Saying “Crippled” Leads to Arrest

Make sure your Newspeak dictionary is up to date, and study it carefully on a daily basis. Use of previously innocuous words that our rulers have arbitrarily forbidden can lead to arrest:

    A man who says he was charged with disorderly conduct after using the word “crippled” to promote a comedian with muscular dystrophy claims Cincinnati police violated his free speech rights, and the comedian agrees.

    Forest Thomer, of Cold Spring, Ky., is to appear in a Cincinnati courtroom on the charge Wednesday. He was cited by Cincinnati police last month at a park after he and comedian Ally Bruener say he asked people if they wanted to “laugh at the crippled girl.”

    The question was not intended to demean his friend Bruener, but to promote her next comedy show and her allybruener.com website, the two said Monday. Bruener, who is in a wheelchair because of the degenerative muscle disorder, said she would approach people after Thomer asked them the question, tell a joke and talk about her next performance. Thomer also would record some of the public’s responses for use on Bruener’s website, showing people saying: “I laughed at the crippled girl.”

For his thought crime, Thomer could get 30 days in the hoosegow.

As for the crippled— I mean, as for the person of handicappedness,

    “I don’t think words have power until you react negatively to them,” said Bruener.

They don’t, but our PC rulers do, so watch your tongue. By the way, the word Chinaman is also forbidden now, in case you hadn’t heard. No one seems to know why.

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