New Hampshire Man With 'COPSLIE' License Plate Wins Free Speech Battle, Lifetime Of Police Harassment
from the sir,-do-you-have-any-idea-how-fast-I've-decided-you-were-going? dept
A win for free speech (as expressed by vanity license plates) has just been handed down by the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The plate at the center of the case -- "COPSLIE" -- was originally deemed to be "offensive to good taste" by a lower court, which felt a "reasonable person" would be offended that the driver of this vehicle believed that cops do, in fact, lie.
And they do. They do it more often than most people think. Everyone knows it, even the judges, and yet no one does much about it, because throwing a handful of exculpatory wrenches into the criminal "justice" gears only creates headaches for those least willing to deal with them (prosecutors, judges, DAs -- basically anyone who doesn't get jailed/fined as a result of the lies). Cops lie because they're a) human beings and b) many of their incentives are perverse.
So, when David Montenegro tried to state that fact via a delivery system easily viewable by any cop he drove by, the state told him he couldn't because some "reasonable person" (most likely a cop) would be offended by his factual statement. Montenegro could have made this statement about any group (politicians, priests, parents, kids, school administrators, lawyers, the media), but he chose to highlight this aspect of policing.
Montenegro knew the DMV's lazy rationale was faulty. In fact, he proved it. He submitted a backup request -- GR8GOVT -- which was approved. So, he took his case to the state's Supreme Court, which exposed the arbitrary nature of the DMV's "reasonable person" excuse.
The challenged portion of the regulation prohibits vanity registration plates that “a reasonable person would find offensive to good taste.” The phrase “offensive to good taste” is not defined in the regulation. Further, to the extent the phrase could be construed to prohibit obscene material, we note that a separate provision in the regulation prohibits vanity registration plates that are “capable of an obscene interpretation.” …The DMV stated that it had a "reasonable person" standard for offensiveness while also noting that different people would naturally find different things offensive. It's one thing to have a set standard. It's quite another to deploy contradictory stances as official policy. Because when you do that, you don't actually have a policy -- you have an informal straw poll.
Taken together, [the dictionary definitions of the words in the regulation] lead to various potential interpretations of the phrase “offensive to good taste.” For example, one such interpretation could be that no vanity registration plates are allowed that are “insulting to the standard of morality or virtue of individual preference.”
To the extent the DMV argues that its reasoning for denying the petitioner’s requested vanity registration plate [COPSLIE] in this case aids in interpreting the phrase “offensive to good taste,” we disagree. The DMV initially denied the petitioner’s request because several DMV employees believed the text to be “insulting.”There's where the true issue is. The blue team protecting itself and the government in general insulating itself from criticism through arbitrary enforcement of vague policies.
So, Montenegro gets the win and the plates he always wanted. In addition to securing a bit more free speech, Montenegro will also receive a lifetime of hassling by The Man and, quite possibly, the Home Version of said hassling.
Cops may not like someone confronting them (via license plate) with the fact that many citizens don't find them particularly trustworthy. But they'd be better off just letting this plate cruise by (while being passively collected by a license plate reader) without retaliation. Montenegro's already made one point. There's no need to make the rest of his points for him.
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Filed Under: copslie, free speech, license plates, new hampshire, police harassment
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You won't dare stand behind your convictions to the point that people think you are crazy, the way this guy does. It's cool, you are with the majority on this. It is rare to find courage.
I won't agree with what he did, one can attract more flies with honey instead of vinegar, however, I will also not deride him for his decision as it is quite a well known fact that Cops Lie.
Take these things into account the next time you are so ready to jump on the bandwagon that requires no courage to ride.
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char lim
Actually, that seems like it would be somewhat hard to do given a 7-8 character limit and a dearth of short synonyms for those professions (POLSLIE? PRSTSLIE? Not exactly decipherable... OK, KIDSLIE and LWYRSLIE are pretty good)
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Re: char lim
GOVLIES,
PRESLIES,
FBILIES,
NSALIES,
CIALIES,
TSALIES,
USALIES,
or ,[insert 3 letter agency or organization]LIES
and enjoy your controversial vanity plate.
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Re: Re: char lim
USGLIES
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Re: Re: Re: char lim
now everyone is coevered
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Thinking about it, Montenegro sounds kind-of furrin, maybe that had something to do with his difficulties dealing with trogs. Copslie is so much easier to say and spell.
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Representation
Maybe a couple of trailing photographers and video cameras would be good, 'cause this is an incident waiting to happen, and happen, and happen.
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Re: Representation
It'd be like the gift that keeps on giving for cops!
Wait...
Doesn't that make his license plate to cops what herpes is to normal people?
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Of course, this assumes most cops know what the phrase 'loli' means to a huge chunk of the net...
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It's funny but like poking a beehive...
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If something as simple as mildly critical/insulting license plate is enough to get a rise out of someone, you can bet they'd be much, much worse in actually serious or stressful situations.
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Not something I'd like to have to use as an example of free speech.
Would be nice if people could get the difference between freedom of speech and just being a cock.
Doesn't need to be legislated but this kind of thing says a lot more about the person who displays it than it does about anyone or anything else.
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In fact the bar is now set higher for any LEO to show that they are not specifically targeting him due to his lawful license plate.
If I was advising any LEO who was about to initiate any contact on this vehicle it would be to have specific and provable reasons to do so.
Sadly this is not the case in anyone NOT having a license plate like this, and there is the inherent problem with all authority structures.
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In fact the bar is now set higher for any LEO to show that they are not specifically targeting him due to his lawful license plate.
If I was advising any LEO who was about to initiate any contact on this vehicle it would be to have specific and provable reasons to do so.
Such as... driving with a brake light out?
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Sadly this is not sarcasm and more true than hypothetical.
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Maybe police harassment isn't a change for him
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Not just cops
Going by the paragraph quoted above, the New Hampshire Attorney General's office also lies. After all, if someone has to pay for license plates, doesn't that make them their property, not the government's?
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Re: Not just cops
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Re: Not just cops
Not in my state, and I'd be surprised if it were true in any state. My state is quite clear -- the license plates are always the property of the state, and must be relinquished on demand, and also must be returned when they are no longer applicable.
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