http://www.bushflash.com/anti.html
"A SMALL SAMPLE OF WHAT'S HAPPENING,
WHENEVER BUSH/CHENEY REAR THEIR UGLY HEADS...
Click the above image to see a short video
segment from a protest action that took
place, when the Bush/cheney demonstration
rolled through Traverse City, Michigan, on
August 16th.
First off- let's deconstruct this, bit by
bit...
First off- notice that the protestors are
low-key folks- not the anarchists that so
prominently made asses of themselves at the
DNC protests, last month. They're just
standing around, chanting, and waving signs.
Trust me- I'm a veteran of countless protest
rallies- and this is the most genteel bunch
I've seen, in a long time.
Secondly- notice how the Black vans carrying
the Campaign past the protestors are burning
rubber- clearly violating speed limits, in a
residential area, to avoid the campaign
staff seeing a single glimpse of the
protestors.
Thirdly- notice how the two protestors who
are arrested, go along, peacefully, and
quietly. True- the tape doesn't show what
horrific crimes they perpetrated, but it's
obvious (by closely watching the background
crowd), that they are being arrested AFTER
the campaign caravan has passed, and they
are being pulled out of the crowd, BEHIND
the police barricade.
Why does this bug me so much?
Well- for many different reasons.
First off- in every rally that the Bush
campaign has set up, they've limited
attendance to registered bush volunteers,
who have signed a loyalty oath- not content
with that, the powers that be have decided
that those who DARE to show up to oppose
them, are subject to being caged, behind
lines of police cars, and subject to
(apparently) arbitrary arrest.
Secondly- folks, I was in Boston, during the
ANSWER protest against the DNC in Boston,
and out of the 2,000 who marched, there were
only two arrests.
Here, we see two people being arrested in a
small town, in a protest rally of only a few
hundred people.
Basically- this means that the police cordon
that surrounds the Bush Campaign, is less
tolerant of a few hundred protestors, than
the DNC security staff was, with a few
THOUSAND.
And, that brings me into my next diatribe:
Next week, over a quarter of a million
people will converge on Manhattan, to
protest the republican convention- and I
GUARANTEE- that the arrest ratio will be FAR
beyond the 1-to-1000 that we saw at the DNC.
This will be the biggest protest that NYC
has seen since the February 15th protest
against the war, back in 2002, and I can
remember seeing police vans being packed
SOLID with protestors, and peeling off, with
the traditional sinister squealing of brakes.
I have a feeling, that, unlike the officials
in Boston, the folks in NYC will brook NO
tolerance for the anti-bush protestors, and
the city's booking offices will be working
overtime.
The crux of all of this:
I ISSUE THE FOLLOWING CHALLENGE:
Has one, single republican been arrested,
for peacefully protesting against John
Kerry? If so, I BEG them to get in touch
with me. Send me a copy of your arrest
report, and your account, and I will post
them here, publicly. (Note: your account of
your arrest will be verified, by a phone
call to the police department responsible
for your arrest- so don't try and pull
anything funny, here.)"
http://ventura.fordean.org/ventura/blog/2004/07/anti-bush-protestors-arrested-for.html
"July 14, 2004
Anti-Bush protestors arrested for engaging
in free speech
I would like to say that this is shocking,
but this sort of thing has become rather
run-of-the-mill under the Bush Regime:
A husband and wife who wore anti-Bush
T-shirts to the president’s Fourth of July
appearance aren’t 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 weren’t 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.
Obviously, these people hate America, so it
must be OK."
http://www.phoenixanarchist.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=273
"
FREEDOM OF SPEECH VIOLATED
POLICE BRUTALITY IN FLAGSTAFF on Sunday,
August 8 2004.
At the rally held for John Kerry in downtown
Flagstaff, three protestors were arrested
for exercising their first amendment rights.
They are now being charged with
tresspassing, disorderly conduct, resisting
arrest, and aggravated assault against a
police officer. The protestors in question
showed up early to the Pro-Kerry rally
wearing costumes and holding signs. One of
the signs reading, "BUSH=KERRY=WAR".
They were harrased by the police early on,
but with no action taken at that point.
Their signs and costumes were taken away at
the aiport security-like entrance, but not
to be turned away, the protestors gained
entance to the rally with the TICKETS, and
throughout the early part of the rally were
seen to be chanting "haray for the lesser of
two evils, haray", and "your vote doesn't
count".
The protestors were followed around by some
pro-Kerry supporters holding SIGNS that were
allowed in. These Kerry supporters' mission
was to drown out the protestors and utilize
their signs to keep them out of sight.
It wasn't until about half an hour before
Kerry took the stage that the police made
their move. The group of protesters which
were about seven adults and one child stong
were simply carrying on what they had been
doing all day, by chanting. The police came
first in a force of five or six and proceded
to grab one of the protestors, this led two
of the others to go to his aid only to be
arrested also. They were thrown to the
ground, two were placed in handcuffs. The
police then proceeded to drag two away, one
in cuffs and the other held by force.
The third protestor was kneeling on the
ground in front of the only police officer
left, asking for the charges, which the
police never gave to any of them. A couple
of onlookers tried in vain to get the
officer's name and badge number, only to be
met with the response of, "we're all here
one through a hundred."
After a short amount of time four or five
more police officers came to retreive their
final captive. They proceeded to lift him to
shoulder length and hurry out an alley a
short distance away from where the arrests
were made. Three of the remaining protestors
and myself ran after them, shouting that
"freedom of speech is not against the law".
The police made their way to a paddy wagon
and put the last detainee inside while we
were cut off by yet another police officer
who said that "things have got out of hand,
and thats the reason they're going to jail
tonight."
The paddy wagon left as the officer was
saying this, with absolutly no charges made
and no Miranda right read. The protestors
are asking for the hundreds of people who
witnessed the arrests to come forward, in
order to protect our first amendment rights.
"
http://www.lanthorn.com/news.asp?type=NS&aid=4485
"Eight anti-war protesters arrested downtown
Rich McGowan
Grand Valley Lanthorn
[ Print this article ]
[ E-mail this to a friend ]
“Paul Bremer you can’t hide, we charge
you with genocide,” “Peace is patriotic” and
“No blood for oil” were chanted by a group
of approximately 50 anti-war/anti-Bush
protesters Monday night.
The protesters marched from the Gerald
R. Ford Presidential Museum to the Amway
Grand Plaza in downtown Grand Rapids where
former Director of Iraq L. Paul Bremer was
speaking at a private fundraising dinner.
Outside the hotel, eight protesters
were arrested for attempting to enter the
hotel to interrupt Bremer’s speech, which
was closed to the public and press. Four
were charged with trespassing while four
others were charged with trespassing and
failure to stop. Bond was set between $500
and $1,000.
One of those arrested was GVSU
freshman Scott Watson. Watson and three
other protesters entered the Amway Grand
through the sky walk.
“We went in there and pretty much
continued to protest the war and we were
arrested,” Watson said."
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/07/20/protest.apology.ap/
"Council apologizes to anti-Bush protesters
Tuesday, July 20, 2004 Posted: 10:54 AM EDT
(1454 GMT)
CHARLESTON, West Virginia (AP) -- The
Charleston City Council apologized Monday to
two protesters who were arrested for wearing
anti-Bush T-shirts to the president's July 4
rally at the West Virginia Capitol.
Nicole and Jeff Rank, of Corpus Christi,
Texas, were removed from the event in
restraints after revealing T-shirts with
President Bush's name crossed out on the
front and the words "Love America, Hate
Bush" on the back.
Trespassing charges were dismissed last
week. On Monday, the city council adopted a
resolution to apologize.
"If Nicole and Jeff Rank did nothing other
than peaceably exercise their right of free
speech and expression as guaranteed by our
Constitutions, they should not have been
arrested or charged with a crime," the
resolution states.
"The City does hereby apologize to Nicole
and Jeff Rank."
http://www.prisonplanet.com/news_alert_070102_illegalbush.html
"Anti-Bush Protesters Silenced at Ohio State
Graduation
The Progressive 07/01/02
Original Link:
http://www.progressive.org/webex/wxmc070102.html
George W. Bush came to Columbus on June 14
for Ohio State's commencement, and
university administrators made sure he
wouldn't hear any criticism.
At rehearsal and right as the ceremony
began, a school administrator, Richard
Hollingsworth, Associate Vice President of
Student Affairs, warned that any protesters
would be kicked out and arrested. Some
students said they were told they would be
denied their diplomas if they protested.
(The story of the suppression of the OSU
protest was broken in the left media by
portside@yahoogroups.com and by FAIR.)
The university was responding to a planned
silent protest by a group calling itself
Turn Your Back on Bush.
Hillary Tinapple, a graduating senior, was
one of the organizers of the group.
"I was quite upset ever since I read in the
campus paper that Bush had been invited to
speak at my graduation," she wrote on the
group's web site (turnyourbackonbush.com).
"That man signifies everything that is wrong
in this nation: the abuse of power, the
privatization of profit and the
socialization of burdens, the destruction
and dismantling of what I call progress
without any consideration of the
consequences, but most especially the Bush
Administration's foreign policy and actions
around the 9-11 issues. I am a member of the
Green Party, and a passionate community
activist, so of course my gut response was
that something HAD to be done to show we do
not approve."
She called an emergency meeting, and she
"was excited about seeing new faces in the
group," she wrote.
"About forty folks came to the first
planning/brainstorming meeting, and about
thirty came to the next one," she told The
Progressive.
They decided to turn their backs when the
President spoke.
But the threat from the administration
"changed the whole feeling of the protest,"
she wrote, and scared off many students.
She told The Progressive that Hollingsworth
warned them "he knew about the web site, and
that if you do not cooperate, you could be
arrested, and if you are arrested, then you
would not graduate."
Hollingsworth did not return The
Progressive's phone call for comment.
But Randy Dunham, an assistant director of
media relations at Ohio State, says the
threat to withhold diplomas from protesters
was "an urban myth. Somebody took a
statement out of context completely. What
was said at commencement was anyone who
attempts to block the hearing or view of
others would be removed from the stadium and
subject to arrest."
I asked Dunham why a silent protest would
warrant an arrest. "If they blocked the view
of others" it would be justified, he says.
Tinapple says "four graduates and about ten
others" participated in the protest. "At
that point , it became more about my freedom
of expression as an individual than any
single issue about the Bush Administration,"
she wrote on her web site.
But Dunham says, "This should not have been
a political event. The President's speech
wasn't about politics. It was about
voluntarism."
For the record, the President, who happens
to be a political figure, did talk about
subjects other than voluntarism.
"We are called to defend liberty against
tyranny and terror," Bush said. "We've
answered that call. We will bring security
to our people and justice to our enemies. .
. . Our nation is the greatest force for
good in history."
"Eight people turned their backs, and none
were arrested," says Dunham. "That leaves
59,992 who seemed pretty pleased."
While none of the protesters were formally
arrested, the police reportedly did eject at
least one of them from the ceremony and
threatened him with arrest. Jeff, who is
identified as an OSU alumnus on the group's
web site, wrote: "I saw one of Columbus's
Finest heading our way. . . . We were being
led out of Ohio Stadium. To the officer's
credit, he realized there was a
three-year-old in my arms and was not at all
hostile. I asked him if I was under arrest,
and he did not answer me. When we reached
the exit . . . he told me we were being
charged with disturbing the peace. If we
chose to leave, the charges would be dropped
immediately. With our daughter in mind, we
chose not to fight it. . . . On this day,
June 14th, 2002, I came to the realization
that we no longer live in a free society."
Yoshie Furuhashi, a lecturer in the English
at Ohio State, was also one of the
organizers of the protest. Her conclusion:
"The police and the OSU administration
didn't respect our rights to free speech and
free assembly at all," she wrote on the
group's web site.
Furuhashi told The Progressive that some of
the protesters are in touch with the Ohio
Civil Liberties Union to see what legal
recourse they might have.
"There was no need for them to clamp down on
free speech," says Joseph Levine, a
philosophy professor at Ohio State who
joined several dozen protesters outside the
ceremony that day. "They knew pretty well
what was planned. There was nothing
especially disruptive about that. This was
an attempt to really put a chill on protest
activity."
Tom Barger
ShadowMom
CodeWarrior
HUDDER:::::
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