It’s bad enough Amendment One passed. But the measure was doubly troubling for one Charlotte, NC, woman: She was detained yesterday because she had a homemade No on Amendment One sign on her car.
Lori Taylor, 41, filed a report with Pineville police on Tuesday after a “public-safety employee” at Carolina Place Mall blocked her car in and refused to move unless she removed a laminated “Vote Against Amendment One” sign on her vehicle.
Taylor tells the Charlotte Observer that when she asked what the problem was, the unnamed rent-a-cop explained, ‘There’s no politicking at Carolina Place,” and gestured toward the sign:
“I said, ‘Sir I’m not breaking the law. I’m not putting out anything at Carolina Place Mall, or anything of the sort.”
“…He just kept saying there’s no politicking. He didn’t give me a reason. He was detaining me.”
After about five minutes, she asked to speak to a supervisor. The employee radioed and spoke with a superior, then moved his car and allowed her to leave. “He looked at the back window and shook his head and got back in the car,” Taylor said. “I waited for an apology. I waited for an ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to detain you.’ There was nothing but a smirk. And then he left.”
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Taylor’s actually pretty lucky. If she had an Obama/Biden 2012 bumper sticker he would’ve Tased her.
Photo: Columbia Pictures
JT
This vote has brought out the worst kind of hate from God’s Loving People(TM). Not really anything unexpected, but absolutely vile.
Uncle Mo
She’s about to be a very, very rich lesbian. Talk about a Gospel of prosperity.
Homomofo
SO now Mall cops can annoy law abiding citizens because they have political slogans on their cars that the pathetic rent -a-loosers disagree with!?! That man should be reprimanded and forced to apologize.
Caleb
@SKULLTAKER: What he did, under the law, is called kidnapping. If you wrongfully detain another person without just cause, you can be help civilly and criminally liable. It doesn’t matter if the Mall had a “policy.” Courts have consistently held that Malls are semi-public places, even if privately owned, and First Amendment protections as to free speech generally apply. I hope she gets him fired and walks away with a nice little check in the process.
[email protected]
At least they didn’t throw their white sheets over their heads and lynch her. NC has progressed over the last two hundred years.
Josh
@Caleb: Blocking someone’s car in is not kidnapping. Don’t makes statements about the law when you clearly have no understanding of it.
-A 3L at Cornell Law School.
Larkin
Wow, if you are gonna post a photo, it shouldn’t be misleading. You give credit to the studio for the photo but don’t point OUT that the person in the photo is not the person in the article?
Seriously, that is F*CKED UP. Mall Cop sucked but it wasn’t that bad for a dollar rental. Blogs have these wonderful things nowadays called a caption. I know you probably never heard of it before but you should check up on journalism topics that have been popular since the printing press was invented!
Here’s a caption for you.
A ‘typical’ mall cop as portrayed by the seasoned actor Kevin Jame III in the movie “Paul Blart: Mall Cop”.
Larkin
oh lookie, I made typos just like every article you write.