'Conduct' laws a blunt weapon  More and more, free speech has
its price  July 20, 2008|By Gabriel A. Fuentes  There will be no
monkey trial in Carpentersville. But this and other recent free
speech cases show that in many towns in Illinois, the
constitutional right of free expression is not exactly
guaranteed.In Carpentersville, I represented a village trustee
who had told her neighbors' African-American children to get out
of a tree and then said that they should not climb the tree
"like monkeys." She was ticketed and prosecuted under a village
ordinance barring disorderly conduct. In June, the village
dismissed the charge.  In Island Lake, a 60-year-old former
Marine was arrested in April for disorderly conduct after he
allegedly pointed his finger at a village official during a
public meeting while wearing a T-shirt that showed a Marine
holding a rifle and stating, "Don't move. If you run, you'll
only die tired." The village says he used his thumb to make his
hand look like a gun. His prosecution is contin