The latest Occupy movement “action” targets your wallet, specifically the dollar bills inside.
Yahoo! News reports that Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream and financial sponsor of the Occupy movement, is teaming up with the Move to Amend advocacy group to “distribute rubber stamps with anti-corporate election spending messages so that the politically-minded can mark their dollar bills.”
Slogans like “Corporations are not people,” “Money is not speech” and “Not to be used for bribing politicians,” will now adorn currency in a cash-as-advertising campaign.
The goal of Move to Amend is to secure a constitutional amendment that says “corporations do not enjoy the same protected rights as individuals and that money is not a form of speech.” (RELATED: Proposed constitutional amendment could remove press freedom for newspapers)
The so-called Occupy movement has stamped currency before, and Cohen’s attorney argues that as long as the bills are still legible, it is legal to put the stamps on them.
The Bureau of Engraving’s definition of defacement doesn’t mention writing or stamping specifically and also requires that the intent must be to “render such item(s) unfit to be reissued.”
If Cohen and his attorney are wrong, they might get a visit from the Secret Service. After all, “Defacement of currency in such a way that it is made unfit for circulation comes under the jurisdiction of the United States Secret Service.”