Charges dropped against dissident because city has no case

The Bushists are so intolerant of anyone disagreeing with them that we can probably find a story per day like this. (And there's still some on the way.)

In Kent, Ohio, a 45-year-old teacher was ticketed in July because he dared to post an "IMPEACH BUSH" sign in a public garden. The charge? Unlawful advertising.

Advertising what??? Maybe if the sign urged voters to support a candidate, it might have been advertising. But not if the sign only supports impeachment of a politician who's already in power.

The cop who cited the man asked, "Why don't you put the signs in your own yard?" Because the garden was his yard. The guy posting the sign is a city taxpayer, so the public space is partly his. The gentleman pointed out that his sign was no worse than signs posted by realtors that block the public right-of-way that advertise houses for sale. So why don't the police also start ticketing realtors who fill the sidewalks with advertising signs? "You don't know the difference?" the cop inquired.

According to a Columbus attorney, however, there is a difference. Real estate signs are commercial; the "IMPEACH BUSH" sign is political. Commercial messages don't have nearly as much legal protection as political speech does. In other words, the anti-Bush sign was actually more legal than the real estate signs - not less legal as the police claimed.

And you know a pro-Bush sign never would have been cited. You know it, and I know it. A few years ago, pro-Bush signs were up everywhere along sidewalks, and the authorities never batted an eye at them. I worked for the Department of the Interior, and I had to step over the signs on a daily basis. Furthermore, when the ink on the signs faded, they just pasted new signs up over the old ones, so the next time a thunderstorm roared along, the wind blew the signs all over the city.

When the city of Kent realized the unlawful advertising charge carries a lighter punishment than littering does, they charged him with littering instead. He then faced a possible $500 fine and 60 days in jail just for posting a sign that some right-wing kooks disagreed with.

But now - after the city wasted 2 months of the guy's time by throwing bogus charges at him - the city has finally realized it has no case at all and has now dropped the charges altogether! Furthermore, the city had to pay all the court costs! Ha ha! To add injury to insult, the city raising a stink over the sign allowed the "IMPEACH BUSH" message to get even more coverage than it otherwise would have.

Oh well, city of Kent. That's checks and balances.

(Source: http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/portage/118664980199160.xml&coll=2;
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/14056772/detail.html;
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/portage/118915589842440.xml&coll=2)