I'm in a big hurry this morning (and was in court all day yesterday) so I'll borrow from Stuck on the Palmetto, one of the best blogs in South Florida -- and hands-down the best in terms of aggregating interesting local news.
First, Rick breaks down Buddy Nevins' kick of a story about Davie Town Council candidate and avid nudist Philip Busey's (former) porn-related website.
I'm not concerned with the nudism or the porn -- it's the mixing of the two that's
sort of upsetting here. All you here from nudists is that what they do is family-oriented and isn't at all about the stimulation of their public-privates. And then here you got a guy putting them together like chocolate and peanut butter. It's an affront to good wholesome naturists everywhere.
And then, farther down, SotP weighs in on the arrest of Category305 journo Carlos Miller. Here's what Rick has to say about it:
"The photographer, Carlos Miller, pictured right, was an arrogant prick. He could have easily have obeyed the officer's first polite command to move along and, lacking that, obeyed her second polite command. But instead he made the choice to continue to question her authority and snap flash photos right in the officer's faces. No crime in that, right? Wrong. It's called failure to obey a lawful order. The officers were conducting an investigation and didn't want a guy there taking pictures and disturbing them."
Ooh boy is this wrong. Contrary to what some might believe, I'm very good with dealing with the police and show them great respect (especially when they have my freedom in their hands). But it's not a "lawful order" to violate a citizen's rights guaranteed by the First Amendment. In the grander view, this is case-by-case stuff. If there was a dangerous gunman in the area and police tell the photog to move, I would think it could be a fair takedown. In that case the shutterbug is endangering himself and possibly others by being there. But let's say Miller was taking pictures of a cop beating a suspect. Then officers arrest him for it. Nobody is going to defend that -- the arrest gets thrown out the window and the cops get suspended and/or fired (unless they work in Hollywood). The reasonable view in this case is that Miller's case is closer to the latter -- he was basically arrested for scrutinizing uniformed cops on a public street who didn't want to be scrutinized. And then the cops acted in a manner that inspired the popular term "pigs" for them in the 60s and 70s. The arrest is no good.
