So they’re playing incredibly loud, but there are kids all around (a playground, in fact), and it just ain’t right.
I know it’s something I can take up with a community board, or something. Which I don’t plan to do; I’m just interested in the 1st Amendment And All That.
Can they/one (especially with a loudspeaker) just curse all day? Lunatics on the street do, of course, but there’s gotta be a law.
There may very well be, but wouldn’t it be a local one (something about “community standards” or something)?
There are profanity law on the books in some places. Often they are old, archaic laws and are no longer enforced, and when people have tried to enforce them, the laws sometimes end up under a constitutional challenge in court. A profanity law dating back to the early 1900s in North Carolina for example was defeated in court under a constitutional challenge in 2011.
This makes some people a little leery to pass or enforce profanity laws. Even if your local area happens to have a profanity law on the books, enforcing it could result in a court challenge, and if it loses on constitutional grounds, you could have folks all over the place intentionally using profanity just to prove their 1st Amendment rights. You could end up making the situation worse instead of better (at least temporarily).
This article goes into some of the 1st Amendment issues (and lists a few examples of profanity that would not be protected under the 1st Amendment):
Remember, profanity isn’t always protected speech
http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/remember-profanity-isnt-always-protected-speech
This article mentions that the new law may bring up 1st Amendment issues:
Swearing in public now punishable by $20 fine in Middleborough, Massachusetts
This isn’t a bad article, has a nice overview of a lot of the issues:
When civility is smashed under the hammer of free speech, everyone loses. I’m not easily offended and I can and do and have and will scorch paint on occasion. But not in public, at least not in public where it affects anyone I don’t intend it to affect.
And kids in tow or not, I do feel offended by t-shirts that use dirty shock words in neon letters, rubber scrotums on trucks, and foul-language bumper stickers you can’t help but look at.
But the 1stAm is defensible whereas civility is just a theoretical concept.
A lot of times the permit itself comes with conditions attached to it. There might or might not be a clause about inappropriate language or other conduct.
This.
Here’s an example (http://familyarena.com/) of an enclosed arena venue which requires 100% of acts, regardless of anything else, to be 100% child friendly. Doesn’t matter if your foul-lyriced smash band charges $100 a head and doesn’t allow kids in the door. Still gotta be 100% family friendly content to rent the hall.
The fact the arena is owned by the county (don’t ask) and the county is a bastion of Bible Belt conservatism and white bread child-centric “values” certainly helps them pull this off.
But even in Vegas or NYC there’s likely to be a public nuisance clause in the OP’s band’s permit. The challenge is that something is only considered a public nuisance if the public, e.g. the OP & others, actually speaks up.
And yet, the FCC can ban “fuck” on public TV and radio channels. Why is that?
I would imagine it’s a condition of the broadcast license which is governed by federal regs. Satellite radio channels can drop the f-bomb at will.
There’s actually some logic to this. The FCC was created because there are only a limited number of radio frequencies, and somebody (i.e. the government) has to decide who gets to use them.
I think that back in about 1910-1920, anybody with a crystal set and an antenna could broadcast-- and did. With such primitive technology and limited range, it didn’t matter. But when better technology developed, and radio stations started interfering with each other, the government realized the need to regulate it.
So a radio license was issued only if you were operating “for the public good”. And if you behaved badly, the FCC would threaten to cancel your license and give it to someone else.
If those kids have a family like mine, they’ve probably heard all those words before.
If any children heard them, they were doing them a favor by helping them not grow up square.
Surely the point of these words, and there are only a few, is to shock the listener. Repeated use has reduced the shock value almost entirely.
If enough people write to the administrators protesting about it, they will think twice before they allow that band (or any similar band) to perform there again.
Civility has little place in American society today, it seems to have taken a back seat to being edgy and ‘in your face’, confrontation for confrontations sake. It garners media attention without fail and seems to never get old. Miley Cirus is selling out stadiums everyday of the week!
I say, the Wife and I were enjoying our crumpets one afternoon n the park and the public entertainment was absolutely beastly! The language used was inappropriate for a longshoreman or mudlark, much less the refined ears of gentlefolk. The shock caused my monocle to pop straight out.
I shall be composing a strongly worded letter to the papers, I can assure you.
(My children are grown but learned early on that excessive use of profanity is a sign of a need for attention. Performers do require attention, but shocking becomes mundane if overused.)
On the other hand, do you (rhetorical you) *really *want to be the guy who sends crabby Letters to the Editor about the music those damn kids listen to these days ?
And then there are the people who bring their kids to see/hear obviously adult oriented entertainment. Last weekend we saw Flogging Molly and Gogol Bordello with Mariachi El Bronx. Great show, but I was surprised how many adults brought little kids. Things got a little rough near the stage and yet a guy had his 8 year old front and center, both getting knocked over from time to time (matching Mohawks).
ETA: tickets were $50. That’s the other thing. A babysitter would be cheaper than buying tickets for your two tykes!
I wonder how posters who mock the idea of objecting to loudly broadcasting “fuck” in a public park react when their own little monsters constantly run around screaming “FUCK” non-stop.
I suspect most do not have kids, or are about to learn unpleasant life lessons about the need to control them.
It wasn’t in the songs. They couldn’t sing worth for shit; like most amateur white (old school) rock bands, the songs were basically vehicles for the lead guitar’s interchangeable “shredding” solos.
It was during their Hello Cleveland! banter between songs.
I’ve known exactly one parent whose kid did anything of the kind, and he was a drunk with mental issues. (He was also about 6-3 and had anger issues; the one time I confronted him is the closest I’ve ever come to a full-out beating.)
Not saying there aren’t slob parents. But I can’t think of a case like you’re suggesting, where they gaze on in bovine indifference while their kid cusses like a longshoreman.
In any case, I’m certainly not one, and I object to things like public-performing bands using adult language as part of their “act.”