair in Texas. [Photoethnography.com] The prosecutor said the system ultimately worked because Vogel was never formally charged. If the system really worked, the cop who arrested the photographer would have been charged. comment () trackback ()  10:38:17 AM     # Andrew S. Fischer at LewRockwell.com - Arrested for What? - there used to be a time when arresting someone for having an arbitrarily set blood-alcohol level would be illegal. The drunk driver hasn't actually done anything wrong yet. Yes, he might do something wrong, but until he does, no crime has been committed and his actions are nobody's business. Now if the cop actually witnesses bad driving, that's another thing. Unsafe driving is an initiation of force for whatever reason the driver is doing it, too much to drink, too little sleep, too little intelligence, argument with wife or kids, too much attention on cell phone call, etc. etc. But criminalizing activities that might cause unsafe driving or unsafe anything is just plain wrong. Like gun "control", it's blaming the tool instead of its user. [lew] Seems to me that either you can arrest someone before he does something, or you can't. If you buy into the former case, then what are the limits? [End the War on Freedom] I agree. comment () trackback ()  10:21:16 AM

© Copyright 2005 Ken Hagler. Last update: 12/1/2005; 9:09:43 AM.

Email