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Buzzby

Lawyers: CU Students' Rights Violated
Some Students Say They'll Sue Over Posted Photos
The Denver Channel | 05/05/2006

BOULDER, Colo. -- A University of Colorado freshman who said he smokes marijuana "religiously" plans to sue the University of Colorado for posting his photo online, after campus police took the unusual step to identify students last week.

Benjamin A. Bock, 19, was among more than 2,500 people who participated in the annual April 20 "4/20" marijuana rally on Farrand Field. This year, campus police posted notices that the field was closed and that participants would be photographed and could face prosecution.

Bock, along with the other participants, ignored the signs and went onto the field, despite the posted warnings and the fact that uniformed police were circulating among the crowd, taking pictures.

The pictures ended up on the CU Web site and were distributed to the media, in an effort to identify those participating. CU police offered a $50 reward for each correct identification and were bombarded with calls. More than 60 of the people depicted in the photographs have been turned in.

Students who were correctly identified will be referred to the Office of Judicial Affairs, where they will be disciplined trespassing, according to CU.

Bock was the first person identified among the 200 photos posted.

Civil rights attorneys Perry Sanders Jr. and Robert J. Frank met with upset students Thursday night and said CU violated their constitutional rights.

"Whenever the government does something or takes an action designed to keep you from engaging in free speech, then that's an impermissible government intrusion into your First Amendment rights," said Frank.

The meeting was sponsored by the marijuana-advocacy group SAFER.

CU said it had the right to close the field, but Sanders and Frank disagree. They said the closure violated the students' right to assembly.

Members of The Grateful Dead are believed to have organized the first 4/20 celebration in 1979 in San Jose, Calif., where "420" was rumored to be police code for marijuana smoking. A check of police codes in California, however, revealed no jurisdiction uses 420 as a code for marijuana. Some pot smokers use "420" as a code to speak about marijuana openly among unsuspecting teachers and parents, according to a popular Web site.

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vladimir

in the context of them doing something illegal AND being warned about what the police were doing, this argument is horribly weak.

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If a drug (or technique or process) were ever to be discovered which would consistently produce a plus four experience in all human beings, it is conceivable that it would signal the ultimate evolution, and perhaps the end of, the human experiment.

Buzzby

If the university had merely closed the field without the warnings of police surveillance they might have a case. With the warnings it becomes clear that the university closed the field with the intention of limiting rights of free speech.

hendrix

from what i gathered, he's being prosecuted for trespassing.. and his defense is, he smokes marijuana religiously.

am i missing something?

nerphroll

This Benjamin Bock and all the other students who got in trouble are crybabies and idiots in my book. They could have "assembled" anywhere else. The University had every right to close the field for the day. It also did Bock and his idiot friends a tremendous service by posting very explicit warnings, which Bock and the rest of his spoiled and entitled CU classmates foolishly ignored.
Though he's a freshman, his behavior now that he's "caught" is truly sophomoric.

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HELP ME IVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR OVER 13 YEARS!!!!!!!!!!
PURIFY ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Plainsman1963

Students Sue CU Over Right To Assemble
05-11-06 | CBS4Denver.Com | Shaun Boyd

Three students have started the process of suing the University of Colorado over prosecution of trespassing during a pro-marijuana event on campus 3 weeks ago.

The students said CU violated their civil rights by trying to prevent people from assembling for the rally. The school had posted signs that said Farrand Field was closed.

Students went onto the field and held the rally with many people apparently smoking marijuana. CU police officers took photos of students on the field and posted them on a Web site.

Investigators have been asking for help identifying the students so they can be fined for trespassing.

Attorneys for the 3 students said CU violated their First Amendment rights by closing a public field.

CU officials said it was a safety issue. The school said it was trying to close the field to prevent people from joining in illegal drug use.

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walstmonky

Those who think that a State and Federally funded university had the right to do an end run around the Constitution should learn the legal precedent involved. Here's a link to help you with starting to educate yourself.

http://www.skokiehistory.info/chrono/nazis.html

This nonsense has already been to the Supreme Court, and decided in favor of free speech. It's outrageous that government lackey's continue to flout the law.

KWhite

Your inalienable rights.

Fight for them, or they will become alienated.

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"Your mind is your own, your body as well, from the soul we need not speak, tend it well, making those decisions you deem worthy, aware all responsibility is in your hands when the smoke clears" Kelly L. White

"It is a principle of natural justice that when bad men make bad laws, or when unprincipled authorities compromise good ones, citizens are justified in protecting themselves from the very authority that compromised law and order." Gandhi

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