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censorship of street life
This page provides a perspective on online censorship
by looking at the censorship of street life.
It covers -
It
is complemented by notes on restriction of assembly
(marches, pickets, other public gatherings) in Australia
and overseas and debate about streetscape photography.
A later page of this
guide considers debate about restrictions on clothing
(eg headscarves and t-shirts), jewellery, tattoos and
other adornment.
performance
in public places
Restrictions on performance and speech in public places
have attracted less scholarly attention. Constraints have
often taken the form of public order legislation and summary
offences codes that
- address
nuisance or street crime - including vagrancy, graffiti,
hawkers & peddlers and drunkenness
- include
licensing of fairs
- encompass
restraints on traditional punch & judy shows and
contemporary busking
-
may feature tacit or explicit restrictions on celebratory
parades, marches and other demonstrations.
Those
codes have been reflected in institutional guidelines,
with one Australian university for example making it an
offence to
use
any insulting, abusive, threatening, profane, indecent,
or obscene language or to behave in a riotous, violent,
disorderly, indecent, obscene, offensive, threatening,
or insulting manner.
They
have also been reflected in actions against buskers or
other street performers, typically required to have a
busking licence. City bylaws in Australia and New Zealand
have often taken a form such as
No
person shall sing, play a musical instrument, preach,
make a speech, perform poetry or street theatre or other
entertainment, or engage in any other activity on a
road (other than exercising lawful rights of way) without
... written permission.
Some legislation has been very specific. Section 294 of
the Singapore Penal Code for example deals with "Obscene
songs", providing that
Whoever,
to the annoyance of others -
(a) does any obscene act in any public place; or
(b) sings, recites or utters any obscene song, ballad
or words in or near any public place,
shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which
may extend to 3 months, or with fine, or with both
street life
Changing expectations about performance and the enthusiasm
with which restrictions should be policed are evident
in responses to swearing in public, billposting, graffiti,
demonstrations and begging.
Most states have imposed restrictions on particular language
in public speech, notably 'bad language' such as blasphemy
or obscenity, and have often prohibited the wearing or
carrying of particular symbols. In Australia during 1919,
for example people were fined or jailed for six months
for carrying the red flag. Some nations have adopted a
liberal stance on political protest that involves destruction/defacement
of their (or other countries') flags and images of leaders.
Others have prohibited, even criminalised flag
burning. The Summary Offences and Law Enforcement
Legislation Amendment (Laser Pointers) Bill 2008
(NSW) seeks to create an offence (maximum penalty $5,500
or imprisonment for 2 years both) of possessing or using,
without reasonable excuse, a laser pointer in a public
place, and to give a police officer the power to frisk
search a person in a public place if that officer reasonably
suspects the person has a laser pointer in his or her
custody.
A paper by Kathryn Pirie & Sheryl Cornack on What
Is Obscene: The Language or the Arrest That Follows?
(PDF)
considered community expectations regarding the administration
of justice about swearing in public in Australia. It is
complemented by Laura Nielsen's License to Harass:
Law, Hierarchy, and Offensive Public Speech (Princeton:
Princeton Uni Press 2004) and the ACT Law Reform Commission
1993 Street Offences report.
'Bad language' is more broadly explored in Learning
to Curse: Essays in Early Modern Culture (New York:
Routledge 1992) by Stephen Greenblatt, Maureen Flynn's
1995 paper,
Language Most Foul (North Sydney: Allen & Unwin
2004) by Ruth Wajnryb, Swearing: A Social History
of Foul Language, Oaths & Profanity in English
(Harmondsworth: Penguin 1998) by Geoffrey Hughes, The
Social History of Language (Cambridge: Cambridge
Uni Press 1987) edited by Peter Burke & Roy Porter,
Governing Morals: A Social History of Moral Regulation
(Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press 1999) by Alan Hunt and
A Season with Verona (London: Secker & Warburg
2002) by Tim Parks.
Among the large literature on demonstrations we recommend
Dealing with Demonstrations: The Law of Public Protest
and Its Enforcement (Annandale: Federation Press
2004) by Roger Douglas and David Mead's The Law of
Peaceful Protest (Oxford: Hart 2008).
cars
As noted in the discussion of ANPR elsewhere
in this site, there has been disagreement in the USA -
and a succession of court cases - over vehicle licence
plates. Debate has encompassed whether the Confederate
flag should appear on some state number plates. It has
also encompassed restrictions, criticised as chilling
free speech, on personalisation that includes right-to-life
slogans and nasties such as a 'Zyklon B' plate (arguably
the sort of statement that invites the onlooker to 'key'
the car's enamel).
Three discussions are 'The Public Sensibilities Forum'
by Leslie Jacobs in 95 Northwestern University Law
Review (2001) 1357, 'Licensing A Choice: "Choose
Life" Specialty License Plates and their Constitutional
Implications' byJeremy Berry in 51 Emory Law Journal
(2002) 1605-1637 and 'FRESSPCH: Vanity Plates and the
First Amendment' by Laurie Medley in 25 Vermont Law
Review (2001) 879-907.
graffiti
Graffiti (unauthorised marking of public/private property
with text or graphics) and billposting (placing posters
for commercial advertising or protests) evoke differing
reactions.
Critics have condemned graffiti as vandalism. It has been
defended in works such as Graffiti World: Street Art
from Five Continents (London: Thames & Hudson
2004) by Nicholas Ganz and Aerosol Kingdom: Subway
Painters of New York City (Jackson: Uni Press of
Mississippi 2002) by Ivor Miller as 'grass roots' cultural
expression that should not be prohibited or otherwise
censored, a "tool of social emancipation" and
as 'the media of the poor', an outlet for communication
when commercial/state media are unaffordable or otherwise
unavailable.
It has typically been addressed through restrictions in
criminal codes, on occasion receiving special legislation
such as South Australia's Graffiti Control Act 2001
or preemptive provisions such as New York state's title
110-117(c)
No person shall sell or offer to sell an aerosol spray
paint can, [or] broad tipped indelible marker or etching
acid to any person under eighteen years of age.
That
legislation is echoed in Section 10c
of the NSW Summary Offences Act 1988 that prohibits
sale of spray paint cans to people under the age of 18
and the UK Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 (those
under 16).
In 2006 the Australian Classification Review Board refused
classification (and thereby banned) the Getting Up:
Contents Under Pressure computer game
because it "promotes the crime of graffiti".
Refusal reflected comments regarding
•
realistic scenarios whereby the central character acquires
his knowledge of graffiti tips, techniques and styles
– including meeting with five real graffiti artists
who pass on details of tips and techniques
• reward for and positive reinforcement of graffiti
writing on public buildings and infrastructure, and
• interactive biographies of 56 real graffiti
artists, with details of their personal tags, styles
and careers. The game detail states that all these artists
began their careers performing illegal graffiti on public
buildings and infrastructure and that some continue
with this practice today.
trading
Western economies have traditionally placed restrictions
on what activities can take place on particular days,
in particular Sundays. The evolution of those restrictions
are of interest as a demonstration of increasing secularisation
and as a reminder that particular groups or institutions
can bound social interaction without necessarily suppressing
speech.
In the US 'blue laws' - designed to protect 'the Lord's
day' - initially restricted all commercial and much recreational
activity on Sunday. Prior to 1900 restrictions in jurisdictions
such as Massachusetts encompassed racing, gambling, retailing,
"frolicking", skating and even kissing. Many
of the laws fell into disuse at the end of the 1914-18
War (bans in New York on major sports events were for
example wound back after the managers of Major League
baseball teams were arrested for a Sunday match in 1919)
but restrictions on the sale of alcohol were retained,
even strengthened.
Removal of increasing archaic legislation - particularly
that prohibiting retailing on Sundays - accelerated in
the 1980s and 1990s, both through commercial pressure
and because blue laws were seen as discriminatory against
groups for whom Sunday lacked religious significance.
Massachusetts requires all retailers (with the exception
of convenience stores and petrol stations) to close on
Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day.
In Australia after 1900 restrictions on Sunday activity,
notably retailing, reflected a convergence of advocacy
by Christian evangelists, the union movement and small
business (aimed at advantaging shop assistants and reducing
the competitiveness of chain stores).
Removal of such restrictions was gradual and sometimes
highly politicised, with relaxation for politically powerful
commercial interests in city centres ahead of their outlets
or competitors in the suburbs and regions.
It was also marked by absurdities, with prohibitions in
Victoria for example being subverted by retailers requiring
consumers to purchase a carton of milk, other perishables
or a newspaper to thereby qualify as a permitted food
retailer/newsagent. Penhalluriack's hardware shop entertainingly
made a mockery of the state law by selling items on a
'99 year lease', resulting in immediate change to the
statute in 1983 amid public hilarity.
For the US see in particular Blue Laws: The History,
Economics, and Politics of Sunday-closing Laws (Lexington:
Lexington Books, 1987) by David Laband & Deborah Heinbuch.
Blue Laws: the Earliest Laws of Connecticut and New
Haven Colonies (Hanover: Uni Press of New England
1999) edited by Silas Andrus in 1821 is an entertaining
compilation of early Connecticut codes, complemented by
J. Hammond Trunbull's revisionist True Blue Laws of
Connecticut and New Haven and the False Blue Laws
(Buffalo: William Hein 1987).
begging
Begging (aka panhandling) has been seen by some as a matter
of expression rather than merely indigence. It is discussed
in more detail here, with
pointers to works such as Joe Hermer's Policing Compassion:
Begging, Law and Power in Public Spaces (Oxford:
Hart 2007).
jokes
It has been said that jokes are both the last refuge of
the oppressed and a potent tool for oppression of individuals
or minorities. A perspective is provided in Hammer
& Tickle: A History of Communism Told Through Communist
Jokes (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson 2008) by
Ben Lewis and in Stop Me If You've Heard This: A History
and Philosophy of Jokes (New York: Norton 2008) by
Jim Holt.
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