Okay, maybe a better line would have been, ?please, dear soul, respect the sanctity of those grains for their later consumption.? But instead, Danielle Wolf told her husband to ?stop squishing the f?king bread.?
But was that enough for Wolf to be arrested while she and her family shopped at a grocery store in North Augusta, South Carolina? According to that area’s local WJBF Channel 6, it sure as hell (?sorry, ?heck?) was. Another shopper who overheard the words on Aug. 10 called local police, resulting in arrest of the 27-year-old female on charges of disorderly conduct.
According to city law, ?disorderly conduct? can constitute ?for any person to engage in riotous conduct of any kind or to declaim or cry out in a noisy scandalous or abusive manner in any ? as to disturb or annoy any other person.?
As Think Progress points out, however, this arrest was unconstitutional. Just check the 1971 U.S. Supreme Court case of Cohen v. California; a man who wore clothing that read ?F?k the Draft? inside a courthouse could not be arrested, the court ruled, for it violated his own rights. But neither the complainant nor North Augusta police knew of that historic decision and its applicability to other law.
The complainant thought the words were said to Wolf’s two daughters, who were accompanying Wolf and her husband at the time, and said the incident reminded her of an abusive childhood. Wolf says she was speaking to her husband, though, who she says was dropping frozen pizzas on the loaf of bread already in their shopping cart. And Wolf doesn’t contest the claim that she dropped an F-bomb after the complainant directly confronted her over the incident, either.
The complainant has since apologized, and through a direct telephone conversation arranged by local NBC 26. But now Wolf will need to mind her language when she goes to court, where she’ll appear on Sept. 12 to defend herself against the claim.
The silly situation hasn’t helped Wolf cast a positive light on the Palmetto State, where her family just moved from Ohio only three weeks before the arrest. However, it’s helped her set a new personal standard, she says, albeit restrictive.
?I’ll never say that word out in public ever again.?
What’s your opinion on this circumstance? State your case (using appropriate language, of course!) on the?Liberal AmericaFacebook page. Sign up for our?free daily newsletter?to receive more great stories like this one.
