Fine me $500! Please!

"Breaking the law, breaking the law..."

Today I engaged in another act of civil disobedience to follow last month's appearance at NKU and my barefoot walk on the Purple People Bridge. These acts challenged posted rules or prior orders. But they had to be done to bring us off the slippery slope that we're already nearing the bottom of.

This morn, I goed to Bellevue Beach Park - a public park here in Bellevue, Kentucky, home of this fine blog. Around mid-decade, this park posted a zillion signs warning folks that it's a $500 fine even to possess markers, paint, or "similar items" in the park.

Hilariously, I noticed a couple years ago that someone had spraypainted all over one of the signs, which serves the tyrants right.

You read that right: It's now a "crime" not just to use markers or paint, but even to possess them!

So what did I do? Possess 'em! And I got a photo to prove that I disobeyed this Allowed Cloud:


(http://i28.tinypic.com/veriur.jpg)

I possessed a marker in Bellevue Beach Park! See?!

To paraphrase the ol' Raygun: I paid for this park! It's my city, my tax dollars, my park.

Gonna fine me $500 now?

It's unclear what the penalty for going barefoot on the Purple People Bridge is, or even if there is a real penalty, and the "trespassing" order I defied at NKU is so old that I can't imagine them enforcing it. But my defiance in the Belv today is fresh and new and carries a posted punishment!

So please! Gimme a ticket!

I know the alleged aim of the ordinance is to stop vandals, but what it really does is punish innocents. If you're an artist who wants to make a painting of the river, you're actually violating the law.

And not only that, but it's ineffective at curtailing vandalism. Otherwise I wouldn't have found the sign vandalized a couple years back!

So that's Bellevue Beast Park for ya! The crybabies are gonna be so mad when they read that I brang a marker to "their" park today!