The Tampa Tribune ran an article today about saxophonist Andre Pierre who was arrested in Ybor City near Tampa Florida for playing his sax on the sidewalk.
The report states he was warned about collecting donations without a permit. When he failed to heed he was arrested. He was charged with one count of vending without a permit.
First amendment attorney Luke Lirot posted his bail and agreed to represent Pierre.The police are holding his King Soprano Saxophone for evidence.
The article was written by editor Howard Altman who can be reached at 813-259=7629 or haltman(at)tampatrib.com
This sounds like harassment to me. What do you guys think?
Since the political facet of this thread doesn't seem to want to go away, and such political discussions of any kind are decidedly not allowed outside the confines of the LOUNGE area per the SOTW posted rules, the staff has two options at this point:
1. Remove a lot of the posts, and possibly raise the ire of those members needlessly.
2. Move the whole thread TO the Lounge area to comply with the rules, and stifle any perceived precedent. (in spite of the fact that the original topic, if it had remained on course, was posted in the correct LEGAL forum).
The latter course was taken.
As Pete sagely suggests, please observe the rules and play nice.
A musician aquaintence was arrested for busking at the hub of Toronto, Young and Bloor, some time ago for playing his bagpipes. He lucked out in court, he got a Scottish judge! The case was dismissed. True story.
I received a PM from member JFW that raised some valid points. Now let me tell you that ANY decision a staff member makes is going to solicit yays and nays. However I felt that the opinions expressed were legitimate, and have elected to remove the offending posts in this thread, and return it to the original, Legal forum.
I think moving topics that go awry because respondents can't obey the rules sets a very bad precident. This way, any topic in any forum can be muddied by someone's personal political vendetta. I recommend enforcing policy rather than enabling political thread-crapping in non-political forums, and even discouraging political meandering in non-political threads in the lounge.
So the final verdict is option #1 from my above post. Any political discussions that spill out of the Lounge area will as a matter of course be deleted henceforth.
the sax being held is probably just routine and not any sinister plot on the part of the officers. It was enter as evidence and he probably can get it back until a judge rules on the case. I had some frames stolen from my shop in 2001 that became evidence and the police finally called me last week to see if I wanted to pick them up.
I really don't see what the big fuss is over this.
According to the article he was warned several times that he needed a permit, he didn't get one, so they arrested him. I don't see any "gross violation of rights" here, I see someone who acted irresponsibly.
Playing music on the streets of San Francisco was practically illegal for the past 4 years with many musicians arrested, going to jail and having their equipment confiscated. They were playing in historically traditional spots for street musicians.
If they let the guy play on the street the next people looking for him will be the IRS!
Maybe somebody will give the guy a break after reading his story and book him where he can play.
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