Academic

F*CK! Texas Cops Step Up Arrests Of Swearing Citizens

By Dan Filler

Don't fuck with Texas.  Or at least not the fine police and peace officers of the Lonestar State.  Perhaps it's all the anxiety over declining morals of American society (wait - this has been going on for how many generations?) but it appears that the First Amendment has been placed under seal in Metro Galveston.

The Houston Chronicle is reporting that two people have been arrested for saying "fuck" in a public place in the last eight months.  The first, Kathryn ?Kristi? Fridge, started it all at a Le Marque, Texas Wal-Mart where she expressed shock at the meager stock of batteries.  "They're all fucking gone", she told her mom.  Apparently a peace officer ordered Fridge outside so he could issue a citation - and after that, she swore so much that a crowd formed. 

The second incident involved one Abraham Urquizo.  Mr. Urquizo was visiting from Queens, New York.  During a relaxing dinner at Galveston's Salsa's Mexican and Seafood Restaurant (who knew that salsa was even capable of possessing something as large as a restaurant??), he told his girlfriend that she was "so fucking stupid" and added that he did not know "what the fuck" she was thinking.  This caused a nearby officer to get quite excercised - this being a family restaurant - and he ordered the New Yorker outside.  There, the manager stated that Urquizo's words had offended him.  The officer arrested Urquizo.

Both of these folks were charged with Disorderly Conduct, which in Texas occurs when a person "uses abusive, indecent, profane, or vulgar language in a public place, and the language by its very utterance tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace."

I guess I have two thoughts here.  First, I am certain that plenty of other folks have been arrested in Texas - and across the United States - for uttering sentences featuring the f-word to police officers.  The simple act of uttering "go fuck yourself" to an already agitated officer is an excellent way to get arrested. But that's rough justice - sort of like how a person who runs from a cop may be beaten to the edge of his life, then charged with assaulting the officer.   What's a bit more remarkable is that, in these cases, the officers seem to be trying to enforce a speech code in public places.  That, to the best of my knowledge, is against the rules. Most of all, I'm impressed that someone managed to package these two diverse incidents into a news story.

Full post as published by The Faculty Lounge on March 14, 2009 (boomark / email).