# The anti-heckling law for foreign politicians is nonsense, and wrong.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-heckling-law-for-foreign-politicians-is-nonsense-and-wrong/353715>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 22, 2006, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-heckling-law-for-foreign-politicians-is-nonsense-and-wrong/353715 "2006-04-22T01:18:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![alaricthegoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4bbf92/32.png) [@alaricthegoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alaricthegoth)\
**Post date:** [April 24, 2006, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-anti-heckling-law-for-foreign-politicians-is-nonsense-and-wrong/353715/61 "2006-04-24T20:10:23Z")

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[QUOTE=EEMan]  
Yes I would

You can be arrested (and be subject to all of those things) for any reason, it is the court that decides if the arresting body has a leg to stand on.  
[/QUOTE]

well, yes, but you will have a viable claim for false arrest if your behavior bears no resemblence whatever to the statutory prohibition. That will deter the police from indulging in personal frolics (ie, a disturbing the peace arrest where there is no prior request for compliance, eg. to arrest Sheehan w/out asking her to cover up the t-shirt.)

In the case of harassment as a vague term potentially but not necessarily embracing pure speech, you leave the cop with too much discretion, and expose the speaker to the detriments discussed above.

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