Pair Arrested For ‘Lack Of Common Sense’

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...-after-rafting-down-main-street-in-manayunk/s

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Row, row, row your boat, just not down Main Street in Manayunk. That’s the message police are sending after arresting two men who used a raft as an alternate means of transportation down a flooded street Sunday morning.

CBS 3 reporter Dray Clark caught up with Pete and Pat, best friends and roommates from Manayunk, who paddled their way down the water covered street.

“I thought, Main Street floods a lot, go get a raft and float down,” said Pat, who admitted the idea was his.

“We thought it would be a good time and it turns out it is,” said Pete.

Minutes later, Philadelphia police stopped the men and hauled them away in handcuffs.

When Dray asked why the men were being arrested, he said the officers replied, “for lack of common sense.”

The arrest serves as a message to residents in flood affected areas – this is serious situation and safety should be top of everyone’s mind.

I wonder what RAS was?? I would also like to see the statute they used.

Arrested for "lack of common sense?" Let's bring those cops down to Capitol Hill and see how many Congressmen they can arrest in a single day....

It would be interesting to see what the actual charge is. Perhaps they will come up with something like "illegal operation of a watercraft on a public street."

Because liberty is dead, LEA's are there to further control of the sheep fall in line obey like everyone else or else.

sudden valley gunner said:

Because liberty is dead, LEA's are there to further control of the sheep fall in line obey like everyone else or else.

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As long as you & I can walk around with guns on our hips, AND challenge affronts like the OP as civilized men in a court of law, liberty is not yet​ dead.

As has been said before, the officers don't care if the case is dismissed, or if it goes to trial and there's no conviction.
They'll be paid to testify if it goes to court, or they'll enjoy having successfully exercised their power to stop a legal behavior they did not agree with if it's dismissed.

Either way, the men were inconvenienced and the officers suffer no ill effects for having done so in this case.

Just another case of an arrest for "eating a ham sandwich on Sunday to the detriment of public morals."

No charges were filed against the boaters.

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Yet the men were handcuffed and taken away. Is there any more proof needed?

thebigsd said:

It would be interesting to see what the actual charge is. Perhaps they will come up with something like "illegal operation of a watercraft on a public street."

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I'll bet they didn't have a light. You know, even bicycles gotta have lights now.

And, they probably didn't have their big day-glo orange triangle for slow-moving vehicle.

Metalhead47 said:

As long as you & I can walk around with guns on our hips, AND challenge affronts like the OP as civilized men in a court of law, liberty is not yet​ dead.

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Huh!?! We're hyper-regulated, over-taxed, and going down for the third time under a crushing national debt. Two years from now I won't be able to purchase incandescent light bulbs. My toilet doesn't flush reliably. And, the banking system deliberately creates inflation, siphoning value from my savings.

Yet, because I can challenge affronts, liberty is not yet dead? If liberty were alive, the affronts wouldn't occur with anywhere near the contemporary frequency. Nevermind that a mere challenge says nothing about winning in court. Nor, does it say anything about the perpetrators paying the victims. (According to one scholar, Dr. Roger Roots, there was once a time in this country where an improper search or perhaps seizure got triple damages.)

We may have some freedoms left in this country, but we no longer have Liberty.

The very essence of Liberty is being left alone. I cannot possibly be "left alone" if some of my property is secretly seized from me by way of Federal Reserve-induced inflation. (Yes, your money is your private property. Just as surely as if your boss gave you a bag of flour as pay under a barter system.) That property is no longer available to me to use how I might want. Hyper-regulation, and the taxes that pay for that bureaucracy, supply more examples--many more--of not being left alone.

For Hurricane Irene, some mandatory evacuations were issued. What if you are prepared, on dry land, with food and water and a secondary power source and do not want to leave. A statement was issued that not following the order is illegal by bloomburg. I understand some jackass's have no sense, but if you are truely prepared you should be able to be forced to leave your home.

Citizen said:

Huh!?! We're hyper-regulated, over-taxed, and going down for the third time under a crushing national debt. Two years from now I won't be able to purchase incandescent light bulbs. My toilet doesn't flush reliably. And, the banking system deliberately creates inflation, siphoning value from my savings.

Yet, because I can challenge affronts, liberty is not yet dead? If liberty were alive, the affronts wouldn't occur with anywhere near the contemporary frequency. Nevermind that a mere challenge says nothing about winning in court. Nor, does it say anything about the perpetrators paying the victims. (According to one scholar, Dr. Roger Roots, there was once a time in this country where an improper search or perhaps seizure got triple damages.)

We may have some freedoms left in this country, but we no longer have Liberty.

The very essence of Liberty is being left alone. I cannot possibly be "left alone" if some of my property is secretly seized from me by way of Federal Reserve-induced inflation. (Yes, your money is your private property. Just as surely as if your boss gave you a bag of flour as pay under a barter system.) That property is no longer available to me to use how I might want. Hyper-regulation, and the taxes that pay for that bureaucracy, supply more examples--many more--of not being left alone.

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And yet, we are still the freest nation on earth. The recent public awakening over the last couple of years, their message to the gov't in the form of recycling much of congress, and that recycled congress's commendable (if far from perfect) job at at least trying to reverse much of what you've mentioned, demonstrates that liberty is NOT dead in this country. It may be on life support, but the mere fact that you can go out & buy a gun to defend yourself means it's not dead, because that gun is the last defense of liberty as well. When we are reduced to armed rebellion like in Libya, then will liberty be dead.

They have you coming and going. Arrest for a non-illegal activity and if you resist, you're booked for resisting arrest. You may beat the charge but you're taking the ride.

LEO with nothing better to do.....

If they were charged with obstructing a highway as the news later reported after their release, then they certainly can’t be convicted because under the PA criminal statutes, a person can be convicted only if they “obstruct” a highway. And under the legal definition of “obstruct” the person must have rendered the highway “impassable” and being that they didn’t render the highway “impassable”, they can’t be convicted.

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M1Gunr said:

If they were charged with obstructing a highway as the news later reported after their release, then they certainly can’t be convicted because under the PA criminal statutes, a person can be convicted only if they “obstruct” a highway. And under the legal definition of “obstruct” the person must have rendered the highway “impassable” and being that they didn’t render the highway “impassable”, they can’t be convicted.

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Wait a sec, this "highway" was already obstructed due to flooding right? So are they going to file charges against God/Mother Nature/Gaia/the hydrological cycle too then??

Metalhead47 said:

Wait a sec, this "highway" was already obstructed due to flooding right? So are they going to file charges against God/Mother Nature/Gaia/the hydrological cycle too then??

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Nope, remember God was banned.

MSG Laigaie said:

http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/20...-after-rafting-down-main-street-in-manayunk/s

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Row, row, row your boat, just not down Main Street in Manayunk. That’s the message police are sending after arresting two men who used a raft as an alternate means of transportation down a flooded street Sunday morning.

CBS 3 reporter Dray Clark caught up with Pete and Pat, best friends and roommates from Manayunk, who paddled their way down the water covered street.

“I thought, Main Street floods a lot, go get a raft and float down,” said Pat, who admitted the idea was his.

“We thought it would be a good time and it turns out it is,” said Pete.

Minutes later, Philadelphia police stopped the men and hauled them away in handcuffs.

When Dray asked why the men were being arrested, he said the officers replied, “for lack of common sense.”

The arrest serves as a message to residents in flood affected areas – this is serious situation and safety should be top of everyone’s mind.

I wonder what RAS was?? I would also like to see the statute they used.

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Do you mean "Probable Cause"... RAS is easy... maybe looters, etc, but to ARREST them... REALLY??

amzbrady said:

For Hurricane Irene, some mandatory evacuations were issued. What if you are prepared, on dry land, with food and water and a secondary power source and do not want to leave. A statement was issued that not following the order is illegal by bloomburg. I understand some jackass's have no sense, but if you are truely prepared you should be able to be forced to leave your home.

Click to expand...

Modern technology can achieve some interesting things. While standard construction techniques aren't up to protecting against many natural disasters (wildfires, major floods, hurricanes, etc), a purpose-built structure often can. I recall an example from a few years ago, where a family was living in an experimental house in California, one designed to survive being directly in the path of a major wildfire. The people stayed inside with the doors and windows shut, and the fire washed over and past them. They ignored an evacuation order, but they didn't even smell smoke, even when there were flames right outside their windows on all sides. They'd have been at greater risk evacuating than staying in place.

After Hurricane Katrina, I sketched up some rough ideas for a hurricane-proof single-family residence, that could handle everything from the winds (both the main hurricane and spawned tornadoes) to the storm surge. Secondary power would fail if the eye passed directly overhead or if the surge crested above 60 feet above the foundation, but that's what backup batteries are for. I know if I were living in something like that, I'd ignore an evacuation order, since I'd be safer at home. And on the positive side, anything that can weather a force five hurricane is going to be built like a bunker, nobody is going to pry you out of that without shaped explosive charges.

Metalhead47 said:

And yet, we are still the freest nation on earth. The recent public awakening over the last couple of years, their message to the gov't in the form of recycling much of congress, and that recycled congress's commendable (if far from perfect) job at at least trying to reverse much of what you've mentioned, demonstrates that liberty is NOT dead in this country. It may be on life support, but the mere fact that you can go out & buy a gun to defend yourself means it's not dead, because that gun is the last defense of liberty as well. When we are reduced to armed rebellion like in Libya, then will liberty be dead.

Click to expand...

I don't know about that "free-est nation on earth" stuff anymore. Got any hard data? I seem to recall a few candidates as being possibly less restrictive, less regulated, and less over-governmented: Switzerland, Luxembourg, Monaco, and one or two South American countries.

The fact that I can buy a gun means liberty is not dead? Huh!?! The government figured out long ago that it could let us keep our guns and milk us to death by following the old political games of class warfare, etc. Below I have linked a short essay, Walter Mittys Second Amendment. It is really eye-opening. It was written by Jeff Snyder, also the author of A Nation of Cowards.


I also recommend a short book called Hologram of Liberty by Kenneth Royce. In this case the word hologram is being used to distinguish between the semblance of something, and the real thing.

I'll go along the on-life-support view. But, not for much longer. The trajectory has been heading toward bottom for quite awhile. Unless there are major changes, it will continue. A few gasps of life as in a Montana gun making law, or Wyoming nullification of REAL ID don't count for much when the fedgov is applying maximum thrust--down.


http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/snyder8.html

Citizen said:

I don't know about that "free-est nation on earth" stuff anymore. Got any hard data?

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Yeah. That gun on your hip, remember? In how many other nations on earth can one lawfully (as opposed to by lack of law) walk down the street openly armed? I know the Swiss arm their citizens, have any info on Swiss carry laws? Luxembourg? Monaco?

Citizen said:

I'll go along the on-life-support view. But, not for much longer. The trajectory has been heading toward bottom for quite awhile. Unless there are major changes, it will continue. A few gasps of life as in a Montana gun making law, or Wyoming nullification of REAL ID don't count for much when the fedgov is applying maximum thrust--down.

Click to expand...

You see these as a last gasp of life, I see them as the start of a (peaceful) revolution. It was by increments that we lost our liberties, it will only be by increments that they are restored.* There will be no one day waking up to a libertarian utopia.

* The exception to this is, of course, that armed rebellion I mentioned. That route could potentially restore our liberties within years instead of decades (or generations). Personally I still think such a clustermug is inevitable, but I don't believe in hastening the day. While there is still an effective process to achieve real change peacefully, I will look with optimism towards it. If that system does finally fail, I always keep my powder dry.

I will ask you, if you do indeed think we a republic are totally, irrevocably, boned, then what do you think the solution is?

Citizen said:

I don't know about that "free-est nation on earth" stuff anymore. Got any hard data? I seem to recall a few candidates as being possibly less restrictive, less regulated, and less over-governmented: Switzerland, Luxembourg, Monaco, and one or two South American countries.

The fact that I can buy a gun means liberty is not dead? Huh!?! The government figured out long ago that it could let us keep our guns and milk us to death by following the old political games of class warfare, etc. Below I have linked a short essay, Walter Mittys Second Amendment. It is really eye-opening. It was written by Jeff Snyder, also the author of A Nation of Cowards.


I also recommend a short book called Hologram of Liberty by Kenneth Royce. In this case the word hologram is being used to distinguish between the semblance of something, and the real thing.

I'll go along the on-life-support view. But, not for much longer. The trajectory has been heading toward bottom for quite awhile. Unless there are major changes, it will continue. A few gasps of life as in a Montana gun making law, or Wyoming nullification of REAL ID don't count for much when the fedgov is applying maximum thrust--down.


http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/snyder8.html

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You may not know about the "fee" based system in WA...it just gets worse. This essay is spot on....we find gas today at 3.59 at Arco and think we're getting a great deal.....but really the pain has just gone done a little, and people quit whine-ing....the corollary to this essay is the "Overton Window" as a means to get it done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

Guns won't solve this....we just need to quit sending them money. They'll quit showing up....