Thursday, 04 July 2013 09:02By William Rivers Pitt, Truthout | Op-Ed
Did you hear about Jeffrey Olson? The guy from San Diego who wrote things like "No thanks, big banks" and "Shame on Bank of America" in water-soluble chalk on the sidewalk? He was looking at thirteen years in prison after getting busted on a variety of vandalism charges, but on Monday, a jury of his peers found him not guilty, and he was free to go.
Now there's a happy story for the Fourth of July, right? A common citizen, exercising his First Amendment right to say bad things about a bank in street chalk that won't survive the next downpour or the first hose spray, goes up against the bad guys and winds up walking free.
According to Olson, his motivation was entirely straightforward: "Wall Street banks nearly drove our economy into the ditch." Isn't it great that we live in a country where a man like Jeffrey Olson is free to express himself in a non-destructive way?
Um...
Wait...
Posted here with permission. http://www.truth-out.org/
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