The (police) state of the union
This is really disturbing. Teenage girls thrown out of Barnes and Noble bookstore for making a joke to each other. They're not hoodlums. One was the outgoing class president. They didn't cause a disturbance and yet they were threatened and thrown out of the store and barred from the mall by an armed Delaware state police officer.
They had been joking about asking Santorum to sign an adversary's book during a public booksigning at the store. Another customer overheard them and complained. The cop threatened to put them in prison if they didn't leave.
What were they guilty of, conspiring to threaten Samtorum's dignity? He doesn't even have any.
Barnes and Noble HQ, while criticizing the cop, defends the store's position. How ironic is it that a bookstore would defend the suppression of free speech?
They had been joking about asking Santorum to sign an adversary's book during a public booksigning at the store. Another customer overheard them and complained. The cop threatened to put them in prison if they didn't leave.
What were they guilty of, conspiring to threaten Samtorum's dignity? He doesn't even have any.
Barnes and Noble HQ, while criticizing the cop, defends the store's position. How ironic is it that a bookstore would defend the suppression of free speech?
posted by Libby Spencer at 6:09 PM
5 Comments:
Time for a Barnes & Noble boycott.
Not that there's anything wrong with bookstores, but there's certainly something anti-First Amendment about this mess. Shades of Bubble Boy's so-called "town meetings," where only his minions are allowed to meet.
I don't see any First Amendment problems from B&N's POV. . . the store is their private property and they have the right to decide what they will accept and what they will disallow.
Having said that, BOO HISS to B&N for being stupid about this. The correct response it, "ma'am, I'm sorry if the girls offended you. Perhaps you should get your stick out of your ass."
Or something to that effect :)
Now, in a town where the only bookstore IS the B&N, what's a voracious reader to do?
I'll add - what happened to the days when kids could feel safe going to a cop for help? Now, if you go to the police for assistance, you become a target.
I really worry for my future hypothetical children.
"Now, in a town where the only bookstore IS the B&N, what's a voracious reader to do?"
Internet, mate.
Amazon!
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