<nettime> Three items of possible interest

[Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>]

Table of Contents:

   Utah vicious assault on Rave                                                    
     Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>                                          

   Boy's expulsion for violent rap lyrics overturned                               
     Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>                                          

   Anomalynews                                                                     
     Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>                                          



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Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 11:14:28 +0200
From: Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>
Subject: Utah vicious assault on Rave

Well:

- -------- Original Message --------
<...>

The first report with streaming video I was sent about this event sounded
suspicious, and so I contacted the Utah ACLU office directly.  They
forwarded the links below and verified that it's a real situation, where
they're formulating strategy to hold officials responsible.  It's too
over the top to seem true, but it is.  

Imagine you were in a church service, peacefully engaging in normal
spiritual practices, but another church down the road  whose members were
most local county government officials and police disliked your manner of
spiritual practice.  Would you ever expect them to use helicopters and
assault rifles, and drop military assault teams out of the sky and start
using tear gas, stun guns, dogs, and more to assault, intimidate, and
threaten people, nearly all of whom were engaged in completely legal
activities, even if a few were engaged in spiritual practices
controversial enough to make for Supreme Court litigation as we now see
over use of special tea and in the past about Native American practices? 


A Rave for many participants is a form of ecstatic spiritual practice,
like trance drumming, drug aided for some but far from all.  As such, it
deserves full religious legal protections.  That's especially important
when Calvinist bigots control many government guns and thugs.  

Most Raves are held with high secrecy, because of over the top police
abuses far less severe than what recently happened in Utah.  This one had
county mass gathering permits, which according to law weren't actually
needed (because it met the time definition in law), but the promoters
were trying to play well within the law.  Police clearly took a stand
that ecstatic music and movement experiences for mostly 20-somethings
aren't to be tolerated by Mormons.  

These people could use legal and public relations help, making a
violently abusive county find it very costly to violate civil rights by
obnoxious Ninja warrior police predators assaulting kids and treating
citizens fully within their rights as if criminals to be kicked, attacked
by dogs, kidnapped, slandered and libeled, and generally abused.  


http://www.music-versus-guns.org/versuspress.html

http://www.music-versus-guns.org/versusstatements.html

http://www.music-versus-guns.org/versusmedia.html

http://www.music-versus-guns.org/versushelp.html

http://www.utrave.org/



Terry  

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Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 11:23:24 +0200
From: Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>
Subject: Boy's expulsion for violent rap lyrics overturned

And more:

Comment: It seems to be typical protestant thinking vs. catholic thinking. The 
catholics number one is the church, the protestants nomber one is your head.
You see this more often, the most prominent victim today is Saddam.

- -------- Original Message --------

<...>

The major defect I see in cases like this is that school officials are
exempt from personal liability for actions that leave scars for years on
their targets, even if "succesfully defended".  There should be a legal
default that this kind of injunction is prima facie evidence of
significant civil liability by both school system and individual actors.=20
- --  Terry=20


Boy's expulsion for violent rap lyrics overturned=20

By The Associated Press=20
08.25.05=20
PITTSBURGH =97 A federal judge yesterday overturned the expulsion of a
14-year-old student who wrote profane rap lyrics because the songs,
though violent, didn't amount to "true threats" against the boy's school
and were therefore protected by the First Amendment.

The Riverside Beaver County School District kicked out Anthony Latour
because officials believed the lyrics constituted threats to shoot up the
school and another student.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued on Latour's behalf Aug. 3,
claiming the songs were "battle rap" =97 a genre of the street music in
which two people try to outrhyme each other, often using violent
putdowns.

U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose issued a preliminary injunction
yesterday ordering the district to admit Latour to the ninth grade when
classes resume Aug. 31.

"If you could punish on words alone without looking at context, you could
wipe out the entertainment industry =97 and certainly rap music," said
Witold "Vic" Walczak, the Pennsylvania Legal Director of the ACLU.

The school district's solicitor, Greg Fox, said officials were
disappointed, but would follow the judge's ruling.

"Sometimes, perhaps it is better to take the words too seriously than to
dismiss them," he said in a statement. "There have been several parents
within this school district that felt the songs could not be taken
lightly and were very concerned about the safety of their children. That
prompted the school officials to take what they thought was the
appropriate action."

In one song, Latour wrote: "So watch what you say about me, I'm
everywhere son / And the word of mouth is that I'm carrying guns / Now
that I'm comin' for you =97 what the (expletive) you gonna do / I come
double with the pump tons of slugs that will punish you."

School officials learned of Latour's writings in March and contacted
police, but took no other action pending an investigation by North
Sewickley Township police.

Police charged Latour, of Ellwood City, with making terroristic threats
and harassment, and those charges are still pending. After the charges
were filed, Latour was expelled following a six-hour school board hearing
in May at which he opted not to speak.

Ambrose found the school's argument that Latour's music was threatening
was "weakened" by the fact that the school took no immediate steps to
investigate the music themselves, including, for example, searching his
locker, speaking to his parents or referring Latour to a counselor.

Furthermore, Ambrose said school officials didn't present any evidence
that the boy's songs disrupted school, as must occur for a student to be
punished for speech.

"Schools have to be cautious about any warning signs of danger," Walczak
said. "But they can do as much harm as good, more harm than good, if they
overreact and punish innocent students."

Latour still faces an Aug. 31 Beaver County Juvenile Court hearing on the
criminal charges. Walczak said that even if Latour were found to be
delinquent by the court, that verdict wouldn't be grounds to keep him out
of school because the rap songs were composed at his home.


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Date: Fri, 26 Aug 2005 14:30:04 +0200
From: Heiko Recktenwald <uzs106@uni-bonn.de>
Subject: Anomalynews

Here is

http://www.anomalynews.com/phorum/read.php?f=1&i=388&t=388

maybe somebody can compile the three messages to one.


H.





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