With this statute, like many others, intent is an important element of the crime.
Yes. That is pretty much the definition of harassment. Are you familiar with the word? But in most states it had to be a repeated behavior unless there are some other elements for it to be a crime.
USA! USA! USA!
Barboza’s arrest “violated his clearly established constitutional right to engage in and be free from arrests because of protected speech,” [Federal Judge Cathy] Seibel said in an oral decision at the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in White Plains, adding that Barboza "suffered a deprivation of his First Amendment rights when he was arrested under color of law…Seibel also ruled that Liberty will have to stand trial for failing to train police officers regarding the First Amendment.
Also picture of actual ticket.
I worked for the government in the revenue department, and any incoming tax mail with an acronym which they considered offensive would be set aside according to supervisor instructions. I don’t know what they did with them, but they must have made some kind of note of it in their file at least.
It didn’t occur to me earlier to wonder at an obvious question, but it occurs to me now:
How could they have arrested him in another state anyway? The original article linked in the OP says the city sent him a threatening letter, and he (apparently) voluntarily went back to the court in Liberty, NY, where he got arrested.
What if he simply hadn’t gone back? To get somebody from another state, isn’t there a whole elaborate extradition procedure that’s required, that may even reach up to the governor of the state? If so, I don’t think they would ever bother with that over a few nasty words.
Does it matter that he’s essentially forcing someone to read his insults? I’d guess maybe it’s the same way that insulting someone is legal, but standing in front of his house and insulting him isn’t? (Or at least, I hope it isn’t.)
That being said, yeah, a sternly worded letter would’ve been more appropriate…
No there is not an elaborate procedure. It just has to be heard through the court. Every warrant is not extraditable. That is more of a cost issue. No one is going to pay to have two officers travel across the country on your failure to pay a parking ticket. They will for a murder. In between it depends. Warrants will be entered into NCIC and will usually have how far they will extradite from either by listing states or a geographic area. If you are found with a extraditable warrant from another jurisdiction you will be arrested as a fugitive from justice and held until a extradition hearing. Most of those hearing are pretty much pro forma.
I don’t think they told him he would be arrested. They just told him he wouldn’t be allowed to pay by mail, and that he had to appear.
I doubt they would have extradited him if he had failed to appear, but they still could have caused trouble for him. They could have issued a warrant, which would put him in danger of arrest if he ever had any contact with the police in New York State. He could have trouble registering his car, or renewing his license. It could hurt his credit rating, which these days affects more than one’s ability to get a loan.
I had always thought extraditions from one State to another were pretty much automatic, but I recently read a case of a fugitive who escape an Ohio work farm in 1959, he was found a few decades later in West Virginia and Ohio sought to extradite him. Arch Moore, the Governor of West Virginia at the time blocked the extradition saying he found the man to be “rehabilitated” and he was set free.
Just within the last year he was arrested living down in Florida, which didn’t share Moore’s rehablitation opinion, and he’s since been extradited back to Ohio at the age of 79. Officials there have declined to charge him with felony escape, but he is re-incarcerated on his original sentence–for how long is unknown. The last similar case like this in Ohio the governor commuted his sentence after a few years. He was a guy who was originally given probation for a vehicular manslaughter in '57, but violated it and was then sent up for 20 years but was sent to an honor farm where he was largely unsupervised and would have probably been paroled after a few years but he walked off instead.
If he REALLY wants to see “aggressive harassment” he should send them a home-built digital clock.
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=768809&page=2