

Free Speech Zone - scrrr
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone

======
emhart
In 2004, some friends and I got together to check out one of the Free Speech
cages at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. The whole experience
was surreal.

It was sparsely populated by a handful of disinterested people. It was like a
cross between a Starbucks queue and a shelter. When we arrived there was a man
who had taken to the makeshift stage and was reading something into the
microphone. I don't remember what he said, but as best I could tell no one was
paying attention whatsoever.

Emboldened by the attendees lack of interest, we took to the stage after the
other fellow had finished his speech. I also don't really remember what we
said. What I remember, very distinctly, was that a man piloting a riding
street vacuum, drove back and forth in front of us as we tried to speak to the
assembled. Even running into the stage repeatedly and easily drowning us out
with the industrial street cleaner.

We wrapped up whatever we were saying, took another lap of the cage, and
wandered off.

~~~
jffry
This sad little anecdote is the perfect embodiment of the (lack of) spirit of
a free speech zone.

------
salmonellaeater
"...picketing is afforded less protection than pure speech due to the physical
externalities it creates"

Part of the _point_ of protesting is that it inconveniences normal people and
forces them to pay attention, and to likely hear the group's message in the
process. I get personally irritated when some group is causing traffic delays
and making a ruckus where I'm trying to go about my life, but I firmly believe
they have the right to do it. Some day I might want to protest something, and
I'd like to have the option.

~~~
showerst
In DC and New York (and probably other places), the local unions will pay big
groups of homeless people to get together and protest non-union construction
sites with drums and noisemakers. If they get noise-complaint fines, the
unions just pay them and tell them to keep going.

After spending a few weeks with people with no stake in the cause wrecking my
productivity with drums for a few bucks an hour because an organization didn't
like the building next door, I started to appreciate the value of _some_
abridgement of picketing rights.

~~~
dredmorbius
That situation sets itself up for a couple of pretty obvious countermeasures:

1\. Pay the protesters to go away. It's a free market, after all.

2\. Recruit your own volunteers to go to where the union is recruiting, and
get paid to protest.

3\. Or, if you want to support the union, file a suit against the target of
the protests for creating an environmental nuisance.

~~~
mpyne
So "protection money", counter-assholery, or lawyers to file a nuisance suit
against someone for doing a perfectly legal construction job? What a wonderful
world that must be...

~~~
dredmorbius
I'm looking at ways of hacking the system. And doing so in a way that might
balance interests one way or the other.

Sometimes life is just a game.

------
patrickmay
We already have a free speech zone in the United States. It stretches roughly
from Maine to southern California, Florida to Washington state, and North
Dakota to the border with Mexico, with a some outliers like Hawaii and Alaska
thrown in for good measure.

The recent federal governments may not respect the constitution, but their
violations of the very document they swore to uphold don't eliminate our
rights. We need to remind them of that fact.

~~~
rob05c
>We need to remind them of that fact.

“That is all very well, but who is to bell the Cat?” -Belling the Cat, Aesop's
Fables

------
dobbsbob
There was a worldwide fallout from the American's setting up 'Free Speech
Zones' that all our supposedly free countries tried to imitate to squash
dissent.

Even with constant stories in the media about how angry the corporate serf
population was with blocking traffic in the morning for Critical Mass rides
'Why can't they do this on Sunday afternoon when nobody is around?' they were
unable to set up these freedom crushing zones as the supreme courts ruled them
unconstitutional, so instead they passed laws creating emergency national
security buffers around consulates and government buildings, and in various
high end retailer and business district areas that were designated emergency
response routes, and a freedom killing law banning face masks during protests.
Islamic protesters were solely blamed in the media for this new law, even
though none of those protests were violent, and none of them were even
protesting the government they were going after foreign consulates. The real
threat of protesters with masks was anti austerity protests that turned into
riots. They all started wearing masks when peaceful protesters attending anti
austerity marches had their faces plastered all over the media while some
pundit ran a slash piece about "lazy protesters". Some of them were fired from
their jobs once their face was in the media, of course not because of
protesting but for some other minor reason so the company wouldn't be sued.
Some were also targeted by extremist right wing groups and had their houses
lit up by molotovs.

When they did this every propaganda pundit was on the media arguing 'Why do
you have to hide your face if you aren't a criminal?' and the serfs let it be
passed with standing ovation because of Islamic boogeymen and the handful of
anarchists that rioted. National security was a concern, the freedom zones and
identity concealment had to be enforced.

This lasted for a few years until even the corporate serfs with total apathy
towards anything the government was doing to squash dissent started being
arrested or denied entry while attending major events like the Olympics or G8
zones wearing hats, scarfs, or even sunglasses as they were declared 'identity
hiding'. So many people defied the national security zones the police were
unable to arrest them all then finally the party who brought in the law was
tossed from office, the police chiefs quietly resigned with full pension for
squashing human rights, and the identity law and security zones were repealed
by the supreme court.

Now they are back to promoting these free speech zones and identity hiding
laws again, claiming they are necessary to prevent two opposing political
rallies from meeting each other on the street and starting a riot and to
prevent vandals. They also want all protests to submit their entire
strategy/plan of action to the police for approval first (yes, police
approval) and of course the new police chief swears up and down he has no
cares at all about crushing dissent he only wants an orderly population to
prevent costly overtime and traffic problems. Nothing to worry about. They
already swooped in and arrested the leaders of a Critical Mass ride who
submitted fake protest routes to the police but they successfully sued for
false arrest, so now they want a permanent law.

The same media pundit hacks are back on the air ranting at the lazy and
entitled population for protesting and causing their commutes to be delayed.
The exact same disinfo mocking identity concealment is being played out like
these laws didn't already all go to hell a few years ago.

If at first you don't succeed, keep trying to squash dissent because the media
has limited memory and of course isn't talking at all about the first time
they tried to do this and failed.

------
smcl
I saw a reference to this on the original seasons of Arrested Development,
however I thought it was something ridiculous the show's writers had
concocted. I had absolutely no idea that it was parodying real life.

------
aegiso
"Database is thrashing the disk again."

"Man... just symlink it to devnull."

------
mtct
Wow, I didn't know these free speech prisons.

Cynically amusing I've to say.

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SCdF
It was also brought to my attention from that article a few days ago about the
secret dance party: NY has a law disallowing gatherings of more than 50 people
without a permit.

That to me is just as constitution-breaking as free speech zones (though note:
not an american, have never read or studied your constitution, may be
completely wrong).

------
bmmayer1
The armed forces welcome your dissent.

------
tlrobinson
There was some controversy over "free speech zone" at my school (USC) back in
~2007: [http://boingboing.net/2007/04/10/usc-students-defy-
fr.html](http://boingboing.net/2007/04/10/usc-students-defy-fr.html)

------
smegel
I'm interested to know what one can be charged with for exercising free speech
outside one of these zones...

------
JulienSchmidt
Free Speech Zone you say?

Time for a "Arrested Development" scene!
[http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xohzz1_lindseys-cage-
dance_...](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xohzz1_lindseys-cage-dance_fun)

