The Fictional Mob

[Michael MASINTER]

No offense intended; as a student in Palo Alto many years ago, I ran into
a group of very interesting people who called themselves the merry band of
pranksters; neither they nor I regarded it as an insult.

Michael R. Masinter                     3305 College Avenue
Nova Southeastern University            Fort Lauderdale, Fl. 33314
Shepard Broad Law Center                (954) 262-6151
masinter at nova.edu                       Chair, ACLU of Florida Legal Panel

On Tue, 28 Nov 2000, David Cruz wrote:

> On Tue, 28 Nov 2000, Michael MASINTER wrote:
>
> > [snip]
> > The first amendment plainly does not forbid the exclusion of protesters
> > from government buildings during vote counting.  It is fair to ask why
> > what would be a universal precaution in the rest of the country was not
> > taken in Miami.  I wouldn't want Jesse Jackson and his merry band of
> > pranksters in the building either if my goal was to ensure the orderly
> > counting of ballots.
> > [snip]
>
> I know that this process is taking its toll on many of us, but we (or at
> least I) might be better able to maintain an appropriate air of
> professional courtesy in these discussions if dismissive phrases such as
> the above allusion to the Reverend Jackson's "merry band of pranksters"
> were not bandied about without explanation of the factual predicate for
> such characterization, absent which it seems gratuitously insulting.
>
> -David B. Cruz, USC Law (Cal.)
>
>