April 24, 2011

Doublethink in Dearborn - the Meshugas in Michigan

Here is what passes for the new American credo from Michigan, where Rev. Terry Jones is on trial before a hastily convened jury; he is charged, it appears, with what the late Timothy Leary called "injudicious use of the First Amendment."

First, the set-up:

Controversial Florida Pastor Terry Jones, a Koran-burning advocate who has sparked Muslim outrage worldwide, including deadly riots in Afghanistan, held court to a media throng as he defended himself in a trial here that pitted his free-speech rights against fears of public violence in the nation’s largest Arab-American community.

The hearing was a legal rarity -- a jury trial after Rev. Jones declined to pay a city-ordered peace bond that the county prosecutor said was needed to cover security costs associated with the minister’s planned protest near the nation’s largest mosque on one of Christianity’s holiest days, Good Friday. The estimated cost of the bond was $46,000. The pastor of the tiny Florida congregation has pledged to return next week if today’s protest is thwarted by the trial.

A three-man, four-woman jury was quickly impaneled at District 19 court in Dearborn late Thursday afternoon after Rev. Jones, who said he would continue with his plan to protest outside the Islamic Center of America, refused to pay the bond request and asked for trial.

And... the response of the judicial branch of the city government. You really have to read it to believe that anyone would actually say such a thing out loud -- and to the press. But there it is, in black and blue:

Wayne County Prosecutor Robert Moran said the case was not simply about free speech rights but rather safety.

“We’re not here to suppress open speech or prevent someone for saying what they want to say, nor are we here because we don’t like the message that this defendant brings,” he told the jury. “We are here because the conduct of the respondents will likely respond in a breach of the peace. It will be a fracas, a riot. “

The police are not here to suppress your freedom of speech; we're only here to stop you from using it when your opponents have threatened violence in response!

Sometimes, you look at them and wonder. Other times -- you just look.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, April 24, 2011, at the time of 1:49 PM

Comments

The following hissed in response by: kentuckydan

The above hissed in response by: kentuckydan at April 25, 2011 2:56 PM

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