Poster Warned then Suspended for debating in Great Debates

[Heffalump_and_Roo]

@DSeid

Slacker, if I am stopped by a cop for going 56 in a 55 mph zone, which really is not something I should be stopped for and I am pretty sure I was actually doing 55 anyway, am I excused for jumping out of my car and yelling at the cop my face in his or her face because it is fruit of the poisonous tree? Would anyone be surprised if my outcome doing that is me on the ground one way or the other?

This is a bit off-topic since there are no rights on a message board. But in your example, it’s not illegal for someone to yell at a cop.

As you already know, the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects free speech. Because of the Amendment, police officers generally cannot arrest people, nor can the government prosecute them, simply for what they’ve said.

There are, of course, exceptions to the prohibition against punishing speech. Statutes that outlaw speech that’s likely to incite violence constitute an example. But officers can’t use laws of this ilk simply to punish people who mouth off to them, even those who use profanity.

Nolo press

If a cop stops someone for doing something that’s not illegal (or even if it is), and the person yells at them about it, if the cop then somehow forces them to the ground, that’s illegal.

Of course, there will probably be some trumped up charge like resisting arrest to go along with the assault, but that says more about the corruption of cops and people in authority than it does about what the law says should be happening.

[Isosleepy]

The cop analogies are poor no matter what, this being a message board and all, but let’s get the analogy a little closer: a cop tickets you for 56.5 in a 55, and you punch him in the mouth. You coulda fought the ticket, should’na fought the cop.

[DSeid]

While I’ll stand by my knowledge of what I expect would happen if I got out of the car and put my face in a cop’s face yelling at her or him (no trumped up charge needed for a cop to feel threatened by even a short 60 year old man in that case, and to be able to justify use of non-lethal force), I accept the modification as making the point as well. The fruit was non-toxic but no matter: the poster had been put on notice and had stated that they would not change, did not change, and was then belligerent to the moderator. Giving some additional slack based on squinting real hard for the hijacking behavior? Maybe. I don’t think so but maybe. (But note I think things like that idiotic quarry bit and the stupid sign off are things that should be moderated as jerk behaviors, so I have a different line than our mods do.) The belligerent response to the moderation? No maybe.

[Atamasama]

Let’s be honest, if we’re using police analogies here what happened was suicide by cop. WillF knew what was happening and wanted to martyr himself.

And that martyrdom worked at least for two posters, unfortunately.

[MandaJo]

This isn’t like going 56 in a 55. This is like you have a friend named Bob. And Bob is nice but weird, but you’ve known him forever so you invite him to parties. The worst thing about Bob is that he’s obsessed with football. Corners people and goes ON and ON about it. It’s to the point that people avoid your parties , and you notice that when he shows up, people start leaving pretty quickly.* So you tell Bob that he’s welcome to come over, but he can’t talk about football unless it’s on-topic in a conversation that other people are having.

So some time later, there’s a party at your house and Bob jumps into a conversation about soccer to talk about football. When you gently remind him about the “deal”, he goes OFF on you. So you kick him out.

Now what we have are a couple disgruntled guests who either feel like Bob shouldn’t have ever been limited at all, or that a conversation about soccer is a conversation about sports and so that’s on-topic enough that Bob didn’t break any rules. This seems disingenuous to the other guests, who felt Bob was clearly using the “soccer” gambit as a pretext for what he really wanted, which was a conversation about football.
*For what it’s worth, I many times quit reading a thread when Will started posting. If I scrolled down and his name was popping up constantly, I noped on out. Not worth it.