UPDATE: San Jose Mercury News reports,
Police Drop Charge Against Sheehan, Apologize.
Gracias to
Blue Gal for pointing me to John Nichols's editorial in
The Nation, The War on T-Shirts. Here's a bit of meat:
Is there really a law against wearing a political T-shirt to the State of the Union address?
No.
The Capitol Police, who on Wednesday dropped the charges against Sheehan, have acknowledged in an official statement that: "While officers acted in a manner consistent with the rules of decorum enforced by the department in the House Gallery for years, neither Mrs. Sheehan's manner of dress or initial conduct warranted law enforcement intervention."
What they have not acknowledged, and what is truly troubling, is the evidence that Sheehan was singled out for rough justice.
What follows is the entry I wrote this morning:
Here's Cindy's story. Her shirt said, "2245 dead. How many more?" Read the whole story, but here's the part that gets me:
I had just sat down and I was warm from climbing 3 flights of stairs back up from the bathroom so I unzipped my jacket. I turned to the right to take my left arm out, when the same officer saw my shirt and yelled; "Protester." He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat and roughly (with my hands behind my back) shoved me up the stairs. I said something like "I'm going, do you have to be so rough?" By the way, his name is Mike Weight. The officer ran with me to the elevators yelling at everyone to move out of the way. When we got to the elevators, he cuffed me and took me outside to await a squad car. On the way out, someone behind me said, "That's Cindy Sheehan." At which point the officer who arrested me said: "Take these steps slowly." I said, "You didn't care about being careful when you were dragging me up the other steps." He said, "That's because you were protesting." Wow, I get hauled out of the People's House because I was, "Protesting."
Bradblog has updates and pictures.
I don't know if I have many Bush supporters in my audience, but I'm speaking to you folks now. What will it take for you to wake up? That's all I'm asking. What will it take?
The rest of you, sorry for the political post, but it seems like something new pisses me off every single day.
D.
14 Comments:
Sheehan wasn't the only one asked to leave. The wife of a Repub Senator was asked to go too. I don't think they dragged her away in handcuffs though. . .
whoops sorry, not senator's wife. Duh.
The lovely and talented Zoe Trope did a little digging on the matter, Doug.
http://zoe-trope.livejournal.com/
Turns out Cindy may not be as innocent as she claims...
I'll concede the point, Amanda, if it turns out Cindy's lying about being roughed up.
I'm also wondering how well they searched people at the entrance. They didn't notice she was wearing the tee-shirt? If they searched her that poorly, you really have to wonder.
And since when do people get cuffed and thrown in jail for a misdemeanor?
Sorry for the political post? Jesu Christie, why do you think I come here, enyhow?
Without the politics, doll, you're just another pretty boy-toy.
Amanda,
Cindy Sheehan=Judeo-Secularist. What do we have to do to get it through peoples' heads?
Doug, no need to apologise ... it's a breath of fresh air after some of the catholic blogs I've been visiting ... oh, btw, hi Mel :-)
I posted the following over at zoetrope:
Please, on the day that Coretta Scott King died, don't gloss over the meaning of civil disobedience. Civil disobedience is the breaking of an unjust law to bring attention to that lack of justice. The purpose of civil disobedience is to DRAW ATTENTION to INJUSTICE. That's why blacks sat at the lunch counter, why Rosa Parks sat at the front of the bus, and why all these uppity blacks were calm and cooperative when they were arrested. They did not want to be charged with "resisting arrest." They wanted to be charged with "disobeying Jim Crow" so the media and every voter with a brain (oh those are less and less every year in this God forsaken country) would recognize segregation as the injustice that it was and is.
While you can argue with the issue of whether it is injustice to make it illegal to protest in the Capitol Bldg., there is NO QUESTION that this war was based on lies, and that every single fucking death caused by this war is an injustice.
Whew. Just hadda get that off my chest.
I dunno, Amanda. I'm not saying Cindy was a pure victim.
On the other hand, I watched the news as it unfolded and the whole "she was protesting! . . . oh, whoops, no, but She had a banner! . . . . oh, whoops, no but... She was making a scene!. . ..oh, whoops! No, she had a teeshirt!" coverage made me think that the news sources we trust aren't as trustworthy as all that. (I had to yammer about that at zoe's place too)
Blue gal, I didn't see your comment up. Whussup with that, I wonder?
Nor yours, Kate, unless you're the cute dog photo.
I'd like to see the law, btw. Then I'd like to have the legal knowledge to understand the law, because, damn, I can never make sense of those things.
Hi Crystal!
I personally do not think that any Democrat should be allowed into the State of the Union. We control all branches of government, and thus I see it as nothing more than an internal GOP proceeding.
Mel's comment made me flash on a bit of great literature. Excerpt from my novel-in-edit. (Moderates = Democrats, Nextush is the Commander in Chief, Bili is his halfwit son, and Korno is Nextush's scary bodyguard). They're speeding down the highway in their Humvee . . .
“Worse than Moderates, eh, Dad?” said Bili.
“Moderates?” said Nextush. “When was the last time you saw a Moderate?”
“Dying breed,” said Korno, almost too quiet to hear.
Nextush spat out the window. “Soon will be,” he said.
Anyone who wants to read the real state of the (not too) future union should read Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. Scary, funny, scary again, and all too possible.
Yeah, I love Handmaid's tale too. Whenever life gets too heavy and I consider suicide, I always remember that Margaret Atwood is writing another book right now and if I die I won't get to read it.
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