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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 10941
[Civil]
Date Posted:
9/8/2004
12:17:45 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 14,299
RSS: 0
Comments: 13
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Lawsuit Challenges Hawaii Law Allowing Authorities To Ban People From Public Property
Author: B.J. Reyes, Associated Press Source: Tampa Bay Online
Title: LAWSUIT CHALLENGES HAWAII LAW ALLOWING AUTHORITIES TO BAN PEOPLE FROM PUBLIC PROPERTY
  A man who was kicked out of the Hawaii State Library for using its computers to access a gay and lesbian Web site filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday challenging a state law that allows authorities to ban people from public property.
The law prohibits people from entering a public place for up to one year after a written warning or request to leave the premises has been issued. It was aimed at removing squatters from public campgrounds, parks and beaches.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii, filing on behalf of Carlos Hernandez, said people or groups could be thrown off public property for no reason and said the law could be used to keep voters out of polling places or to bar groups such as native Hawaiians from the grounds of the state Capitol.
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Community Thoughts: There are 13 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Even In Paradise... | Sep 10th. at 2:42:02 am EDT |
by Londubh (Oahu, Hawaii) - wc_xemail
The cops here in Hawaii are not exactly known for their squeaky clean non-discriminatory behaviors. This islander is not surprised that a man was kicked out of a public library for looking at what amounts to be a gay tourist web site. The ACLU will sue, the Democrat-appointed judges will find the law unconstitutional, it will be overturned, and Governor Lingle will have to find another way to make her fellow Republicans happy.
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| Yea, Right | Sep 9th. at 11:22:30 am EDT |
by Bonnie (Greene County, NY) - wc_xemail
"Under the law, "it is enough that the police officer or authorized person finds the individual to be unsavory or disagrees with the content or message of the individual's speech or activity, " the lawsuit said. "
Uh...doesn't this phrase alone violate a person's freedom of speech, and therefore make the statute unconstitutional?
This law is way to vague to be constitutional. I can understand wanting to keep squaters and vagarants out of public places, to be able to ban people who are a true nusance (the lady stacking books at the end of the aisle) or threat (the pervert masterbating in the children's room) to other people, but banning someone for looking at an informational website aimed at assisting gays, that occasionally shows men without their shirts on? Rediculous! (Aw, hell, if naked male chests are offensive, then I'm glad those idiots don't live here in New York. Half the farmers in the state would end up banned from public places--and some of these people shouldn't be seen without shirts on!)
I do hope this gentleman stands up for himself and doesn't let what appears to me to be an unconstitutional law stand.
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| HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH | Sep 8th. at 9:18:30 pm EDT |
by e (S. CA) - wc_xemail
Shirtless men are considered pornographic in HAWAII? What a hoot! I guess they'll be closing down all the beaches now. Should do wonders for the tourist trade.
It was only a matter of time until a law as poorly written as this one got abused and then challenged in court. After they spend a bunch of time and money litigating this one into the circular file, maybe someone will write some more specific laws to protect people from the real sickos and leave people accessing info web sites alone.
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| Christian Porn | Sep 8th. at 3:47:46 pm EDT |
by Opus the Poet (Garland TX) - wc_xemail - Web
Well, if a shirtless man is porn, then Christ crucified is snuff porn. I think this has umm... what's the word? Not merit, but opportunity, I think. Since pagan sites get filtered out in our library's children's section, I think Christian snuff porn should be filtered also. Yahoo groups is filtered for everybody here.
Opus
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| Porn?!?! | Sep 8th. at 12:42:41 pm EDT |
by Donna "Ariell" Passaro (Norcross, GA) - wc_xemail
Let me see if I get this.....a shirtless man on a website featuring vacation packages in Hawaii is PORN???? I hate to break this to them but there is an equally shirtless man on the official homepage of the Hawaiian Visitors and Convention Bureau. Hmmm....does this mean that an image of a shirtless Christ on the cross is porn too?
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| Now This Is An Overreaction | Sep 8th. at 12:08:21 pm EDT |
by Owlglass (Albuqeruque, NM) - wc_xemail
Throwing that man out for only seeing pictures of shirtless men was an overreaction. That was clear discrimination of a gay person.
But, as someone who has worked in public libraries for a long time, I must say that there are times when you MUST throw someone out and make it stick. I've personally thrown out flashers, men masturbating in the children's room, and men looking up real porn. There was also a crazy lady who used to come in and take and entire row of books off the shelves and stack them on the floor at the end of the aisles.
People who work in public places must have the right to protect themselves, the rest of the public, and the public place from vandals and sickos.
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| Glad They Are Fighting This | Sep 8th. at 11:41:52 am EDT |
by watrfae (the burbs, DC) - wc_xemail
When the hubub started about filtering websites that library and school computers can access, this is what I feared.
Often sites handing gay, trans, and pagan topics are considered something worth censoring. Heck, yahoo's adverts have enough scantily clad women (from diet or dating ads) to trigger a filter, or a security gaurd.
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| Excuse Me...!!!! | Sep 8th. at 11:06:13 am EDT |
by Guido Paganos (Pennsylvania, USA) - wc_xemail
What the unholy immoral f**k???!!!!
Who in their brain-dead, dead-pan, lacking common sense, mind thought up this one, and what type of nit would use it to ban people from using public computers to view a gay and lesbian website.
I used to think Hawaii was more of a tolerant state than some, but apparently I need to readjust my rangefinders and target some energy towards straightening their behinds out over their in poi-land.
I think their brains went way-aue instead of lu-aue when they decided to kick this guy to the curb. I mean what kind of nut would back that sort of move and further, who didn't think that the guy wouldn't get the ACLU or some other group behind him on this.
I mean whoever made the administrative decision better start carrying around some vaseline to prep for the utter butt-ripping that will occur when this all hits the legal fan in a bit.
Compared to half the lame-brained things that the federal agents have done during the course of Bush's campaign stops to quell protestors and other items that have made Ashcroft a publicly disliked person by many, this tops the list for now.
Eliminating people from polling places??!!! I don't think so. I do believe the FEC would have some things to say about that and the state of Hawaii I would hope.
For those who still aren't sure if it's okay to use your extreme puritan views of what you believe to be ethical and moral in public situations where you hold a role of an official that should maintain a level professionalism. Just ask yourself if you'd like to be the schmuck who gave the go ahead for this guy to be ousted from the library. Better yet, the person who wrote the law so damn loose in the first place.
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| Very Questionable | Sep 8th. at 10:44:41 am EDT |
by DragonRider (NW US) - wc_xemail
This definitely has the potential for abuse. As was pointed out, this site did not have porn (it was stated it had a shirtless male) . By this standard there is more porn in a FHM/Maxim magazine.
The big problem is there are no identifiable standards of "conduct" that can get you the letter, and therefore banned from a public place.
Take this to the extreme….imagine a fundie library guard who sees you viewing THIS website and doesn’t like it. He/she then issues you the warning, effectively banning you from the library/public place for a year. And, according to the official statement, there isn’t anything they can do about it – even if they feel the guard was over-reacting.
Hypothetical – yes, beyond belief – NO!!
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| Browsed Through The Site | Sep 8th. at 9:45:24 am EDT |
by Zori (U.S.) - wc_xemail
Had to check the site out myself, and no, he was not looking at porn.I saw one shirtless male....oh my!
It sounds as if the law needs to be changed, and I hope that guy stands his ground and wins.It's one thing to remove someone who is obviously causing a scene, but to remove someone who happened to be looking at a gay/lesbian website, thats just silly...for all we know, it could have been a college student doing an assignment for class.
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| My Take On This... | Sep 8th. at 8:45:57 am EDT |
by Knives (Moultrie, GA) - wc_xemail - Web
First of all, whose business is it what someone accesses onthe internet, even if it IS at a library? My local library doesn't even allow certain chat scripts to function; they call it a "restricted" page.
If this guy was in full view of everyone, yeah, I can understand why the library would be pissy about it. But I have to know: Was there anything stating that such things couldn't be accessed? And why are the computers out in full view of everyone anyway? They should each be partitioned, allowing for at least SOME privacy, which to me wouldn't "force" these public institutions to enforce their censorship...which by the way I don't agree with, because it's a polar opposite of one of the key principles in mind when this country was founded.
Ugh...basically, my point is, so the guy was looking at porn. Big deal. It's his fault for doing it in full view of everyone, but the greater fault is to the library for not restricting access or otherwise making sure OTHER people don't see what that guy saw. I say they rule in favor of this guy but issue a warning not to do it again, and let's all go have a beer and call it a day.
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| Library Restricted Access | Sep 8th. at 7:26:45 am EDT |
by LB (NJ) - wc_xemail
This is neither the first time of unreasonable censorship on public access nor the last. Find More info -- HERE
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| Shirtless Men Constitutes Porno???? | Sep 8th. at 5:56:45 am EDT |
by Jeff Kincaid (Lynchburg VA USA) - wc_xemail
Well, OK..maybe...if you have my figure. But come on..... This is incredibly prone to abuse.
Not all cops are idiots, bent on oppressing that which they personnally do not like, but there are some out there (I worked with a few) . This law is way to wide in scope and needs focusing in the worst kinda way.
Peace and Light
Jeff
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