Word: avatars
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Here, the narrative becomes confused by allegations from both sides. Apparently, early in November, Avatar vendors were told by the licensing office that their permit was good for only one issue. Therefore, it had expired. Redundantly, City Manager Joseph A. DeGuglielmo said that he was revoking the permit (which, if it was good only for one issue, had expired early last summer) for "good cause," namely he says, "because they were selling obscene literature." Whether the permit had expired or had been revoked, it appeared that Avatar no longer possessed a permit. The editors applied for a series...
Although the facts may be debated, the issues are clear enough. Cambridge officials have attempted to restrain future issues of Avatar on the basis of a lower court decision which found one past issue obscene. A decision which affects a single issue does not apply to a whole string of future issues, and in applying one decision to several issues the officials have violated Avatar's constitutional rights. The Boston decision applies only to the eleventh issue; the twelfth and thirteenth issues of Avatar have not been declared obscene by any court...
Simply because DeGuglielmo has labelled Avatar obsecene does not mean that a court would do the same. It is not DeGuglielmo's job, as an administrator, to label Avatar one thing or another; that is the court's prerogative, and when he usurps it he is acting unconstitutionally...
...revoking a permit on the basis of a subjective judgment DeGuglielmo has denied Avatar's right to "due process of law," as established in the Fourteenth Amendment. He has also defied that freedom of the press guaranteed by the Bill of Rights. The fault, however, is not wholly DeGuglielmo's. He has only demonstrated the undue policing power given to city officials by an anomalous ordinance which requires newspaper distributors to have a permit. The ordinance, which contradicts both constitutional and Massachusetts law, is illegal...
...connection between Avatar's plight and Mayor Hayes' celebrated war on hippies is unmistakable. On November 13, City Councillors Sullivan and Vellucci frantically denounced Avatar as "the dirtiest stuff that was ever published" and "so filthy that I wouldn't want anyone to read it." Sullivan then introduced an order asking DeGugleielmo to confer with the Chief of Police "with a view to instituting proceedings for criminal prosecution of the owners, writers and distributors of the so-called 'hippie' newspapers now being sold through the City." Of course, the order was not necessary. Working through the permit ordinance--and outside...