gllahone84
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Explicit
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gllahone84
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A uniformed police officer walked into the Records 'N Such store here two days ago and, delivering a letter signed by the Police Chief, told Donna M. Smith that a number of the records she sold might get her into trouble with the law. The letter, also sent to two other record stores here, warned against the "illegal selling" of recordings marked with "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics" labels, citing New York's laws on obscenity. The police chief, James R. Murley, defended the warning as a measured response to the complaint of a woman whose daughter bought a rap music tape she described as shockingly obscene. Others here, however, called it a shocking violation of First Amendment rights. Using Obscenity Laws Either way, the letter and the storm of publicity around it have forced people in this woody suburb of 30,000 people just west of Albany to draw a line between free speech and obscenity and to ask whether music today has crossed it. "I was stunned," Ms. Smith, the store's general manager, said today as a trickle of customers browsed through some of the recordings that could be affected by the ruling. "I thought this was over.
It seems almost absurd that in 1992 this is going to happen again." In recent years, the police in communities in several states have taken actions against people who sold records deemed objectionable, including the highly publicized prosecution of a record store owner for selling an album by the rap group 2 Live Crew in Broward County, Fla., in 1990. But this is the first time law-enforcement officials in New York have raised the possibility of prosecuting record sellers under the state's obscenity laws, which were written in 1967. "We're certainly not looking to violate the First Amendment," Chief Murley said today in an interview in his office in Town Hall, where he has been besieged for two days by telephone calls from reporters and citizens. "But we have to interpret the penal code to some degree, whether it's robbery or obscenity. We thought this was a reasonable way to handle it." Chief Murley, the police chief here since 1974, said that arrests are unlikely and that his intent was never to force the town's record stores to pull potentially offensive recordings from the shelves, but for Ms. Smith, that is effectively the result. Until the matter is settled, she said she would simply not stock the recordings rather than subject herself or her employees to arrest. "They're basically saying this is obscene and this is obscene without even hearing it," she said. "That's what scares me." The controversy began when Suzanne Shafer, 37 years old, a hairdresser from nearby Voorheesville, took her 14-year-old daughter Shannon shopping at the Crossgates Mall on Dec. 26. As Mrs. Shafer shopped in another store, her daughter bought two cassette tapes in Record Town, one of two shops in the mall owned by the Trans World Music Corporation, a 600-store chain based in Albany. One of them was "EFIL4ZAGGIN," the latest release by the California rap group N.W.A., known for its "gangster style" of music. The recording is infused with racial epithets, vulgarities and descriptions of sexual acts. "I had never paid much attention to what records she bought," Mrs. Shafer said. "But when I heard this record, I couldn't believe they sold such stuff in records stores, much less to children."
A Call to the Police Like many other rap and heavy metal albums, N.W.A.'s carry a label warning parents about the content of the songs. The recording industry adopted warning labels in 1985 under pressure from parents' groups and state lawmakers. In 1990, they agreed on a standard, black-and-white label that reads "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics." Mrs. Shafer said that labels are one thing, but obscenity is another, and she called Guilderland's Police Department to complain. Warning Sign for Minors After reviewing the recording with the Albany County District Attorney's Office, Chief Murley drafted the letter. Citing the advisory labels and Section 235 of the State Penal Law, he warned the stores that it is a "misdemeanor to sell, or possess with the intent to sell, any obscene material" and a felony "to sell this material to a minor less than 17 years of age."
The question, industry executives and civil rights lawyers said, is what is obscene? Arthur N. Eisenberg, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that only a court can decide what is obscene, applying community standards as laid down by the United States Supreme Court. "Those industry labels are not the equivalent of a judicial determination of obscenity," he said. Michael W. Cover, an executive of the Recording Industry Association of America in Washington, said the industry "certainly did not adopt the labels as a method for law-enforcement officials to prohibit the sale of material to minors." For now, that has been the effect. A sign at the Tape World in the sprawling Crossgates Mall here explained that only shoppers over 17 would be allowed to buy recordings with the labels. At the mall yesterday, Scott Van Valkenburgh said that trying to prohibit the sale of records with the warning labels would simply enhance their popularity. "It really doesn't prevent people from listening to it," the 19-year-old said. "They'll just dub it." Anyway, he said, "there are a lot more problems with drugs and crime than with people buying records." Chief Murley acknowledged that the wording of his letter was inexact in implying that arrests were imminent or that stores should remove tapes with parental advisories. "Maybe the letter should have been more explicit," he said. His intent, he said, was not to determine what was obscene but rather to alert the stores to the fact that under the law they could face criminal charges. He emphasized that if an outraged parent were to press charges, he would have to pass them on to the office of District Attorney Sol Greenberg. The Town Supervisor, Anne T. Rose, has expressed support for the chief's efforts, saying that perhaps music, as well as film and literature, have gone too far. "We're not trying to stop anyone from selling anything," Ms. Rose said. "We're asking record store owners to excercise some judgment so that very young children don't buy it. When we're talking about children we have to draw the line."
It seems almost absurd that in 1992 this is going to happen again." In recent years, the police in communities in several states have taken actions against people who sold records deemed objectionable, including the highly publicized prosecution of a record store owner for selling an album by the rap group 2 Live Crew in Broward County, Fla., in 1990. But this is the first time law-enforcement officials in New York have raised the possibility of prosecuting record sellers under the state's obscenity laws, which were written in 1967. "We're certainly not looking to violate the First Amendment," Chief Murley said today in an interview in his office in Town Hall, where he has been besieged for two days by telephone calls from reporters and citizens. "But we have to interpret the penal code to some degree, whether it's robbery or obscenity. We thought this was a reasonable way to handle it." Chief Murley, the police chief here since 1974, said that arrests are unlikely and that his intent was never to force the town's record stores to pull potentially offensive recordings from the shelves, but for Ms. Smith, that is effectively the result. Until the matter is settled, she said she would simply not stock the recordings rather than subject herself or her employees to arrest. "They're basically saying this is obscene and this is obscene without even hearing it," she said. "That's what scares me." The controversy began when Suzanne Shafer, 37 years old, a hairdresser from nearby Voorheesville, took her 14-year-old daughter Shannon shopping at the Crossgates Mall on Dec. 26. As Mrs. Shafer shopped in another store, her daughter bought two cassette tapes in Record Town, one of two shops in the mall owned by the Trans World Music Corporation, a 600-store chain based in Albany. One of them was "EFIL4ZAGGIN," the latest release by the California rap group N.W.A., known for its "gangster style" of music. The recording is infused with racial epithets, vulgarities and descriptions of sexual acts. "I had never paid much attention to what records she bought," Mrs. Shafer said. "But when I heard this record, I couldn't believe they sold such stuff in records stores, much less to children."
A Call to the Police Like many other rap and heavy metal albums, N.W.A.'s carry a label warning parents about the content of the songs. The recording industry adopted warning labels in 1985 under pressure from parents' groups and state lawmakers. In 1990, they agreed on a standard, black-and-white label that reads "Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics." Mrs. Shafer said that labels are one thing, but obscenity is another, and she called Guilderland's Police Department to complain. Warning Sign for Minors After reviewing the recording with the Albany County District Attorney's Office, Chief Murley drafted the letter. Citing the advisory labels and Section 235 of the State Penal Law, he warned the stores that it is a "misdemeanor to sell, or possess with the intent to sell, any obscene material" and a felony "to sell this material to a minor less than 17 years of age."
The question, industry executives and civil rights lawyers said, is what is obscene? Arthur N. Eisenberg, legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said that only a court can decide what is obscene, applying community standards as laid down by the United States Supreme Court. "Those industry labels are not the equivalent of a judicial determination of obscenity," he said. Michael W. Cover, an executive of the Recording Industry Association of America in Washington, said the industry "certainly did not adopt the labels as a method for law-enforcement officials to prohibit the sale of material to minors." For now, that has been the effect. A sign at the Tape World in the sprawling Crossgates Mall here explained that only shoppers over 17 would be allowed to buy recordings with the labels. At the mall yesterday, Scott Van Valkenburgh said that trying to prohibit the sale of records with the warning labels would simply enhance their popularity. "It really doesn't prevent people from listening to it," the 19-year-old said. "They'll just dub it." Anyway, he said, "there are a lot more problems with drugs and crime than with people buying records." Chief Murley acknowledged that the wording of his letter was inexact in implying that arrests were imminent or that stores should remove tapes with parental advisories. "Maybe the letter should have been more explicit," he said. His intent, he said, was not to determine what was obscene but rather to alert the stores to the fact that under the law they could face criminal charges. He emphasized that if an outraged parent were to press charges, he would have to pass them on to the office of District Attorney Sol Greenberg. The Town Supervisor, Anne T. Rose, has expressed support for the chief's efforts, saying that perhaps music, as well as film and literature, have gone too far. "We're not trying to stop anyone from selling anything," Ms. Rose said. "We're asking record store owners to excercise some judgment so that very young children don't buy it. When we're talking about children we have to draw the line."
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