February 1, 2006
The Bush White House has a Pattern of Stifling Dissent
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
Statement from 2 members of the Denver Three on last night's removal
of Cindy Sheehan from the State of the Union Address:
Leslie Weise and Alex Young were ejected from a Bush town hall meeting March
21, 2005 because of the bumper sticker on their car.
Today, new revelations were made about Cindy Sheehan?s removal in handcuffs and
arrest from last night's State of the Union Address because of a t-shirt.
Like the Denver Three, Cindy Sheehan was an American who was forcibly removed
before a presidential speech because of her viewpoint alone -- not because of
any disruption or intent to disrupt.
The Bush White House has a pattern of stifling dissent, having those who disagree
with the President arrested or threatened with arrest and removed, and then denying
any responsibility afterward. In Denver, we now await the discovery process
in our recently filed federal lawsuit -- during which we intend to find out what
marching orders are given to White House event staffers, and which White House
official gave the order to remove us because of a bumper sticker on our car.
Cindy Sheehan deserves similar answers about what happened to her.
Excerpt from Cindy
Sheehan?s letter today:
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 sta! irs. I said something like "I'm going, do you have to be so rough?" By the way, his name is Mike Weight.
I was never told that I couldn't wear that shirt into the Congress. I was never asked to take it off or zip my jacket back up. If I had been asked to do any of those things...I would have, and written about the suppression of my freedom of speech later. I was immediately, and roughly (I have the bruises and muscle spasms to prove it) hauled off and arrested for "unlawful conduct."
Full letter at:
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/06/02/con06043.html
A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT