Man faces 90 days in jail for honking in support of protest outside the office of John Kline (R-MN)

Yesterday one of my friends learned that he was facing three months in jail and a $1,000 fine. His crime? Improper use of a car horn. You may think that people don't go to jail for honking their car horns, you may think that there must be an additional charge on top of the honking offense because we have all heard people use their car horns in non-emergency situations but most of us have never heard of a person going to jail for such an offense. There are no other charges however, the only charge against him in the police report is that he was “honking the vehicle's horn repeatedly approximately five to ten times.” If you have ever honked when you drove past a wedding or sounded the horn when you wanted to capture the attention of someone you knew who was walking down the street then you have committed the exact same crime they are charging my friend with, but I am guessing you never thought about the possibility that people who honk in celebration of a wedding would face serious jail time. You don't need to worry about such a possibility because the idea that the state would use their resources to lock people up for honking outside a wedding is absurd, but my friend was not honking outside a wedding he honked in support of protesters outside the office of a powerful Republican Congressman while he was driving to a parking spot so he could join the protest.

For almost two years now protesters have gathered at 4:30 every Tuesday afternoon in Burnsville, MN to hold a peace vigil on the corner of Nicollet Avenue and Burnsville Parkway. One of the buildings at this intersection houses the office of Republican Congressman John Kline, a man who showed great loyalty to the Bush agenda from the time of his arrival in Congress in 2002 and as a result of that loyalty he achieved a prominent position in his party. While Kline is not the most well known Republican member of Congress he holds a great deal of influence behind the scenes with his seats on the Intelligence and Education and Labor Committees, and those committees make him the most powerful Republican in Minnesota's congressional delegation.

Kline has never been good about holding public town hall meetings to listen to his constituents, but the Burnsville peace vigil has ensured that every week the people working inside John Kline's office are reminded that many of his constituents oppose the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that he has been a major supporter of. Not only do they see the people participating in the protest directly but they also hear hundreds of honks from the people who drive by that support ending the wars, and they have no doubt wished that we would go away.

Well over a year ago Burnsville Police confronted the participants of the peace vigil about complaints they had received over the honking and threatened to arrest them if people kept honking in support of their vigil. The police argued that the “Honk 4 Peace” signs encouraged an illegal activity as they said honking was only legal if used to give an audible warning in emergency situations. The police were quickly informed that it would be unconstitutional to arrest protesters simply because someone honked at them so instead they decided to try a different tactic by pulling people over and ticketing them for improper use of the horn. Prior to this the Burnsville Police had never ticketed anyone for honking, and when the ACLU defended one of the drivers who had been ticketed this fact helped them show that the people were not being pulled over based on public safety but rather on the basis of politics and the law was not being enforced when political speech was not involved. The ACLU was not only able to get the ticket of the woman they were defending dropped, but they also succeeded in getting the police to sign a consent decree stating that they would not ticket anyone for honking unless there was a threat to public safety. It seemed that the battle had been won and people would once again be able to honk in support of the protesters without fear of being ticketed, but it was only a couple months later that Bob Palmer received a ticket in the mail for improper use of the horn.

The ACLU was notified of the ticket and began the process to get approval from their board to take the case up again, while this process was underway they advised Bob to request a formal complaint at his hearing in traffic court. Bob did exactly that and we waited for several weeks without receiving the complaint or any news on the case. We had started to wonder if the police realized they were going to lose in court and receive a great deal of bad publicity in the process, the story had already received some media attention and it was looking like they could be stepping into a major controversy that would damage their reputation. For a few weeks it seemed as if the police may have been backing down, but yesterday that changed. Yesterday Bob Palmer was notified that he would not just be facing the couple hundred dollar fine that the other people faced for improper use of the horn, he is now facing serious jail time simply because he honked his horn.

Everyone who has been in a protest knows that it is a time honored tradition for people to honk in support of protesters when they drive by. If people start receiving jail time for supporting protesters in this way it will put a chill on free speech as not only will drivers be afraid to show their support, but the protesters will be afraid of participating in something that could result in the arrest of their supporters.

No one goes to jail for honking at a wedding, and if they do not send people to jail for non-political use of the horn then it is clearly unconstitutional to send people to jail for the use of the horn to express support for a political position. Please help get this story out and let people know about this outrageous charge, the idea that a person should be locked up in a cell for three months for doing nothing more than honking their horn is absurd. It is time to stand up for the first amendment, and it is time to make sure that no one is sent to jail for supporting peaceful protest.

governor's residence. I am glad now we didn't honk as jail never occured to me.

No one goes to jail for honking, in fact when cases like this have gone to court in the past the courts have upheld people's right to honk as long as it does not create a public safety issue. To the best of my knowledge however the previous cases only involved tickets, it was a complete shock to learn they were actually pursuing jail time in this case. We are going to be fighting back on this one, and I have a feeling the Burnsville Police are going to regret pursuing this.

I honked my horn whenever I go through that intersection on those days.

I hope you don't let this intimidate you from continuing to honk, the ACLU has been great to us and we expect to win this case. If you drive through the intersection you should stop and join us some time, we are always happy to see new faces.

honking horns are a part of free speech that always lifted my spirits when I engaged in public protest. I hope this abuse of authority get slapped down hard. If this stands, "Honk if you love Jesus" is an invitation to jail time.

Do you need any more proof that this is politically motivated?

Defendant was cited for honking too loudly during a protest against a raid in a small town by the county sheriff. Citation was for a civil offense rather than criminal. Detectives from the sheriff's office testified and Defendant asked one question: "was anyone else honking?" Detectives both answered in the affirmative.

Judge found the Defendant not responsible.

These cases have been tried in other states, but we do not have precedent for this in Minnesota. I am going to try to find out if this is the first case of someone facing jail time for honking, I know it is highly unusual and to the best of my knowledge it has never happened.

This is a free speech case that can be won on the basis of selective enforcement targeting political speech.

They have been extremely supportive and are currently going through the process of getting approval to take the case. Their office is closed weekends so I don't know if they are aware of the possible jail time yet, but they certainly will know about it when the office opens tomorrow so I predict we will be hearing from them very soon.

we used to be afraid of the U.S.S.R. because of political prisoners and a police state.

Jeff Muttart, a traffic-accident reconstructionist, has pored over hundreds of surveillance videos of real-life car crashes and near-crashes. In 2005, he concluded that emergency horn use is not associated with decreased accident involvement. He found that drivers never steered and honked at the same time, and usually they didn't honk at all. About half of emergency honks were meant to chastise and came only after the danger was over. The other half were just preludes to a crash. "It really didn't serve any purpose at all. It was just, Hey, by the way, I'm going to hit you."

http://www.slate.com/id/2204988/pagenum/all/



if they don't serve a safety feature, it's little more than tradition that keeps them in cars.
as free speech goes, the horn is not a very expressive means of communication. it's often misinterpreted.

"It really didn't serve any purpose at all. It was just, Hey, by the way, I'm going to hit you."

Which creates a huge unnecessary distraction, leading to more accidents. Not to mention increased incidents of road rage.

Jesus mary and joseph

how ironic

Ain't that America something to see?

As written, that would only allow people to honk their horns in order to take out a policy. If it's written that way in the original law, that would suggest the law is nonsensical, and should be voided. (Not gonna happen, I know -- just my little fantasy. :) )