# Poet gets arrested!



## minkster (Jul 12, 2008)

My friend Chris Rockwell is a public performer who does a combination of poetry and rap. We were at Seaside Heights and he busted one of rhymes and a crowd started to form. Five cops came over and forced him to stop what he was doing and made him leave the boardwalk. The reason for taking him off the boardwalk was for being a "public nuisance" 





 
The cops threatened to take away my camera, but thankfully I still have it. What a night that was. Believe me, there are a lot of other performers that do far worse things than this. Whatever happened to freedom of speech?


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## Easy_Target (Jul 12, 2008)

minkster said:


> Whatever happened to freedom of speech?


 I believe that disappeared when this country became a police state in 2001 with the enactment of the PATRIOT Act.


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## abraxas (Jul 13, 2008)

What was bail set at?


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## minkster (Jul 13, 2008)

Actually let me clarify...the cops forced him off the boardwalk and started to ask him questions. They asked where he was from and since he was a local, they left him off with just a warning. However, he needs a permit now in order to rap on the boardwalk which he is looking into getting.


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## reg (Jul 15, 2008)

Bit of a difference there...

And you need a permit in most places to perform in the street like that. It's not exactly like he's being quiet, there's a crowd, and if they told him to move along that's what he has to do.

The police did nothing wrong and unless the video didn't show something, they're not exactly beating him down or anything...


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