Pair arrested for telling lawyer jokes -- THIS REALLY SUX

Pair arrested for telling lawyer jokes

Men at courthouse cited for disorderly conduct
Wednesday, January 12, 2005 Posted: 4:58 PM EST (2158 GMT)

HEMPSTEAD, New York (AP) -- Did you hear the one about the two guys arrested for telling lawyer jokes?

It happened this week to the founders of a group called Americans for Legal Reform, who were waiting in line to get into a Long Island courthouse.

"How do you tell when a lawyer is lying?" Harvey Kash reportedly asked Carl Lanzisera.
"His lips are moving," they said in unison.

While some waiting to get into the courthouse giggled, a lawyer farther up the line Monday was not laughing.

He told them to pipe down, and when they did not, the lawyer reported the pair to court personnel, who charged them with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.

"They just can't take it," Kash said of lawyers in general. "This violates our First Amendment rights."

Dan Bagnuola, a spokesman for the Nassau County courts, said the men were "being abusive and they were causing a disturbance."

He said he did not have the name of the lawyer who complained.

Americans for Legal Reform monitors the courts and uses confrontational tactics to push for greater access for the public.

The pair said that for years they have stood outside courthouses on Long Island and mocked lawyers.

On Monday, however, Kash said he was due in court to answer a drunken driving charge from a year and a half ago. The men are due back in court on the disorderly conduct charge next month.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/01/12/lawyer.jokes.arrest.ap/index.html

This was originally a one-sided, self-serving press release for the Americans for Legal Reform, a group hardly deserving of serious media attention. See http://www.americans4legalreform.com ; See also "Hearing update Jan 13th' 2003 12 court watchers drove 600 miles to watch the Judge depose the founder of ALR and everyone is waiting for his dissension which if he rules against Carl will limit litigation by pro-says in NYS. The judge is trying to make new law against pro-says. ... we all hope that the judge does the right thing stay tuned." These boobs are functional illiterates, doing everything they can to create publicity!!!

Now it's turned to a series of "news" articles by journalists too lazy to do any real research.

This was a publicity stunt. These two tried to get a citation. They tried to get their names in the paper, and if the author of this article had done any research, he would have clearly seen that for himself.

It is not a crime to make jokes in public, even within the earshots of others. It is a crime however to use bullhorns to harass people, which ALR founder Harvey Kash proudly admitted in this article on an ALR friendly website, conveniently missing now, but cached by Google here: http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:IwVnn2DJXxMJ:www.jail4judges.org/JNJ_Library/2002/new_york/LongIslandAccount29May2002.htm+%22americans+for+legal+reform%22+%22harvey+kash%22&hl=en&start=1

"Some critics call them loudmouths. Members use a bullhorn to spread their accusations against barristers and judges alike with an arsenal of lawyer jokes. One favorite: "What do you say to a lawyer with an IQ of 50? Good morning, Your Honor." "The idea is to get under their skin," said Harvey Kash, a member of the 12-year-old group."

You think maybe that's what happened here? A bullhorn?

To those anti-lawyer types, ignore this message and believe what you want to believe. You're gonna do it anyway.

What's next, doctors trying to arrest people for doctor jokes