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Some of you need to read the links that seamusTX and CainA provided. Looks like I had this Decker guy pegged from the get-go. This isn't the first time he felt the need to throw his "authority" around.

Restraint. Exactly. Restraint.

I get wound up, too. I get wound up about people who have a little bit of authority and start throwing it around to satisfy their egos.

And that's what this discussion is all about. It's about this guy Decker who happens to be a Fire Marshall who overheard a woman say "They're [the batteries] all ----ing gone" and got all offended about it and decided to throw his badge around. Whatever law enforcement authority Decker may or may not have, someone else here hit the nail right on the head: Law enforcement officers are not supposed to get offended. But this "law enforcement officer," if you can call him that (he's a Fire Marshall for goodness sake!), got offended and allowed his personal prejudices to cloud his judgment. When Ms. Fridge called him on it, he blew a gasket and escalated the situation to a degree far beyond what was necessary. His petty tyrant ego got bruised because Ms, Fridge didn't "respect his authority" enough.

Frankly, I believe Ms. Fridge's version of the story. I think Decker is a liar and so is his chief. I've seen people like Decker before and have had to deal with them. Little Napoleons with a badge, or some stripes, who let it go to their heads. They take some tiny imagined infraction and totally overreact, throwing their rank around because "you better respect my authority." I've enjoyed shutting jerks like that down on more than one occasion. They ended up getting embarrassed publicly because they were overstepping their bounds and had to get a good spanking by their bosses.

If it was me, Decker would be facing a lawsuit and his chief would do well to disassociate the department from that jerk's actions or they would me named as a co-defendant.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not condoning coarse behavior in public. But there has to be some kind of perspective maintained. Dropping an F-bomb is not a "breach of the peace," however distasteful it may of may not be. Escalating the situation with the handcuffs and all is. There's a big difference between "They're all ----ing gone" and a loud rant of "F--- this and F--- that and F--- you and blankedy blank blank blank all you blank blanks...." Maybe next Decker can arrest the fat guy in shorts and a stained wife-beater shirt. That's pretty distasteful too.

The First Amendment protects free speech. It wasn't put in the Constitution to protect pleasant speech -- to protect agreeable speech. No, it was put there to protect disagreeable speech, controversial speech, distasteful speech, offensive speech. It was not put there to protect your sensitive ears from hearing things you might find objectionable.

While there may be limits on the First Amendment, those limits tend to be extremely narrow.

How ironic I find it that some of the same people in this thread cheering Fire Marshall Decker on in his efforts to clean up WalMart are some of the same people who elsewhere argue that there should be no limits whatsoever on the Second Amendment. Which is it? Are Constitutional rights subject to limits or not? You can't have it both ways.

I hate to break it to you, JLaw, but your 8-year-old son has already heard every cuss word in both English and Spanish.

Well, that's who the statute is directed at.

Someone dropping an "F-bomb" into a private conversation hardly equates to murder, arson, rape, speeding, running stop signs, double-parking or even littering.

Mr. Cotton and the moderators continually remind us of the standards that exist on this forum and we excuse this example of obnoxious behavior by insisting we develop a thicker skin?

I am well aware of what the standards are on this forum and I try my level best to adhere to them, thank you very much; after all, I realize am a guest of Mr. Cotton's here and I agreed to those restrictions in order to maintain a membership here. If I want to play on his field I have to obey his rules and I respect that.

No such agreement exists on the street. Or in WalMart. With all due respect, neither place is TexasCHLforum.com and the standards here are not applicable there.

I'm not excusing anything. It just really irks me all the busybodiness going around today. Everywhere you go, there's a bunch of do-gooders sticking their noses into other people's private business telling them how to speak, how to raise their children -- it goes on and on. A great spiritual master in the First Century once said:

1‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s* eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbor,* “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.
Mt 7:1-5, NRSV

I found that my life improved dramatically for the better when I stopped worrying about what other people were supposed to be doing and instead concentrated on what I was supposed to be doing.

You wouldn't talk to your mother, wife or daughter that way, it is not acceptable behavior in a civilized society, and I would not tolerate your using it in the presence of my family.

That's a mighty big assumption you make. You don't know me from Adam. For all you know, growing up in the trailer court in West Virginia, my mother could have had a mouth on her that would make a sailor blush. Not everyone grew up as sensitive and civilized as you. But when I come to your house for a visit, I will certainly respect your wishes.

This whole incident under discussion boils down to some busybody who had his tender virgin ears assaulted by a stranger's colorful language in a public place and chose to throw his badge and his "authority" around instead of acting like an adult and minding his own business.

Ooh, someone said a naughty word!

BIG DEAL!

There are adults wandering out in the world unsupervised and sometimes they use adult language. So what. Merely using strong language in a conversation with someone is not disorderly conduct just because some little milquetoast pansy overhears it.

I agree with WarHawk-AVG. Some people need to grow thicker skin.

I think Decker would have had to call the real police to come get me after I decked him! Too big for his britches, he is.