Is Honking Your Horn Free Speech?

[Nutso]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zsk8uDCBlIo

The case:

It's a case that has made its way from a Snohomish County chicken coop all the way to the state Supreme Court. The issue: Is honking your horn free speech?

In 2006, Helen Immelt was unhappy with a neighbor's complaints about her chickens in their Monroe neighborhood so she expressed her displeasure by blasting her car horn outside of his house at 6 a.m. one Saturday.

When she refused a deputy's order to stop, Immelt was charged with a noise violation and ultimately sentenced to 10 days in jail. She appealed that conviction, arguing the noise ordinance violates her right to free speech. She lost that appeal, but refused to be silenced.

Immelt got an attorney, who will now argue her case before the state Supreme Court. She believes a horn honk can express many things -- anger, frustration, even support for the troops when driving past a roadside rally. Prosecutors, however, contend she was simply being a nuisance and was harassing her neighbor.

State law prohibits horn honking except to ensure safe operation of the vehicle.

http://www.king5.com/news/local/Is-horn ... 91914.html

I'd really like to know how you guys feel about this.

[Mikey]

I think she's an absolute idiot, not to mention a complete asshole, who's trying to use a fake "free speech issue" to cover the fact that she is in fact such an idiot and asshole. Free speech was never meant to allow someone to abrogate someone else's rights, nor was it intended to defend people who break laws and then decide that they don't want to pay the piper.

[Sionnach Glic]

So let me get this straight. A neighbour complains about her chickens for some reason, and she decides to start harrassing him via her car horn? Yeah, she can go to hell. I don't see how this is a free speech issue at all.

[Tyyr]

This isn't freedom of speech, it's freedom to be a bitch. There's no protected speech going on here any more than if her neighbor opened up with a fog horn the next morning. It's open and shut.

[Lazar]

Her use of the horn is just a public nuisance.

[Nickswitz]

Yeah, I'm going to have to agree with the majority here, she's not using freedom of speech, she's using her car as a nuisance, not as freedom of speech, she's not saying anything with it, she's just being loud.

[Lighthawk]

Wow, I think this is the most one sided debate I've seen here. Why, I can't even really call it a debate, just a bunch of guys agreeing with each other. *Agrees away*

[Sionnach Glic]

Not much to debate. Some woman decides to be an arse, then starts whinging about how it's her right to be an arse once the person she's harrassing calls the police.

[RK_Striker_JK_5]

She's an arse, for sure. Not free speech.

[Deepcrush]

She wants to beep her horn, fine then, let her. Stuff her and her car in a Box Trailer and let her have at it. Once she's tired of her ears, eyes and nose bleeding from the volume. She'll call it quits.

There's your free speech bitch.

[Graham Kennedy]

When you are in a car you're a potential danger to other road users. The horn is there like the indicators, for communicating with other drivers in specific ways. So no, it's nothing to do with free speech.

[Nutso]

Well, this is one-sided to the n^th degree. Good job everyone.

[Deepcrush]

Victory! We have Victory! *cookie*

[Foxbat]

I though this was going to be about the World Cup horns, not some crazy chick with a beef about a neighbor...

...and I agree she has the right to honk her horn, but not to be a public nuisance...

... and I have enough of the vuvu-whatevers... have to watch the games on mute by halftime...

[Sionnach Glic]

I thought my new TV had something wrong with it when I first heard those fucking horns. It sounds like a swarm of bees.