The astute Charleston Post and Courier published the following editorial today.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
Who in New York state could possibly object to a vanity license plate — GETOSAMA — issued to a retired New York City policemen? The state Department of Motor Vehicles, that’s who.
The DMV has ordered former NYPD officer Arno Herwerth to return the plate, saying that it violates the department’s regulations against plates that could be considered “obscene, lewd, lascivious, derogatory to a particular ethnic group or patently offensive.”
The only group that would likely be offended by the message is al-Qaida. All the more reason to issue it.
Mr. Herwerth’s lawyer is seeking a court order to allow his client to keep the plate.
The attorney says it is a patriotic message. As Mr. Herwerth explained, in comments to The Associated Press: “I got the plates because of 9/11. I want to keep the message alive that this man needs to be killed or captured. It’s been a long time, but we haven’t forgotten.”
Remember, DMV?
–end of editorial–
(couldn’t resist…does this classify us now as a terrorist porn blog?)
So what’s the deal here? A “GETOSAMA” license plate is lewd and obscene, but entire newscasts about him are perfectly legit? Seems a little backwards to me. If I saw the a “GETOSAMA” license plate rolling down the road, offense would be the last thing that came to my mind….after I stopped laughing and swerving away from other cars, I’d probably forget about the whole thing.
The funniest part is, since the DMV asked for the plate back, they’ve probably brought more attention to it than it would have received on the back of a car. In any case, with our without the plate, I doubt any of us will forget about Osama. I mean how could we with our nation’s brilliant news coverage of the issue and with his own self-made video tapes?
Can’t wait to hear what Fox News has to say….
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.