Grimshaw not Obscene

LANSING—Justice moves slowly.

Two years ago Gary Grimshaw, who at that time was art director for the Fifth Estate, was arrested in the Artists’ Workshop office on John Lodge for displaying an obscene kite.

The kite had on it an Egyptian peace eye symbol and the words “Fuck America Go Fly a Kite.”

Gary was apprehended by six zealous guardians of the law and tried on Detroit’s obscenity ordinance before Traffic Court Judge Andrew Wood. Wood found him guilty and Grimshaw appealed.

On May 29 the Michigan State Court of Appeals reversed his conviction on the grounds that the ordinance violates the Constitutional guarantee of free speech.

Judge T. John Lesinski ruled the law defective because it fails to require that the defendant know he is violating an ordinance when committing the act.

The Detroit corporation counsel is hastily redrafting the ordinance to comply with the ruling.

Is everything legal in the interim? Check your local smut store.

Related: “Grimshaw Convicted for Obscene Kite,” FE #34, July 15–31, 1967.