
Dallas Has Now Lost 82 Cases Against Robert Groden (2016) - wallace_f
https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/dallas-has-now-lost-82-cases-against-robert-groden-someone-call-guinness-8680799
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larrydag
I live in Dallas. There is certainly a lot of street vendors showing JFK
consipiracies. This man is certainly not the only one. There is even a non-
profit museum in the sixth floor of the warehouse building where shooting took
place. I don't understand why Dallas or Texas doesn't memorialize this
location. Yes it is a stain upon America but it is also a vital part of
American history. They need to treat this area as they would any dignified
place with respect for a U.S. president. I've visited Ford's theatre where
Lincoln was assassinated and they have a small memorial. I think it just gives
fuel to the conspiracy theorists out there by not giving it the due respect
the location deserves.

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azhenley
I agree. The National Civil Rights museum is built at the location of MLK's
shooting. One of the best museums I have visited.

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larrydag
The Sixth Floor Museum is a really good museum but it is not a U.S. national
site.

[https://www.jfk.org/](https://www.jfk.org/)

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eequah9L
From wikipedia article on Robert Groden:

    
    
      > One motivation for the city bringing the suits is a city 
      > planning effort to prevent anyone from encouraging visitors 
      > to recognize the site of the assassination as a tourist 
      > destination.
    

Congratulations to the city of Dallas for a flawless execution of Streisand
effect.

(Edit: formatting.)

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PMan74
In fairness it's not like the site wasn't already world famous. I'm not even
American and I know of it and have been there. The city's (farcical) efforts
are not making the site more famous.

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inflatableDodo
Someone should go to jail for this. And it isn't the guy with the sign.

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Epskampie
His assistent? ;-)

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wheelerwj
Be patient, I am sure they will try in due time.

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tres
Hacking the system, following a vision going against the grain and persistence
in the face of overwhelming obstacles.

Maybe this guy should apply for YC.

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TelmoMenezes
"Hacking the system" now means being funded by the system? It used to mean
something else when I was a kid...

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mannykannot
That would be the apotheosis of hacking the system.

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TelmoMenezes
Well, not really if you are just doing what the system wants.

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CriticalCathed
When can we say that the City is committing a criminal offense?

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onli
Now. Putting a guy in jail to withheld him from his medication, which is on
record, could be attempted murder. At the very least its criminal police
misconduct.

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vkou
> Now. Putting a guy in jail to withheld him from his medication, which is on
> record, could be attempted murder.

This comes off sounding _incredibly_ naive.

This happens every single day, thousands of times over, and there's narly a
peep about it.

When you're picked up, and sitting in jail, nobody gives a shit about your
medication. When you end up getting a part-time sentence (Come to jail on
Friday night, leave on Monday morning for X weeks) for a misdemeanor, nobody
gives a shit that you're taking prescription medication for a chronic issue,
either.

~~~
onli
And every single time this is a crime committed by officers of the law,
sometimes - like possibly here - attempted murder, ranging from various forms
of manslaughter to torture etc, in general unlawfully causing bodily harm.
That you think it's normal in your system does not make it any better.

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OliverJones
Yikes. Doesn't Dallas have a city council? Don't they have the power to
regulate street vendors? If they don't want a souvenir stand in a particular
place, why don't they pass an ordinance?

There's probably more to this story.

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defertoreptar
That's what I was wondering. After 82 cases, you'd think it'd be easier to
just require vendors to have a license.

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C1sc0cat
Why is not the State legislature not stepping in and sanctioning the City
officials / elected councillors

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josh_fyi
Why hasn't the city fenced off the knoll, and built something, say a utility
shed, on it?

It's good to see that you _can_ fight City Hall and that City Hall can be
incompetent in their brutality.

~~~
13of40
I'd put in a retaining wall along the sidewalk, level the surface on top, and
cover it with shrubbery and paving stones.

[https://weekendroady.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/dallas5.jpg](https://weekendroady.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/dallas5.jpg)

I'm sure that would put all of the conspiracy theories to rest!

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birdman3131
Any updates on this? It is from 2016.

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tastroder
Looks like two strokes wore him down enough to settle in 2017.
[https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/robert-groden-kennedy-
as...](https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/robert-groden-kennedy-
assassination-expert-settles-with-dallas-over-dealey-plaza-arrests-9260827)

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chrischen
The article says it's actually the _city_ that settled to pay _him_ $25,000.

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dorfsmay
That seems very low for 82 wrongful court case, and crass to wait until he is
79 yo and had 2 strokes before they settle.

It also raises question about abuse of power and justice for people who are
not rich.

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tomrod
Hit an ad wall. Outline:
[https://outline.com/z28n5H](https://outline.com/z28n5H)

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yesplorer
What is an Ad wall?

You mean the showed an ad you could have easily avoided with half the time you
used in creating this outline link?

Journalism, especially, local journalism should be supported if we don't want
listicles to dominate.

The website isn't subscription based. No need to click on their ad, but no
need to actively encourage others to avoid it.

~~~
tomrod
An ad wall is something that prevents viewing of content without removing an
adblocker, typically operating as a soft pay wall. Ads have turned into target
vectors for malicious payloads, and as such are reasonable to keep blocked
especially for unsophisticated sites that may not have invested in any sort of
ad monitoring security, akin to keeping one's shoes on in a public location.
The analogous grass may look appealing to the bare foot, but may also contain
a used needle, broken glass, or other unpleasantries.

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e40
It's almost as if Dallas wants to lose these cases. I mean, how hard would it
be to look up the code before you write the ticket, knowing he's going to
challenge it?? Or, maybe they just want to harass him, but at this point they
are looking pretty bad. Makes no sense.

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RappingBoomer
govt workers are very rarely fired...so they are not afraid of abusing the
system like this

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barking
In the case of Groden it's sort of like the employer (taxpayer) being
persecuted by his employees (public servants).

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azhenley
Wouldn't that be true for most people who commit crimes? They pay taxes and
get persecuted by public servants.

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classicsnoot
You are making the assumption that criminals pay taxes. I'm sure some of them
do, but I would be interested to see some real numbers on it.

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vkou
If they aren't homeless, they pay property taxes, directly, or via their
landlord.

If they buy anything in a state with sales taxes, they pay sales taxes.

If they legally own a car, they pay vehicle taxes. If they buy gas for that
car, they pay gas taxes.

Nearly every man, woman, and child in the United States pays taxes.

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camgunz
This guy should sue the city. I can't even imagine this happening 5 times, let
alone over 80. Dallas should have to make him rich.

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chrismeller
If you read the article... he’s tried. They agreed to stop harassing him until
a retrial and instead have started harassing his assistant.

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camgunz
Hah OK fair, I admit to skimming. That "can't identify the top-level official
responsible for his ticketing" excuse is pretty odious, good god.

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tempter51010101
Keep in mind that he's been ticketed 82 times, not sued by the city or charged
by the city district attorney. That is why the lower court ruled that his
civil case against the city didn't stand, since he couldn't name a specific
person he was suing.

While continuously suing a person can be considered harassment, a city can
ticket a individual indefinately. As long as it's not based on any class-
protected issues such as race, religion, ethnicity, etc, the ticket can be for
anything.

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ARandomerDude
> not...charged by the city district attorney

> a city can ticket a individual indefinately

For breaking the law. That's the point. A ticket, no matter how small, is
punishment for a criminal offense.

Knowingly ticketing and arresting the guy is wrong. The fact that it is the
judge who repeatedly throws it out means the prosecutors are moving forward
with charges.

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jhayward
> _A ticket, no matter how small, is punishment for a criminal offense_

No, very often citations are given citing part of the civil code, not the
criminal code. Just because a court is involved doesn't mean it's a crime.

