It’s legal because it’s art, not just squicky.
THIS.
20 posts and still no Amazon affiliate link to buy this decal?
This has such prank potential… even better than that time my brother-in-law replaced all the hearts on people’s bumper stickers… (“I my honor student” is my favorite, although “I my Dalmatian” is pretty good too.)
This line of argument is perhaps the most insidious form of totalitarianism. It’s used by authoritarians to justify banning, well, anything really. “Yes, we know that people who act suspicious mostly don’t have anything we can pin on them. But by acting suspicious they divert law enforcement resources away from the real bad guys, so acting suspicious is the moral equivalent of a false alarm and should itself be punishable.” That way lies absolute conformism.
I fully expect to see in my lifetime - and I’m an old man - that my wilderness travel will be banned, on the grounds that I’m untrackable by my cell phone when I’m Out There. “Why would someone WANT to go off the grid like that? They must be hiding something, and even if they aren’t, they’re wasting our time on the investigation!”
Hmm… Print your own dollar notes and drivers license and spread them as a means of free expression. Get back with the results.
Sure. But my specific argument is not about censorship. For example right now someone can’t just yell bomb or fire in a movie theater. Someone can go to jail for repeatedly calling 911 for no reason. Driving a car with fake blood on it because someone thinks its funny, when in reality is causing panic, and tying up officers from doing their job seems like not just a douche bag thing to do but seems like a liability and not road safe.
If you think disallowing driving a car with fake blood = slippery slide to repression then i don’t know what to tell you. It seems like a very weird battle to take on when other people’s liberties are currently being challenged or taken away.
CAUTION: Not recommended for black male drivers in the US.
Didn’t watch too many of these, the cringe factor was too high. Plus I wasn’t sure if it was a put on or not, were his long-suffering parents actors, or compensated in some way? And how did he ever hook up with Drew Barrymore?
That’s a custom job for sure…
I guess the difference between a blood decal and shouting fire is that police are obliged to go to a cinema with a reported fire, and that people in the cinema face a risk of death or injury in escaping the fire. But it’s not illegal to bleed onto your own car, or butcher a cow on it. And since it appears as though injury has already occurred, there is no clear indication of risk to self or others as a basis for panic.
There are lots of harmless things which can get people questioned or arrested because they look like something else. There are probably cops who would lose their shit over seeing somebody snort a line of aspirin in public. As a cop I once met said: “Cops don’t need to know what the law is, they just know what they don’t want to see…”
See that’s a more reasonable counter argument. I am still not sure if such a thing should be road safe though, but considering this is in Germany then i’d be interested to see what the stance on decals like these are there. Then again i really don’t know what the stance is for vehicles on the road here in the US would be, i hope someone would have sense not to do something this dumb though.
If you web search Popehat+fire+theater+first+amendment, Popehat will explain how that particular legal concept – that you can’t yell fire in a theater – was ruled unconstitutional some time last century.
Now I’ll have to look it up to make sure of the date.
It would be a dick move for sure.
https://www.popehat.com/2015/05/19/how-to-spot-and-critique-censorship-tropes-in-the-medias-coverage-of-free-speech-controversies/
https://www.popehat.com/2012/09/19/three-generations-of-a-hackneyed-apologia-for-censorship-are-enough/
Given the photo, I would say “overarching importance”.
^^^^^ This
I certainly don’t think this should be illegal, but as stated, I’m sure it would get the driver pulled over on a frequent basis every time the car was seen by someone not in the know.
And I’m assuming (didn’t actually check) that there are laws against repeatedly wasting the time of the police? If so, they could probably be hit with that later on?
Almost as effective as a “legalize it” bumper sticker.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.