Wearing apparel avoids jail

A Ward Churchill-supporting activist who started a ruckus at a CU Board of Regents meeting early in the Churchill controversy and was subsequently charged with 2nd degree assault is back in the news. The Rocky today on protestor Shareef Aleem:

An activist who wore a T-shirt to court bearing the image of an executed street gang founder won't have to serve the 45 days in jail he was sentenced to, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled today.

The "executed street gang founder" whose image Aleem wore was, of course, Tookie Williams (tookietookietookie!), Ward Churchill's favorite criminal.

Justices said Adams County District Court Judge Katherine Delgado didn't give Shareef Aleem a warning before holding him in contempt of court for not removing the shirt.

This was at a hearing for Aleem's assault trial, which ended in a hung jury. The Supreme Court, having it both ways, said that although Aleem couldn't be held in contempt this time, he didn't

have a First Amendment right to wear the shirt, which had the words "Should have been saved" and "Redemption" above a photo of Stanley Tookie Williams . . . .

The Rocky doesn't detail the court's reasoning.

Update: Can't seem to find whether Aleem's retrial on the assault charge ever actually took place. The DA may well have just dropped it.

Update II: One of my favorite Churchill quotes is his description of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (it's in the CBS4 story above) as "signing off [on] the life and death of a man [Tookie] he's not fit to lick the boots off."Not a witty line or anything, and he probably actually said "boots of," but it's impossible not to imagine Arnold performing this service as a certain character.

Isn't it?

(credit: Arnold from Diceman Creations)