We werent doing anything wrong
Tyler Durden
camera_lumina at hotmail.com
Fri Jul 16 13:26:53 PDT 2004
So...given the legal precedent, might a "citizen's arrest" of the arresting
agents be defensible in court? (This assumes that there are large numbers of
protestors, of course, willing to apprehend the rogue officers.)
-TD
>From: Nostra2004 at SAFe-mail.net
>To: cypherpunks at al-qaeda.net
>Subject: We werent doing anything wrong
>Date: Fri, 16 Jul 2004 15:36:32 -0400
>
>http://www.wvgazettemail.com/static/stories/2004071346.html
>
>Couple in anti-Bush T-shirts were arrested at presidents speech
>By Tara Tuckwiller
>tara at wvgazette.com
>
>A husband and wife who wore anti-Bush T-shirts to the presidents Fourth of
>July appearance arent going down without a fight: They will be represented
>by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union as they contest the
>trespassing charges against them Thursday morning in Charleston Municipal
>Court.
>
>Police took Nicole and Jeff Rank away in handcuffs from the event, which
>was billed as a presidential appearance, not a campaign rally. They were
>wearing T-shirts that read, Love America, Hate Bush.
>
>Spectators who wore pro-Bush T-shirts and Bush-Cheney campaign buttons were
>allowed to stay.
>
>We werent doing anything wrong, said Jeff Rank. The couple, who said
>they had tickets just like everybody else, said they simply stood around
>the Capitol steps with the rest of the spectators.
>
>We sang the national anthem, Rank said.
>
>The Ranks hardly fit the image of rabble-rousers. Jeff Rank, 29, has a
>masters degree in oceanography. Nicole Rank, 30, has degrees in biological
>science and marine biology. They have been married for seven years.
>
>Nicole Rank arrived in Charleston soon after the Memorial Day floods. She
>was working as deputy environmental liaison officer for the Federal
>Emergency Management Agency, making sure cities and counties obeyed federal
>environmental laws as they repaired roads and bridges.
>
>After police arrested the Ranks, fingerprinted them and took their mug
>shots, FEMA told Nicole Rank she was no longer needed in West Virginia.
>
>I have not been fired per se, she said. But I was released from this
>job. And when they release you from a job, you no longer get paid.
>
>The Ranks started to go home to Corpus Christi, Texas, but they only got as
>far as Roanoke, Va., when it occurred to them that they might not be able
>to contest their arrest if they werent in Charleston on their court date.
>A phone call confirmed their suspicions. So they turned around.
>
>Weve been living in motels ever since, said Jeff Rank, who spent Tuesday
>evening in his motel room with his wife, their cocker spaniel Feinman, and
>their marmalade cat Rowr.
>
>Its extremely difficult [financially]. We can only afford to do this for
>so long.
>
>But they had to stay and fight the charges, he said, because we didnt
>think we were guilty.
>
>Since Bush took office in early 2001, people have been banned from
>displaying anti-Bush messages at dozens of Bush appearances across the
>country. In September, the ACLU filed a federal lawsuit against the Secret
>Service, seeking an injunction against the Bush administration for
>segregating protesters at his public appearances.
>
>The Secret Service agreed that such censorship was wrong, said Witold
>Walczak, one of the lawyers that filed the lawsuit.
>
>They had an internal memo dated September 2002, saying they couldnt treat
>protesters differently or worse than anyone else at a presidential
>appearance, Walczak said. The judge said any agent responsible for doing
>so could be held liable for damages.
>
>The Secret Service had been telling local police to sequester anyone
>displaying an anti-administration message, usually in areas completely out
>of sight and earshot of Bush. Because the Secret Service agreed with the
>ACLU that it shouldnt be doing that, the judge dismissed the case.
>
>Prior to filing our suit in September, wed get a couple of confirmed
>protest zone complaints every month, Walczak said. After we filed,
>there were practically none. We had two documented incidents between
>September and March: one in Little Rock, Ark., and one in Knoxville, Tenn.
>
>But now, lawyers like Walczak are carefully monitoring cases like the
>Ranks and two similar incidents recently in Pennsylvania.
>
>Were trying to assess what is going on at these appearances ... whether
>these protest zones are resuming, he said.
>
>We are continuing to monitor all campaign events by both Republican and
>Democratic candidates. Were prepared to go back into court if we see
>discrimination occurring.
>
>Because Bushs Fourth of July stop in Charleston was billed as an official
>presidential visit, not a campaign rally, That makes it an even more
>glaring violation of the First Amendment, said Andrew Schneider, executive
>director of the ACLU of West Virginia.
>
>Its an Orwellian way to keep speech out of sight of those the speech is
>intended to critique ... We want to nip this in the bud before it becomes a
>habit of future administrations.
>
>A Bush spokesman did not return a telephone call seeking comment on the
>necessity of the free speech zone.
>
>To contact staff writer Tara Tuckwiller, use e-mail or call 348-5189.
>
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