Woman gets ticketed for dropping f-bomb in a Walmart

[RealSNR]

Wow. Can we finally say backwoods Texas is a "special" place?

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?se...cal&id=6325920
Mother ticketed for swearing in Wal-Mart

By Laura Whitley

LA MARQUE, TX (KTRK) -- A woman is in trouble for cursing inside a busy store in La Marque. An assistant fire marshal heard her, and wrote her a ticket on the spot.

But investigators say that's not the only reason she ended up with a citation. The incident happened inside the Wal-Mart off I-45, the night before Tropical Storm Edouard hit.

"She should have gotten a ticket. She's lucky she didn't go to jail," said one shopper.

The woman was responding to a recent incident which sent a mother home with a ticket for cursing in public.

The shopper continued, "Because, you're in public. You can't do that."

That's exactly what La Marque's assistant fire marshal, Alfred Decker, tried to tell Kathryn Fridge, 28, when he allegedly overheard her use the 'f-word' in the store last week.

"He said, 'Ma'am, please refrain from using that language. You're not allowed to cuss in public like that,'" explained La Marque Fire Department Chief Todd Zacherl.

Zacherl spoke on Decker's behalf. He said the officer's warning to Fridge was only met with more expletives.

"I think he just originally went to just ask her politely not to use that type of language," Zacherl said. "Things escalated to the point where he had to do something. He couldn't just walk away."

The single mother walked away with a ticket, and concerns, say the chief, about his assistant fire marshal's actions. Zacherl says as far as he can tell, Decker responded appropriately.

"He said he did have to place cuffs on her in the parking lot because he couldn't get her to calm down," Zacherl said.

Cursing in public is certainly not a federal case. But people do get in trouble for it, just usually not at a Wal-Mart.

Zacherl explained, "These are the type of tickets you would find around the Kemah Boardwalk, things like that, or outside of a bar or something."

Most people we spoke with about the incident sided with the officer, but not everyone.

"It depends on what the reason is," said one woman. "She might have had a reason. She could have had a bad day and somebody just touched her wrong."

We made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Fridge. She was ticketed for disorderly conduct. She will either have to pay it, or go before a judge.

[Huffman83]

She didn't know how to use the 3 seashells.

[Frazod]

Originally Posted by RJ

But I think with this subject we've gone the opposite direction. I don't know it for a fact, but I'm going to hazard a guess that our laws concerning what is considered crude and vulgar behavior are probably considerable more tolerant today than they were a hundred years ago. You gotta think that a woman in a small Texas town in 1908 would have faced far greater wrath than a ticket for saying f*** while visiting the general store. She'd have most likely been run out of town.

Excellent point. And God knows there is far too much vulgarity in public (yes, I know I cuss my ass off on this BB, but I'm in a comfort zone here, not wandering down the street past a bunch of nuns and little kids). Sounds like this woman was a real scumbag. She probably needed a good ass-kicking more than a ticket.

I've just seen so many personal liberties erode during my lifetime that I'm getting rather paranoid about it. And I do figure that the Saudi Ministry of Virtue probably started with a couple of guys sitting around saying "Damned infidels, there outta be a law!"

[KCJohnny]

Originally Posted by DaKCMan AP

You're a big reason for that, unless respect and common decency includes going around falsely spouting how superior you are.

I am not superior; but the values of our fathers are.

[DaKCMan AP]

Originally Posted by KCJohnny

I am not superior; but the values of our fathers are.

You honestly believe this garbage?

[irishjayhawk]

Originally Posted by KCJohnny

Check out the history of legal precedents about this very thing.

Please, do tell. I would like to see your precedent with respect to people having the right not to be offended. Or even the right TO be offended.

Poor, deprived generation.

I feel badly (really) that our youth honestly do not know what it was like in an era of greater respect and more diligent observance of common decency.

So says every generation of the next generation....

[Deberg_1990]

Heres another story about it from the San Antonio/Houston Chronicle:

Her picture as well:





http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/str...l-mart100.html

LA MARQUE —If all storms had a name, this one would start with the letter F.

As Tropical Storm Edouard closed in on the Texas Gulf Coast last week, a storm of a different kind was brewing inside the sporting goods section of a Wal-Mart store in La Marque. It started with the F-word. And now a 28-year-old single mother must go to court if she wants to fight a ticket for using profanity.

On Aug. 4, as local residents prepared for deteriorating weather conditions, Kathryn “Kristi” Fridge stopped at the Wal-Mart at FM 1764 and Interstate 45 near Houston with her mother and 2-year-old daughter.

Finding the batteries shelf bare, she expressed her displeasure and disbelief to her mother.

“I was like, 'Dang.' I looked at my mom and said, ‘They're all (expletive) gone,'” Fridge recalled.

Suddenly, Capt. Alfred Decker, the La Marque assistant fire marshal, appeared from around the corner, dressed in a fire department uniform.

“He said, ‘You need to watch your mouth,'” Fridge said.

Perplexed by who the man was — his badge said “fire department” — Fridge offered a scant apology.

Fridge walked away, but said the man ordered her to come back. She then protested, telling him she was having a private conversation with her mother. When the man ordered her to come to him and she refused, she said he pulled out his handcuffs.

La Marque Fire Chief Todd Zacherl said Fridge made such a scene in the Wal-Mart that Decker had no choice.

“She cussed him, she cussed everybody. By now, we have a huge group of people looking,” Zacherl said.

Fridge emphatically denied that, saying while she did curse in casual conversation with her mother, she never cursed at Decker.

“She never got nasty with him, she never cussed at him,” said Fridge's mother, Kathryn Rice of Santa Fe.

Decker ordered Fridge to come out to his car because that's where his citation book was stored, Zacherl said. Fridge eventually complied, but admits she used the offending word again when she turned to a crowd of onlookers and yelled, “Can you believe this? He's (expletive) arresting me for saying (expletive)!”

“When I got outside, I saw he was a fire marshal — I saw his car. I said, ‘You're not even a cop!' He said, ‘I can do this,'” Fridge said.

Zacherl said the assistant fire marshal handcuffed Fridge for his own safety because she was being belligerent and because he had to turn his back to get his ticket book and check on the radio if she had any arrest warrants.

Ultimately, Fridge was released and ticketed for disorderly conduct, a Class C misdemeanor. She can pay a fine or appear in court to contest the citation.

State law says the use of abusive, indecent, profane or vulgar language in a public place, which causes an “immediate breach of the peace,” meets the definition of disorderly conduct

[irishjayhawk]

Originally Posted by Deberg_1990

Heres another story about it from the San Antonio/Houston Chronicle:

Her picture as well:





http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/str...l-mart100.html

LA MARQUE —If all storms had a name, this one would start with the letter F.

As Tropical Storm Edouard closed in on the Texas Gulf Coast last week, a storm of a different kind was brewing inside the sporting goods section of a Wal-Mart store in La Marque. It started with the F-word. And now a 28-year-old single mother must go to court if she wants to fight a ticket for using profanity.

On Aug. 4, as local residents prepared for deteriorating weather conditions, Kathryn “Kristi” Fridge stopped at the Wal-Mart at FM 1764 and Interstate 45 near Houston with her mother and 2-year-old daughter.

Finding the batteries shelf bare, she expressed her displeasure and disbelief to her mother.

“I was like, 'Dang.' I looked at my mom and said, ‘They're all (expletive) gone,'” Fridge recalled.

Suddenly, Capt. Alfred Decker, the La Marque assistant fire marshal, appeared from around the corner, dressed in a fire department uniform.

“He said, ‘You need to watch your mouth,'” Fridge said.

Perplexed by who the man was — his badge said “fire department” — Fridge offered a scant apology.

Fridge walked away, but said the man ordered her to come back. She then protested, telling him she was having a private conversation with her mother. When the man ordered her to come to him and she refused, she said he pulled out his handcuffs.

La Marque Fire Chief Todd Zacherl said Fridge made such a scene in the Wal-Mart that Decker had no choice.

“She cussed him, she cussed everybody. By now, we have a huge group of people looking,” Zacherl said.

Fridge emphatically denied that, saying while she did curse in casual conversation with her mother, she never cursed at Decker.

“She never got nasty with him, she never cussed at him,” said Fridge's mother, Kathryn Rice of Santa Fe.

Decker ordered Fridge to come out to his car because that's where his citation book was stored, Zacherl said. Fridge eventually complied, but admits she used the offending word again when she turned to a crowd of onlookers and yelled, “Can you believe this? He's (expletive) arresting me for saying (expletive)!”

“When I got outside, I saw he was a fire marshal — I saw his car. I said, ‘You're not even a cop!' He said, ‘I can do this,'” Fridge said.

Zacherl said the assistant fire marshal handcuffed Fridge for his own safety because she was being belligerent and because he had to turn his back to get his ticket book and check on the radio if she had any arrest warrants.

Ultimately, Fridge was released and ticketed for disorderly conduct, a Class C misdemeanor. She can pay a fine or appear in court to contest the citation.

State law says the use of abusive, indecent, profane or vulgar language in a public place, which causes an “immediate breach of the peace,” meets the definition of disorderly conduct

Sad.


And where are all those people saying she was cussing up a storm to start it? She was displeased they didn't have batteries.

[Frazod]

If the woman's account is correct, it sounds pretty fascist to me (of course, the truth is probably somewhere in between).

But if I made some casual comment like that and some douche-hiding-behind-a-badge lept out from behind a blue light special sign and told me to watch my language, honestly, my first reaction would probably be to tell him to go fuck himself.

[irishjayhawk]

Interesting decision:


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/...tml?source=rss

Oregon Court: Racist, insulting speech is protected
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PORTLAND - The Oregon Supreme Court has ruled that free speech must be protected even when somebody yells insulting or racist names.

The court ruled unanimously that William Johnson had a right under the state's constitution to shout the insults he aimed at two women -- one black and another white -- while he was struck in traffic.

A trial judge and the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled that a state law prohibited insulting a person publicly in a way likely to provoke a violent response.

The Oregon Supreme Court decision on Thursday struck down that law as unconstitutional and overbroad.

[RJ]

“Can you believe this? He's (expletive) arresting me for saying (expletive)!”



Now that's funny.

Also, I just can't imagine myself, in front of my daughter and mother, saying "they're all f%$#ing gone". Not to suggest it's a crime, just that it's hard for me to fathom. I'd have to be way over the edge about something to use that word in front of them.

As to the article itself, I agree with frazod, the truth almost certainly lies somewhere in between.

[irishjayhawk]

Originally Posted by RJ

“Can you believe this? He's (expletive) arresting me for saying (expletive)!”



Now that's funny.

Also, I just can't imagine myself, in front of my daughter and mother, saying "they're all f%$#ing gone". Not to suggest it's a crime, just that it's hard for me to fathom. I'd have to be way over the edge about something to use that word in front of them.

As to the article itself, I agree with frazod, the truth almost certainly lies somewhere in between.

A Tropical Storm/Hurricane bearing down on you wouldn't make you slip up?

[RJ]

Originally Posted by irishjayhawk

A Tropical Storm/Hurricane bearing down on you wouldn't make you slip up?

No. Why should that make a difference? I never use that sort of language in front of my mother and we've certainly been in more stressful situations than an impending storm.

[Coach]

Originally Posted by irishjayhawk

Sad.


And where are all those people saying she was cussing up a storm to start it? She was displeased they didn't have batteries.

Get over it man. That's been a law for a long time. I'll assure you that if you did something like this in public, you could get approached by a law enforcement. And like I been saying on my previous posts, that article pretty much nailed what I explained. She FAILED to follow a little simple order, and when she kept refusing, then the law enforcement has no choice but to pull out the handcuffs. As Herman F**king Edwards would say, "Get over it! It's life!"

[FAX]

Originally Posted by RJ

No. Why should that make a difference? I never use that sort of language in front of my mother and we've certainly been in more stressful situations than an impending storm.

I don't know, Mr. RJ. I mean, think about the situation ... a giant, killer storm is looming. You go to Wal-Mart to procure batteries for your weather radio and your flashlight and your Mom's pacemaker. Wal-Mart is out of batteries demonstrating clearly that Wal-Mart doesn't give a flip whether your Mom lives or dies. You suddenly realize that your Mom will likely not make it through the night and that she has no life insurance and you lost your life savings due to a bad investment in a start up company specializing in swine cloning and funeral costs are at an all-time high and her will clearly states that she wishes to be interred in the really expensive copper casket with the oak handles and the off-white, silk interior and, since before they even moved here from the old country, your ancestors have an established history of returning from the dead as terrifying, disembodied ghosts and ethereal, disgusting, cytoplasmic phantasms that haunt other family members as punishment for perceived previous slights and prior discourteous acts and you know for sure that ghastly visions of a vengeful, enraged, malodorous wraith is not something you want to look forward to waking you up with hysterical, hideous shrieks and incoherent, repulsive wailings in the middle of the night for the next 40 years.

I'd say that's worth an F-word or two.

FAX

[irishjayhawk]

Originally Posted by Coach

Get over it man. That's been a law for a long time. I'll assure you that if you did something like this in public, you could get approached by a law enforcement. And like I been saying on my previous posts, that article pretty much nailed what I explained. She FAILED to follow a little simple order, and when she kept refusing, then the law enforcement has no choice but to pull out the handcuffs. As Herman F**king Edwards would say, "Get over it! It's life!"

That's what you got from the article? Are you serious?

She did follow a simple order and went about her day but the marshall called her back. That's when she got testy with him. Apparently, he wouldn't let it go.

And the law enforcement had to pull out the handcuffs for cussing? And cussing after she had stopped and started walking away? And she only said cussed because the batteries were out and he heard from another aisle?



Pass whatever you're smoking.


EDIT:

Also, just because the law has been around forever doesn't mean it's right. There's tons of laws like that. And this one is not right. Period. Especially in light of the Oregon ruling.