Re: REST of the WORLD is ENVIOUS of AMAZING FREEDOM ENJOYED by AMERICANS

["enigma" <enigma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you really want to test your "free speech" rights, wear your GAY PRIDE
t-shirt into a redneck cowboy bar in Montana.

"McGinnn" <McGinnn@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:44b1ac06$0$23711$a8266bb1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> http://www.counterpunch.org/ferner07012006.html
>
> Weekend Edition
> July 1 - 2, 2006
>
>
> Has This Country Gone Completely Insane?
>
>
> Getting Busted for Wearing a Peace T-Shirt
>
>
> By MIKE FERNER
>
>
> Yesterday afternoon, drinking a cup of coffee while sitting in the
> Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center on Chicago's south side, a Veterans
> Administration cop walked up to me and said, "OK, you've had your 15
> minutes, it's time to go."
>
>
> "Huh?", I asked intelligently, not quite sure what he was talking
> about.
>
>
> "You can't be in here protesting," Officer Adkins said, pointing to my
> Veterans For Peace shirt.
>
>
> "Well, I'm not protesting, I'm having a cup of coffee," I returned,
> thinking that logic would convince Adkins to go back to his earlier
> duties of guarding against serious terrorists.
>
>
> Flipping his badge open, he said, "No, not with that shirt. You're
> protesting and you have to go."
>
>
> Beginning to get his drift, I said firmly, "Not before I finish my
> coffee."
>
>
> He insisted that I leave, but still not quite believing my ears, I
> tried one more approach to reason.
>
>
> "Hey, listen. I'm a veteran. This is a V.A. facility. I'm sitting here
> not talking to anybody, having a cup of coffee. I'm not protesting and
> you can't kick me out."
>
>
> "You'll either go or we'll arrest you," Adkins threatened.
>
>
> "Well, you'll just have to arrest me," I said, wondering what strange
> land I was now living in.
>
>
> You know the rest.
>
>
> Handcuffed, led away to the facility's security office past people with
> surprised looks on their faces, read my rights, searched, and written
> up.
>
>
> The officer who did the formalities, Eric Ousley, was professional in
> his duties.
>
>
> When I asked him if he was a vet, it turned out he had been a hospital
> corpsman in the Navy.
>
>
> We exchanged a couple sea stories.
>
>
> He uncuffed me early.
>
>
> And he allowed as to how he would only charge me with disorderly
> conduct, letting me go on charges of criminal trespass and weapons
> possession -- a pocket knife -- which he said would have to be
> destroyed (something I rather doubt since it was a nifty Swiss Army
> knife with not only a bottle opener, but a tweezers and a toothpick).
>
>
> After informing me I could either pay the $275 fine on the citation or
> appear in court, Ousley escorted me off the premises, warning me if I
> returned with "that shirt" on, I'd be arrested and booked into jail.
>
>
> I'm sure I could go back to officers Adkins' and Ousleys' fiefdom with
> a shirt that said, "Nuke all the hajis," or "Show us your tits," or any
> number of truly obscene things and no one would care.
>
>
> Just so it's not "that shirt" again.
>
>
> And just for the record?
>
>
> I'm not paying the fine.
>
>
> I'll see Adkins and Ousley and Dubya's Director of the Dept. of
> Veterans Affairs, if he wants to show up, in United States District
> Court on the appointed date.
>
>
> And if there's a Chicago area attorney who'd like to take the case, I'd
> really like to sue them -- from Dubya on down.
>
>
> I have to believe that this whole country has not yet gone insane, just
> the government.
>
>
> This kind of behavior can't be tolerated. It must be challenged.
>
>
> Mike Ferner served as a Navy corpsman during Vietnam and is obviously a
> member of Veterans For Peace.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________
>
>
> Speaking out against a fascist regime.
>
>
> Harry
> (see all of Harry Hope's excellent posts as they break, put this link
> in your browser, use it, this is a search on google groups, on the
> author Harry Hope sorted by date... nothing fancy):
> http://groups.google.com/groups?q=&start=0&scoring=d&enc_author=-nIhF...
>
>
> With history moving so fast these days you might also want to sort
> Harry Hope's posts by "relevance" particulary if the lies and
> misdirection that we are all being sujected to by the extensive Bush
> Crime Family Propagand machine are confusing you. Using the "sort by
> relevance" option has a way of letting you take in the big picture.
> http://groups.google.com/groups?q=&start=0&enc_author=-nIhFBQAAACtBOU...
>
>
>