Has freedom been terminated at the chalkboard/brick intersection on the historic downtown mall? A new sign appeared on Saturday. What is the penalty for writing on a brick. Are there laws related to that? Would brick writing be considered vandalism? I can see it now, four years for the three year old that doodled. I can’t wait. I wonder who drew the arrow pointing at the sign. I wonder if the sign will still be there on Monday.
More shots on myFlickr.
Josh Wheeler of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression put that sign there on Friday. The city didn”t do it. The signs are really dumb and will, as your picture shows, encourage people to write on the bricks.
The space occupied by the chalkboard and the bricks immediately around it are leased by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression and the police have been told not to touch it or the chalkboard. One cop told me, “You could shit on it and I couldn’t do anything about it”. He was angry at a prominent racial slur written on it that he was forbidden to erase. We have a Free Speech Monument that enables and even protects anonymous hate speech.
There will be more exciting news coming from the monument I am sure!
BTW - thank you.
Correction: Josh Wheeler put the sign there on Thursday March 29, not on Friday.