Activist Post
Mayfield, KY has a real problem with hooligan Amish men repeatedly breaking the laws. Sheriff DeWayne Redmon said, "We're citing them for their own safety as well as the safety of others."
Graves county in Mayfield boasts the most Amish arrests over the dreaded orange triangle statewide. Ten men are not being arrested for refusing to don the emblem on their buggies, but for accruing fines over refusal. The brightly colored reflective shape flies in the face of their deeply held religious beliefs concerning modesty. The law's challenge of their beliefs has been a constant battle.
Ananias Byler, among the ten found in contempt of court last Thursday, told Judge Deborah Crooks that he will not pay the $489 fine. The Amish often believe that paying the fine concedes that the law is correct in violating their religious beliefs. These men belong to an older, strict order called Swartzentruber.
But when it comes to cut-and-dried state laws -- there are no exceptions. "I totally understand your objection," the judge said. "But you're in violation, and it's not up to me to change the law. It doesn't really matter what I think about any of this."
Last fall, Crooks sent nine Swartzentrubers to jail for refusing the orange triangles and the fines.
Byler was sentenced to 10 days in jail. Jacob Gingerich, father of 12, was sentenced to 13 days and owes $627.
"We're just not going to pay," he said. The men were noted for their politeness and respect in the courtroom.
Gingerich and two others have an interesting ally: the American Civil Liberties Union. The Kentucky chapter has sued over the State Highway law, citing religious freedom infringement. The state appeals court rejected an appeal last June, but the Kentucky Supreme Court decided they will hear the argument sometime this year. Gingerich wishes the Court could have heard them before they landed jail time.
In the face of the Amishmen's defiance, lawmakers are finally considering a compromise that would have saved a lot of trouble from the beginning -- grey reflectors.
Source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57358103/amish-men-jailed-for-refusing-to-pay-buggy-fines/
Byler was sentenced to 10 days in jail. Jacob Gingerich, father of 12, was sentenced to 13 days and owes $627.
"We're just not going to pay," he said. The men were noted for their politeness and respect in the courtroom.
Gingerich and two others have an interesting ally: the American Civil Liberties Union. The Kentucky chapter has sued over the State Highway law, citing religious freedom infringement. The state appeals court rejected an appeal last June, but the Kentucky Supreme Court decided they will hear the argument sometime this year. Gingerich wishes the Court could have heard them before they landed jail time.
In the face of the Amishmen's defiance, lawmakers are finally considering a compromise that would have saved a lot of trouble from the beginning -- grey reflectors.
Source:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57358103/amish-men-jailed-for-refusing-to-pay-buggy-fines/
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30 comments:
This is not modesty. This is pure vanity. The only other group i am aware of that strips off saftey equipment is biker gang members and other outlaws. The Amish are generally not so blind to this kind of hypocrasy. The dorky yellow triangle is not cool looking, jeddadiah, and if modesty was your true goal, you would paint the whole thing bright yellow like a school bus for safety. Blacked out buggies are cool looking, and not modest at all.
ACLU? Are you serious?
On another note, the Amish lifestyle has many, many things I would prefer to have in my own community. This kind of religious fakery is not one of them.
I believe there's is at least one supreme court verdict that rules that the roads are free to use by private citizens - late 1800s to early 1900s. We all agree to be commercial drivers when we sign our licenses and get a titile to the vehicle instead of an mso. This should have been fought in arraignment under jurisdiction objections once you step into the courtroom box/ship with the fringe flag youve agreed to represent the legal fiction of the corporation set up in your all capital letters name.....
Lets see....these horse & buggies have no brakes, turn signals, smog, insurance,registration, etc.
BUT the KY cops are excited cause they don't have an orange triangle? Get real cops!
IF this is all you have to bust folks for go back to your coffee & dognuts. Jeeez...
Next time you get a ticket. Tell the officer you want it written as days in jail instead of a fine. If enough people do this and demand jury trials, REAL change can be made
@ OP Anon - Are you being serious?
If so you clearly must not live near any amish or mennonite communities at all to have such a perverted view of their culture.
An in-law family member of mine is a "modern mennonite" but his parents and grandparents and most of his family are Amish mennonites or "old-school mennonites" as they're called here.
The whole idea of black being a 'modest' color comes from the fact that back in the 'olden days' - which many Amish people's still live in - black fabric and thus clothing was cheap while different colors were "extravagent" and required special dyes and such that made them expensive.
Thus if you wore lots of colored fabrics it generally meant you were rich and/or powerful, wheras black clothing = poor and insignificant.
The Amish consider themselves insignificant and completely devoted to God and thus wearing black clothing and having black buggies(or cars/vans for modern sects) is considered a sign of modesty to them as you only spend the extra money on colors if you are vain and wish to draw attention to yourself.
A bright orange sign does not conform to their views on that and even many around here who use the sign's really, really don't like doing so but their desire to avoid conflict with authorities(or anyone else) leads them to submit.
A gray reflector would very easily solve the problem as gray is not considered an 'extravangance' to any Amish mennonites I've ever met or heard of.
They like white churches and schools as a symbol of God's purity and they like gray and green colors for their houses and barns and such as it's more natural and doesn't stand out as much and thus is not 'extravagent'.
What you call 'religious fakery' is actually an important aspect of their culture and if you took even a little time to try to understand it you wouldn't come across so bigoted.
Ironically although I'm not sure of that sect mentioned in the article around here most of the Amish mennonites would consider it an afront to God to even defend themselves to an outsider's attack - which doesn't help the propogation of misinformation about them when 99% of 'outsider' people are only capable of getting one side of the story.
Great example of resistance!! Just because they invent regulations doesn't make them legitimate. Look at what they are doing to people growing their own food. Don't pay the fines. Now is a time for courage and peaceful disobedience and resistance. It's only going to get worse if we keep putting up with this type of garbage.
ahem...
so... which one is the "evil empire"?
Another victimless "crime" claims some real victims. Get a load of the hogwash the Sheriff says -- its for their own "safety."
Wake up. It's all about the money and power, no one's "safety."
Gandhi would be proud! Keep it up Amish guys
I like the Amish. I don't agree with everything that they do, because I don't find it all to be biblical. But this is about religious freedom. It is not the government's job to protect people from themselves. It is the same garbage as with the seat belt laws. It's not the government's buisness how safe that you are. As long as you don't hurt other people. Fines are just ways to steal money from people for the government.
Unless these Amish men hold a State issued driver's license and are thus operating their buggies under rules and regulations implied by the driver's license agreement, the use of the orange safety signs, as well as any other rules of the road do not apply to them. In assuming that these Amish men did not have a driver's license, the ticket and summons issued by the police officers were issed without legal authority and the court hearing the cases and imposing the fines and imprisonment have done so without legal authority or jurisdiction. Any competent constitutional lawyer should be able to have these cases dismissed and the individuals who have been arrested and jailed without proper legal authority should be able to sue the police offiers and the judge for false arrest and imprisonment.
They don't pay taxes and they don't pay legal fines. That ain't right.
As soon as a cop or politician tells you it's for your own safety, you know he's full of shit.
This is not just about vanity. The Amish believe what the bible says... you cannot serve both God and Mammon. They stand in the Divine Jurisdiction and under the laws therein, not under any artificial man-made jurisdiction. They stand flesh-and-blood, living, breathing men and women with natural, God-given and inalienable rights, in contradistinction to "legal persons" having so-called 'rights' administered (see below).
Ironically, man's law even recognizes that it is imperfect and inferior to God's law, but very few know what to point to or how to articulate and claim the superseding jurisdiction.
ACLU Lawyers - are you paying attention? Of course you're not - you're all members of the bar and officers of the court whose first loyalties, in order of highest to lowest, are first to the record, then to the court, then to the client.
"I wish the reality of our professionat least as viewed by the people we purport to serve could be seen as a 'glass half-full.' I am afraid, however, that because lawyers view justice differently than nonlawyers, we are drinking from different cups. For too long, we who are in the system of justice have insisted that those outside defer to our point of view. I think it is time we look at ourselves through their eyes. ... If the non-lawyers in our society truly expect that we are interested in justice (as the majority of people understand it to be), we first must accept the fact that we are not now, and quite possibly never have been, viewed by our community as the professionals we claim to be. Instead, we are viewed (in many ways rightly so) as the educated and wealthy elite, making our living by helping the legally illiterate maneuver through the procedural waters of the law that we have created and that cannot be navigated without us. It is an unfortunate reality that those who are not educated in the law are required to navigate these waters as a condition of their membership in this society." Attorney David L. Geislinger, What Price Justice? Why Was Amendment 40 Even on the Ballot?, 36 Colo.Law. 5 (May, 2007) at 77.
"Under the English common law with its complicated forms of action and veritable maze of writs and confusing procedures, the right to retain counsel in civil proceedings became a necessity. By the middle of the thirteenth century, lawyers so monopolized the courts in London that the King was forced to decree that, except for a few special causes, litigants were entitled to plead their own cases without lawyers." Iannaccone v. Law, 142 F.3d 553 (2d Cir. 1998) (citing The Right to Counsel in Civil Litigation, 66 Colum. L. Rev. 1322, 1325 (1966)).
"Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." Jesus (Luke 11:46-52)
@Carroll - I tried to post all the lawful bases in support of what you said, but don't have enough room to post here. I completely understand what you're saying.
You'd have to be pretty darn stupid to not realize that a horse and buggy up ahead on the road is a slow moving vehicle. Why the obstinate insistence on a gaudy sign that obviously is not acceptable to these Amish gentlemen? This sign law is about controlling by enforced conformity, not about safety. I don't live in a neigbourhood blessed with Amish people but I wish I did. We could all learn a thing or two from them.
They should also have refused to go to jail or to appear in court.
If more people decided to sit it out AND demand trials...the system would lock up. The system likes compliant sheep that do what 'Big Brother' wants. NEVER, NEVER just pay the fine!
so dont these people have a RIGHT to travel the RIGHT OF WAY as unenfranchized citizens? Or do they have to get a LICENSE and pay a FEE for the RIGHT TO TRAVEL which the SUPREMEM COURT said people have a RIGHT to do. Its about Rights and not about good or bad ideas. A Right can not be converted to a privlege and a tax levied upon same.........
Yes - do not acquiesce - it's a compliance and agreement to wrong doing. Sticking to their principles is finally getting the attention of the media, police, and lawmakers - maybe because it's so ridiculous.
Thanks for the comments everyone! Keep them coming - Peace.
This is a fault of the police and goberment should respect the Amish, they are doing a good job in America. As they are different, they are looked with eyes of racism.
These people have lived in this great country for countless years and we want to enforce this law on them for "SAFETY"? What about the Muslims who want Sharia Law that contradicts our laws so they can stone their women and interpet our laws as they see them, set up special worship places for them at work etc. etc. Do we have a double standard when it comes to U.S. Citizens?
For their own safety??? What *has* this country turned into? Many years ago when the Amish were forced against their wills to put those things on their buggys I was outraged! Whatever happened to individual self-responsibility I thought! I still believe that nobody should have to put those things on their buggys. (In fact, truth be told, I hate being forced to put a plate on the back of my car. There is no reason for it. And I *WON'T* be forced to wear a seatbelt.) Now these men are being fined *and jailed* "for their own good." Well, I want them to know I am in their corner. Don't pay! Ever, ever, ever. Rights come from God, (or nature if you prefer) not the government. Of course, too, the citizens are partly at fault. We should *all* be supporting these men! Why aren't we? Most people are passive and ignorant due to poor education. See my page for an essay on that. But, *please* support these men!
I am standing as a son of the soil under the Sovereign Creator of the Universe.Outside the BAR with a prayer on the land and I do not wish to be forced to pray to the BAR,with court of fiction or other false idols. Let the record show that I am the absolute biological property of the Creator and heir to the Covenant.The Bible and [the Urantia Book ,my personal selection for spiritual guidance] are my only Law. May I remind you that in God we trust remains the operative currency of the United States.I am not a child of the State,a ward of the State Corporation or Legal fiction name on a piece of paper.
The Creator has granted me full authority of my own affairs. Since you have pledged allegiance to one nation under God any attempt to force me to pray inside the BAR or impose the United States Federal Corporation statutes on this non corporate living man is an attack on The Creator Himself and a violation of the Covenant.You and I are created equal in God's eyes I am not and can never be your subject .As a public servant you are a protector of my faith under God and under Caesar.
My law was commissioned by King George the first ancest to King George the third who signed the Treaty of Paris ,which recognized my Sovereignty over this administrative court.As my public servant you are expected to defend that treaty by defending my law at all times and insuring my safe passage thru the united states.
My offer in the presence of the Father in Heaven to settle this matter and make all parties whole is righteous.I authorize the use of my credit to pay all penal sums and expenses real or imagined .As a matter of law this matter is now settled.
As I am immune from your corporate impulses any further attack on me will comprise an enticement to commit treason and blasphemy by abandoning divine right only God can grant or terminate.
For the record I expressly wave all privileges from the U.S.federal corporation including the privilege of appearing,and I deny the existence of any contract for which I have knowingly agreed to submit to the United States as a pagan procedural phantom any such presumption is hereby defeated .
The only one capable of such witness,This biological Son of The ALMIGHTY in God's name. I AM THAT I AM. Freedom Prayer original author unknown. the white rose
The Amish in my community drive their black buggies at night without any type of light or indicator that they are there. The only standing that the claim would have is it is protecting unobservant drivers from collisions with Amish buggies. If you are too busy talking, watching tv, playing on your laptop/iphone/etc to see the buggy ahead then you should expect to hit somethign in the road regardless of weather a big orange triangle is present or not.
Whatever happened to the right to not be treated like a slave? Didn't Abraham Lincoln outlaw slavery, or was I lied to? Isn't this the real issue? I thought you could only be treated as a slave after conviction. Is that how we are all to be treated? Do as your masters say or go to jail/ prison? Pay all the extortion your masters say or go to prison? When will people/ sheeple wakeup and realise that it is the government that is criminal? Extortion is a crime. Do you not recognise it for what it is?
Absolutely ridiculous. Do runners and bicyclists have to wear orange trianges too? And the judge says she isn't there to write the law. No kidding, its your job to interpret what's written! If it is against their religion, it interfers with their first amendment rights. 13 days in prison for a stupid law, this is why America is losing its way. There is no hint of common sense, just beaurocracy and pointless laws written to keep the people from their liberties.
I'm surprised they haven't sited them for a lack of ELECTRICAL tail lights while they are at it.
http://amishbuggy.tripod.com/bugaccidents.htm
The backassward folk should at least mount the bright orange triangle to protect the horses and their families! Most buggy accidents are from rear end collisions!!
To Anonoymous, who called the Amish backassward folk-It seem that tail lights on cars also do not prevent the occupants from being rear-ended. You can't fix stupid, stupid, with sophmoric, knee-jerk comments.
The Lord said that he will make those who think they are brilliant, living outside of him stupid and those the world considers stupid who live for The Lord will be seen as brilliant.
Their are no drivers license's required for horse drawn buggies or horse drawn waggons. Their are also no drivers license required to operate farm equipment, Tractors and such down a highway which also typically require an Orange Safety traingle.
My question is when did a Horse Drawn Buggy one of the oldest forms of transporation next to riding the animal directly start to be considered farm equipment? We all also need to remember that The Amish typically only use these in often very rural area'a and not down an interstate or overly congested highway.
My support is with The Amish and The Lord Jesus. I hope they also refused to swear an Oath on The Holy Bible as Jesus also teaches us not to do that as well; S. Matt. 5:33-37 which the US courts require. This could be why they were held in contempt, but I was not there to bear an accurate witness.
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