Couple Arrested for Anti-Bush T-Shirts
Has it become a crime to protest the president and his administration? Has it become illegal to attend a speech by President Bush and express your disagreement with his policies? Apparently it has - at least, that’s what a couple in West Virginia experienced. They were removed from the area before his speech for nothing more than wearing T-shirts with the message “Love America, Hate Bush.”
The Charleston Gazette explains:
The Ranks were ticketed for trespassing and released. They have been given summonses to appear in court, Charleston Police Lt. C.A. Vincent said Wednesday. ... The White House coordinated the president’s visit to the state Capitol. Organizers described it as a presidential visit, not a political rally. State and federal funds were used to pay for the presidential visit. Dozens of people who attended Sunday’s event wore pro-Bush T-shirts and Bush-Cheney campaign buttons, some of which were sold on the Capitol grounds outside the security screening stations.
Nicole Rank works for FEMA and was ordered home to Texas:
FEMA spokesman Ross Fredenburg would not say Wednesday whether Nicole Rank had been fired. “All we can say is that our federal coordinating officer, Lou Botta, sent Nicole home,” he said. “We cannot comment further, to protect her privacy. Federal privacy laws prevent us from saying anything.”
News 8 Austin explains that they had tickets and were put in handcuffs:
Police placed Nicole and Jeffery Rank of Corpus Christi in restraints after they entered the event with a ticket and then removed their clothes to reveal anti-Bush T-shirts, according to the acting director of the Capitol police in Charleston.
It has been said that people get the sort of government they deserve, and it’s rather sad to think that we deserve a government that handcuffs and removes people from public events paid for with public funds simply because they are expressing a message that is critical of the government — even though people expressing pro-government messages in the exact same way are not only left alone but in fact encouraged in their behavior.
This is viewpoint discrimination. It’s illegal. It’s unconstitutional. There’s no excuse for it and it is a sign of just how morally and legally bankrupt our current government has become that it takes such actions without a second thought. It’s also a sign of just how little integrity our media has become that this has received so little news coverage.
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