Free speech and a truck
Regarding “Profane truck decal captures sheriff ’s attention” (Page A3, Nov. 16), free speech is something we all are interested in having and something we most despise when someone else claims that right by saying or publishing something we find offensive. However, freedom of speech in our society doesn’t exist without restrictions. For example, a long-prohibited right to free speech would be the right to shout “fire” in a crowded theater when no fire exists or to scream some other dire warning to create panic when the facts do not support it. We have long-established laws against that, and it would be foolhardy to claim that they are unduly or unreasonably oppressive. But what about the free speech right of someone standing on the street shouting obscenities and vulgarities with elementary school children at play in their nearby school yard? Is that protected free speech?
Take the recent vulgar sticker on the Fort Bend County woman’s truck. Is what the sticker said in connection with President Donald Trump and his supporters free speech, or is it merely a combative statement seeking to arouse others to violence or disorderly conduct? What about children who read it?
In Texas, we have long had laws regarding disorderly conduct, which, among other things, specifically includes using abusive, profane or vulgar language in a public place. Her sticker seems to do that. In my view, her sticker quite sadly says much more about her than it does to arouse me to engage in prohibited conduct. But that is not the same as saying she didn’t violate the law or that her claim of free speech can somehow protect such dubious conduct.
Charles Bardwell, Houston