It can't be all bad news

Via Daisy's Dead Air comes a little bit of good news for the practice of simple, quiet dissent.

Back in August, a man named Jonas Phillips held a sign reading “Impeach Bush/Cheney” on an overpass on an Interstate highway in Asheville, North Carolina. He was arrested, charged with obstructing the sidewalk and endangering traffic. On Thursday, the Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) brought the news that he was acquitted by the judge in the case.

District Court Judge James Calvin Hill said that the prosecution had insufficient evidence to prove its case, as none of the arresting officers had observed any pedestrians being blocked by Phillips’ actions, and that he did not believe reactions from motorists who honked their horns was enough to prove his sign a dangerous distraction.

“I’ve been listening to both sides for clear signs that his actions were causing a significant problem for pedestrians and motorists,” Hill said. “Based on what I’ve heard, I can’t find that they did.”

The prosecution insisted that he was not targeted for the content of Phillips' message "but his method of delivering it." I find that quite unconvincing, since, as immediately occurred to me and defense counsel argued, lots of other things - such as billboards - are at least as distracting. (Yes, I know there are no billboards on Interstates; that doesn't take away from the argument that Phillips' sign was no more distracting, no more of a danger to auto traffic, than many other things that might be encountered while driving.)

[Phillips] said he intends to resume highway blogging in the future.

You go, guy.

Footnote: Just as a reminder, this kind of harassment did not being with the Bush administration. I recall from Vietnam days friends being arrested for "harassing" pedestrians "by attempting to give them leaflets they did not want," on a charge of "blocking traffic" on the grounds that passing cars slowed down to read the signs at a demonstration, and for - this is my all-time favorite and it is an exact quote from the arrest report - "doing certain things on Capitol grounds."

Again: And, of course, a reminder about the best-known freeway blogger of them all: The Freeway Blogger, who according to his own count has put up 4,000 signs against the Iraq war and in favor of impeachment on freeways in the western US. I don't know if he has updated the site recently, but his blog is current, as is his MySpace site.