It's not creditable to invoke the Constitution? WTF? Read the Bill Of Rights. It's written in plain language.
If you read Amendment 1, Loitering laws are obviously unconstitutional. Just because a law has been around for a long time doesn't mean it's a good law. Unless a group of people is causing a clear danger for the local populace, why should they not be allowed to meet on a sidewalk and talk amongst themselves? That is the basis of "peaceful assembly." It doesn't necessarily have to refer to a bunch of nasty, filthy hippies protesting wars, nuclear power, or furriers on the open streets (although it does protect them, too).
This anti-gang-loitering ordinance is just another law that allows the police to be lazy about doing their job, and gives them more leeway to arrest citizens. If these people they're harrassing are such a danger to society, then why is it so hard for the cops to actually CATCH them doing something illegal? If they're gathering on the sidewalk for the purpose of, say, selling drugs, then why can't the cops just randomly stop and search them (citing the old 'probable cause'), find the dope all packaged for sale and ready to go, then charge them with possession with intent to deliver?
Last I checked Congress does not convene in parks or downtown business districts. So unless they’re doing their “hanging†on the steps of the Capital building I think this is just a red herring on your part. I can’t remember the last time I felt as though I was “petitioning the government for redress of grievances†while smoking a blunt with my mates in a park. Can you?
You're implying that Americans are only allowed to meet in public when they're trying to petition the government? Amendment 1 has several parts to it. Freedom of speech doesn't only apply when you're writing your congressman! Meeting in public with friends without the government harrassing you is one of ouir basic rights in this country. What country do you live in, anyway?
You don't live in Chicago, apparently. Unless you've actually spent enough time here to see some abuses of this law, I don't think you have a clear notion of what I'm talking about. I have seen cops drive up to bus stops and harass the kids who were waiting for the bus. The cop told them, "I saw you standing here before the last bus went by. Why are you still here?" One kid said he had to get change for the fare, and the cop told him that if they're still standing there after the next bus comes, he's going to jail. That seems a little unfair and definitely unconstitutional to me.
If you and your friends are sitting in a park smoking blunts, there's your illegal activity right there. You deserve to get arrested. That's pretty damn stupid, don't you think? Next time just save the police some trouble and smoke it on the front steps of the local cop shop.
Anyway, I thought this thread was supposed to be about a stupid cell phone cam law.
