I did about an hour of
Overpass Project visibility for
Kirsten Gillibrand on Riverview Road tonight, and made another few thousand impressions.
But then, when I was about ready to go home, I got rousted by a state trooper.
It seems some Sweeneybots had complained, and the Sweeney-supporting troopers responded by suppressing legal political speech.
This could only happen in Bushite America, though I guess I lucked out, since I was not shipped off to Gitmo, held without habeas corpus, or even given a bullshit ticket.
This First Amendment-trashing was clearly orchestrated by the Sweeney campaign.
The trooper said his dispatcher got several calls complaining about the sign.
Really, who else would complain about a highly visible Gillibrand sign but Sweeney supporters?
Most of the people who saw the sign and responded did so by waving or beeping their horns; there were just a handful of middle-finger salutes. Some of the middle-finger types obviously complained to the cops.
One memorable Sweeneybot went further, driving up to the overpass, stopping in the road, and f-bombing me a few times; no doubt he was one of the complaining callers.
The trooper stopped on the shoulder near the overpass, and using his PA system, warned me about dangerously distracting drivers.
I tried to respond, but even after he got out of the car, he could not hear me over the traffic noise.
Knowing that I was doing nothing wrong, I waited 10 minutes or so for him for get off the Interstate and drive to the overpass so we could hear each other.
The trooper clearly wanted me to stop, and since I was ready to, anyway, I did not argue that point.
But, naturally, I asked him, politely, why -- it's campaign season and lots of people hold political signs by heavily traveled roads around here.
I also had my non-political example ready -- high school kids waving signs for a car wash.
But he still insisted on stopping me from showing the sign and threatened me with a ticket for "soliciting" by a roadside (he said the kids-at-a-car-wash was illegal, too) and/or disorderly conduct, which in this case apparently is the "crime" of not obeying a cop's illegal order to cease political speech in a public place.
He didn't ticket me, though in retrospect, I probably should have asked for one and then made a First Amendment stink about it in the media.
He also warned me that if an accident occurred near the sign, I could be civilly liable. For a young trooper, he was quite the amateur lawyer.
Others are interested in doing this, and I warned them by e-mail that this should be done by two people, not just for companionship, but also for verification of whatever bullshit the Sweeney-supporting cops will try to pull.
I'm going to talk to a Dem lawyer about this, and am willing to test it -- in part so the cops better understand the First Amendment, in part to get some free media before the election, and mostly to be able to make thousands of Gillibrand impressions before and after work.
The thing about Kossacks is that we don't give up.
Because there is nothing more important than taking our country back from corrupt Bushites like Sweeney.