OK City Police Round Up Copies of 'Obscene' Movie 'Tin Drum'

OKLAHOMA CITYCivil rights activists called for a federal
investigation Thursday after police seized copies of the
Oscarwinning movie "Tin Drum" from six video storesand at least
one homebecause a judge had declared the film obscene.
"This kind of insensitive disregard of our fundamental rights of
expression and free speech is outrageous," said Joann Bell,
executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of
Oklahoma.
Bell said the ACLU "received several complaints from citizens
whose homes were violated without a search warrant last evening
as the police went to private homes to confiscate copies of this
video."
The local video chains made their rental records available to
police, who then went to the homes of those who had rented "Tin
Drum," Bell said.
"We are meeting with cooperating attorneys and expect to seek
a federal review of the police's conduct," she said.
Police said they took a copy of the film from only one home, that
of Michael Canfield, an ACLU official.
"Tin Drum," the 1979 Academy Award winner for best foreign
film, is German director Volker Schlondorff's acclaimed adaptation
of Gunter Grass' novel about Nazi Germany as seen through a
young boy's eyes. It includes one scene where a boy about 6 or 7
has oral sex in a bathhouse with a teenage girl.
On Wednesday, District Judge Richard Freeman said the movie
was obscene under Oklahoma law, which defines obscenity as any
depiction of a person under 18, or anyone portraying someone
under 18, having sex.
"Frankly, as long as the statute is the way it is, I couldn't do
anything else," the judge said.
Freeman responded to a complaint by Oklahomans for Children
and Families, an antipornography group upset that the film was
available at a public library.
Oklahoma City police Capt. Bill Citty said two vice officers
seized copies of the film from five Blockbuster Video Stores, one
Hollywood Video store and one person's home after the judge's
ruling. He didn't specify how many copies were confiscated.
Bell likened the police action to "book burnings organized by
Hitler's Gestapo."
Oklahoma County Dist. Atty. Bob Macy said he will not
prosecute anyone who rented the film Wednesday or earlier, but he
will press charges against anyone found with the film from now on.