In the late summer of 2004, Corvallis, Oregon made national news as a place where - using advanced prognosticating tools - one savvy political seer was able to divine the results of the Bush-Kerry presidential contest. Now, the quaint burg of Corvallis is again in the spotlight.

Judge Mark Donahue of Corvallis Municipal Court has ruled local resident Jim Ellison was not violating the local noise ordinance by beating a drum repeatedly in front of the Benton County Courthouse to protest the Iraq War. Even though there was no dispute that Ellison's percussive plaint could be heard more than 50 feet away and thus was technically exceeding the limit, Ellison is off the hook with Judge Donahue thanks to his First Amendment right to freedom of speech, and a federal precedent involving one Diane Nomad.

Is this a great country, or what?

Ellison adds a nice passive-aggressive twist to the outcome, noting that for now, he's just going to blow bubbles in public to protest the war, but that if he wanted to, he could bring out a "40-piece drum band" to make his point, and once exceed the local noise threshold. Actually he begs an interesting question: would repeated blowing of air raid sirens or foghorns in Corvallis also be an acceptable form of "free speech" protest?

A hint comes from Judge Donahue, who found that a lack of specificity in the local noise ordinance also supported Ellison's acquital.

"The Corvallis noise ordinance prohibits all sounds that meet the listed criteria, and it makes no attempt to include regulations, or tailor its restrictions, so as to achieve the city's interest in peace and quiet and still allow constitutionally protected expression," wrote Donahue.

How about this: Words of protest allowed in public places, so long as they cannot be heard more than 50 feet away. Sounds other than words (drums, chainsaws, recordings of bombs) made as an explicit form of political protest are subject to the same limit, with exceptions granted by permit for politically-oriented concert events (such as "Rock Against Bush," and the odd anti-globalism/pro-Third World microcredit lending thrash-punk fundraiser).

By the way - as a visitor who notices the little things, I've observed that Corvallis, like other cities its size and those larger, can do a poor job of regulating problematic conduct in public spaces. A primary intended and actual use of the public fountain along the attractive Willamette River promenade in Corvallis is that kids run through and also bask in the sprinkler streams of the open air, no-barrier structure, which is adjacent to a walking and bicycling path. But older kids on bicycles have been known to zoom into the fountain, nearly running over the little ones. I know, because this happened to my kids in that fountain when we were visiting Corvallis last year. I had to send the errant cyclists on their way. There was no sign posted, as there should have been, prohibiting bicycle riders from driving through the fountain area. With a well-used bike path nearby, it seems a no-brainer.

Civility and consideration, City Fathers. And specificity.

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Posted by Matt Rosenberg at August 9, 2005 11:38 AM