Foul Call

John Westberg, 14, was skateboarding outside his house in Redford Township, Mich., when his path was blocked by two neighborhood boys on bicycles. There were angry words. Then John's father, Lawrence Westberg, went marching over to the home of the boys' father, William Scherrer. Westberg claims he simply shouted, "Goddamn it, Bill, start controlling your kids." Scherrer, on the other hand, swears that Westberg called him a "rotten, f-- sonofabitch!" Scherrer called the police, who arrested Westberg. The charge: violating the township's ordinance on disorderly persons, which prohibits, among other things, "indecent, insulting or immoral language in the presence of others."

Even in an age when almost anything goes, epithetwise, not everything goes in Redford Township. Tried before a jury for a day and a half, Westberg was convicted and sentenced to two years on probation and ordered to pay fines of $405 in court fees and $200 for probation costs. A citizen of Redford Township for 16 years, and now unemployed as a data processor because of a back injury, Westberg called the proceedings foul. The American Civil Liberties Union agreed, and last week it went to court to ask for a new trial on the ground that the town ordinance is so broad that it violates the First Amendment. As for the sensitive Scherrers, they have sold their house and are moving away--without a word for the Westbergs.

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