NP Michael Moore/woman arrested at film

[Otto]

>
> Police charged Frank with disorderly conduct,
> a summary violation akin to a traffic citation.
>

I'm glad to hear that the danger for democracy is not so grave.

But this is bullshit:
>
> "She continuously refused to leave the area and continued to cause a
> disturbance and left the troopers no choice but to arrest her," Cpl.
> Lawrence Wallick said.
>

As I read she's been doing it outside the cinema, not while the film was
shown inside the cinema. So the only "disturbance" has been caused by the
manager trying to stop her and calling the police I assume. At least this is
the way I would argue as her lawyer if she refuses to pay the fine.

Let's face the situation: there's a crowd leaving a cinema, people are on
their way to their cars. Then there's this woman trying to hand out
registration to the ones who maybe haven't registered to vote yet. How can
anybody call this democracy-serving action a "disturbance"? Does this action
deserve a fine?

And furthermore, aren't we constantly exposed to unwanted advertising on the
street? When we get back to our cars we find ads from the newest
pizza-service behind the wipers, don't we? And we don't sue the manager of
the cinema for this spam. Everybody who doesn't want a registration card or
has already registered simply could go away. No disturbance.

Maybe she's been naive insisting on her right to distribute the cards on the
private parking lot, but nobody can say that it wasn't honorable. And that
shouldn't be punished.

Otto

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "barbara100" <barbara100 at jps.net>
To: "Pynchon-L" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2004 8:36 PM
Subject: Re: NP Michael Moore/woman arrested at film


> Woman arrested at '9/11' film
>
> By Jennifer Moroz
>
> Inquirer Staff Writer
>
>