We previously saw how police charged atheist activist Ellen Beth Wachs, 48, with unauthorized practice of law after she confronted local politicians over prayer at public meetings. Now, Wachs (the legal coordinator for the Atheists of Florida) has been arrested with a sexual performance in the presence of a child. The police, however, admit that no one saw any sexual act. Rather, she is accused of making sexual noises.
Police say that Wachs had asked a neighbor’s 10-year-old son to stop playing basketball early in the morning because she felt sick and the noise was bothering her. The boy stopped but a few minutes later he reportedly started again — with his Dad. They then say that they heard “moaning noises of a sexual nature” coming from her house. Deputies arrived and arrested her.
Atheists are objecting that this is a pattern of harassment by local officials directed at Wachs while police insist, while no one has been charged for sexual noises before, they have brought this charge in other cases. It turns out that making basketball noises is not a crime.
This could lead to an interesting first amendment claim as to why some noises are allowed while others are criminalized. This is akin to criminalizing swearing in public where the sounds themselves are considered profanity. I personally believe that Captain & Tennille’s Muskrat Love is highly disturbing. While a crime against art and society, it is not a crime. Seriously, the question is where is the line drawn on “sexual noises” under the criminal code?
We have seen a woman arrested for broadcasting porn near a school, but not the claim of sexual noises.
What is clear is that Meg Ryan should stay clear of Florida. In Florida, it turns out that “what she’s having” is a criminal felony charge:
Source: ABC
Jonathan Turley
mr.ed,
🙂
Buddha: “We have a nail in the tire.”
AY: “Ignore it and it will go away.”
Buddha: “No, it won’t. Just our perception of it will go away. It can still flatten the tire.”
AY: “But we don’t have to drive on a flat.”
Buddha: “Noting there is a nail in the tire is not the same as driving on a flat . . . or fixing a flat for that matter. Nothing may come of it or action might be needed. You don’t know until the tire is flat.”
Buddha,
The only one I really minded was a guy who used to call me for gigs, and then only because I missed the income from the guys.
My in-laws know about my views, but most of my family does not. I’m not ashamed, but I’d rather not have to put up with the re-conversion attempts that would follow if they found out.
AY,
I like to think of myself as a loose screw … waiting patiently by the side of the road for a passing convertible …
Gyges,
Yep. The same goes for severe disparities in political philosophies as well. Some people just seem to fade away. The odd thing is that, like the Christian/Atheist gap, I find that about 3/4 of them I don’t miss at all. The other 1/4? While I would still value their friendship and companionship, I have to ask what use is it to keep alive a relationship that has little or no possibility of becoming less contentious over time and quite a good possibility of becoming more contentious? Isn’t that a bit like inviting future disappointment and/or disaster? As long as there is no overt hostilities, why let things simmer until they boil over instead of just letting go and moving on? Yeah, I even miss a few of those who have fallen away over the years, I can think of three specifically, but the vast majority I don’t miss at all. The world is full of new friends waiting to be discovered.
Save it to say…even if she flattens the tire…do we have to keep driving on the rim……..
A woman in the grocery store had turned the soundtrack clip of WHMS into a ringtone. Boy, was that fun looking to see who was having an aisle 6 adventure!
Depends on whether she flattens the tire or not, AY.
Honestly, most of the bigotry I’ve come across towards my atheism is of the soft variety. Friendships sometimes just seem to… go away once it’s been discovered.
This, on the other hand, is plain harassment based on religious beliefs.
And it is kinda of like driving a car on the road…sometimes you pick up rock and nails….and sometimes a few loose screws…. 8)
Buddha,
She may be a thread jacker….But do you not think the best medicine is to ignore her totally…Yesterday she kinda did the same thing and no one responded and she kind of went away….I am just kind or saying…we don’t want other people to get pissed off at our wanting to keep the blawg salient…
Threadjacker.
In Steamboat Springs CO the wife of a convicted drug dealer who was president of the city council and my next door neighbor filed a police report saying that I accused them of violating the zoning and the constitution and alleging that I called him an “asshole”. The D.A. didn’t get a warrant for my arrest so the wife of the drug dealer just signed a police criminal summons and complaint on the line for police officer. That form is only supposed to be used by actual police officers and only when they are actually witnessing a crime in progress. But it was enough to get me criminally prosecuted without any other document, the charges held open for 6 months, the d.a. to give a public statement that the drug dealers wife was my victim but a trial was too expensive, a permanent restraining order that I could be imprisoned for 18 months if the drug dealers wife could get within 30 feet of me even if I was in my own yard or house or shopping or going to the bank, and public statements published by the Steamboat Pilot on the Internet by the drug dealers’ lawyer that I had abused the drug dealer’s wife. (He might have stopped dealing but rumor was that he was an active dealer and I had complained of late night visitors to his shed.)
Actually I seldom swear and don’t remember calling him an asshole. They had three witnesses and only she claimed I called him an asshole. My son was with me and he said he didn’t remember me calling him an asshole. But for this our lives were ruined. We couldn’t stay in Steamboat without fear of imminent arrest for going shopping and there was a bullet hole through our window, so we sold our house below value to one of the drug dealer’s lawyers.
Maybe I should have moaned. I was also accused by the drug dealer’s wife of jumping up and down but actually I don’t jump either. On a different day she filed a police report and accused me of hovering on the pavement before the light changed and I cross the street and went to the bank.
“Should be interesting to see what happens when she gets back home.” -Blouise
Ongoing harassment, I’m guessing…
(AY, 🙂 )
The moaning noises from her home were described by the father and son who had retreated back inside their home so I guess the police didn’t actually hear anything? On the face of it, if no additional facts emerge … I’ll go with persecution.
Should be interesting to see what happens when she gets back home.
Ms. Wachs lives in Polk County, a primarily rural, ultra-conservative, Bible belt area lying between Orlando and Tampa. There is no doubt that her arrest is related to nothing more than her atheism. There is also no doubt that the charge will not be prosecuted.
Morning AN……
I suppose the folks complaining must be baptist…..
I had often heard the following….maybe its true…maybe its not….
But you know why….Baptist don’t do it standing up?……….
They don’t want people to think that they are dancing…….
Morning, AY.
Anon Nurse,
All’s I can say is “Say WHAT?”
Her attorney:
“The fear that I have as a lawyer? …is that we move from legitimate prosecution interests to persecution.”