Someone recently left a comment under one of my sign pictures that said “If you did that in Wisconsin you’d get arrested for littering.” Perhaps, if I was slow or wanted to get caught. But I’d most definitely fight it in court, and I would finish my defense with “I’ve seen more than enough evidence to believe President Donald Trump is a traitor to this country, and if the court does not recognize my First Amendment rights, and instead chooses to take my sacred duty as a citizen to speak out in defense of my nation and denigrate it as “litter,” then you might as well call the very blood in the footprints in the snows of Valley Forge as nothing more than medical waste, because that’s all it would be worth here in Wisconsin. The very fact I stand here before you is an abomination not only to the Founders of this Nation and the countless thousands of brave souls who gave their lives in its defense, but to every citizen, living or dead, who has proudly called themselves an American. Rather than standing in judgement of me, you should be falling to your knees begging forgiveness of them! I rest my case.” (In case you can’t tell, I’ve had over fifteen years to come up with stuff like this.)
Anyway, the worst that could happen would be having to pick up trash or something, but it’d totally be worth it.
When you see overpasses with the rail inside the fencing, park and check them out up close. If there’s a gap to put a sign in ask yourself how hard it would’ve been to take the walk you just took with a piece of cardboard.We allow our First Amendment rights to be trampled all the time, especially in Wisconsin, which like many states, actually had a law specifically allowing American flags on overpasses while prohibiting all other signs or displays. Such laws are of course entirely unconstitutional, and the proper response to them would be using overpasses to spell out “FUCK TRUMP” using only American flags.
This was up close to a year on I-5. I don’t know why. It was seen well over 100,000,000 times. Cost me a nickel.Even the commenter knows the authorities aren’t going to arrest anyone who puts up signs that say “Support our Troops” or “Jesus is Lord” in litter-conscious Wisconsin or anywhere else in the country. And even though we know it’s wrong and patently unconstitutional we put up with it because there’s only so much we can do. Even I, in the dozen or so times (out of over 7,000 mind you,) that I’ve had police catch me in the act and ask me to take down my sign I’ve always done it, even though it’s a violation of my constitutional rights. And I do it because there’s only so much I’m willing to give - I want to stand up for my rights but only so far because at the end of the day I want to be able to see my kids.
If you’ve ever held signs up on an overpass you probably know what it’s like to have police come up and tell you that your signs can’t be touching the ground or the fence or tell you to stop because “they’ve gotten complaints.” More often than not the policeman’s just making stuff up because for some reason they’re allowed to do that. But if there are laws on the books about what a sign may or may not touch they should be challenged in court because they’re burdensome to the point of unconstitutional. And if your right to free speech can be abrogated just because somebody didn’t like it, then you could tell the officer you’d be glad to leave, and the sooner the better because the two of you were about to get real busy going door to door taking everyone’s guns away based on your complaint of not wanting to get shot. But of course we don’t say things like that when talking to cops - they’ve got guns after all, and a whole lot of other ways to make our lives miserable. And if you do talk back to any officer of the law that’s not also a close personal friend of yours, you’d better make damn good and sure that you’re white before doing it.
When the fencing’s tight against the rail I’ll just squeeze it in like so. Even people walking by can’t tell, and generally don’t care, what I’m doing.Every once in awhile though, Americans that have their rights abrogated will actually step up and fight back. And when they do they clear the way for the rest of us. On November 27th, 2001, when the nation’s overpasses were awash with American flags, two peace activists put up signs of their own: “Are you buying this war?” and “At what cost?” And when authorities took down their signs but left the flags up, they did something both obvious and yet remarkable. In fact, they did precisely what you’re supposed to do: they stood up for their First Amendment rights and took their case to court. And they won. Because they were right.
If you live in Seattle, visit Kobe Terrace Park sometime. It’s beautiful. Check out the quiet, lonely fence in back with its clear view of 13 lanes of traffic and say to yourself “So THAT’S what he’s talking about!”Here’s the case, Brown vs. the California Dept. of Transportation, in full and in summary.
And the decision was thus:
Defendants California Department of Transportation and Jeff Morales (collectively "CalTrans") are hereby permanently enjoined from continuing, adopting or implementing a policy or practice which allows an individual to hang a United States flag from a highway overpass without a permit while not allowing an individual to hang any other sign, banner, or flag from a highway overpass without a permit. Cal-Trans must enforce its permitting and maintenance rules and regulations on a content neutral and viewpoint neutral basis.
I’ll break it down for you a bit. CalTrans’ case in general was that highway overpasses and infrastructure are meant for transportation, not traditionally as public fora. Banners placed there represent potential dangers via driver distraction, signs falling into traffic, etc. etc. Flags were different because they weren’t as distracting (although for some reason that only applied to US flags,) and despite the safety risks, there didn’t seem to be any rush to take down banners that said “United We Stand” or “Support Our Troops.” And “driver distraction” only seems to be a concern when a citizen puts up a sign against a war, not when corporations use flashing jumbo-tron screens or billboards with gigantic bikini clad women to sell you hamburgers, automobiles or beer.
This was up for a long time and seen by probably 40,000 drivers. Even so, it’s been seen well more than that on the internet. Signs eventually come down, but their pictures can last forever.After CalTrans’ lost the case, rather than opening overpasses to free speech they said all flags, banners etc, would be taken down instead. When they continued to leave flags and “patriotic displays” up while taking anti-war messages down, Amy and Cassandra took them back to court where they reiterated their pledge to take everything down and that pretty much is where things stand now.
My normal posting: cardboard against fence, bungees across the back, a few dabs of tape and walk away...In the meantime I’ve put up some 7,368 signs (more actually, but I’m a bit behind posting photos on my weblog...) without once being fined or arrested for it. I know many of them are being taken down by Caltrans and other authorities, and although I’ve built a fine and dramatic case over the years, I’m not going to file suit over it because frankly I don’t have the guts those two women had. There’s only so much I’m willing to do for this country, and at the end of the day I’d rather just play out fantasy speeches in my head and go home and see my kids.
The Founding Fathers gave us the right to free speech for precisely what’s going on right now. Nothing in the First Amendment says you can only have protest signs at protests.