T-shirts are much in the news lately. For a while it seemed that the battle
was to make sure that t-shirts not supportive of the Bush administration and/or
the war in Iraq were not on public display.
But now that the hypocrisy of fight to remove t-shirts from their wearers has been exposed, the
battle to control which t-shirts are produced begins.
My question is, if it is made illegal for t-shirt manufacturers to print facts such as the names of
soldiers killed on t-shirts, why would it be legal for sculptors to be allowed to etch the names
of those killed in battles on monuments? Don't sculptors get paid for their work?
And how about news broadcasters? They make money. Should they be prevented from announcing the names of
the war dead? I mean, the caskets can no longer be shown. Perhaps announcing the names of those
killed can also be deemed to be in bad taste.
Or, have we decided that it's in our interest to for the government in power to decide who is allowed to put what slogans on our t-shirts?
Below is a reverse chronology of recent (public) t-shirt removals and other t-shirt-related troubles. I've been
collecting this list for quite some time; it's long, but I suspect I've missed a few incidents.
Note how many of these t-shirt related events seem to occur in the months just before elections... (Or, in
the months just before we invaded Iraq.
And also note how the Secret Service agents making these arrests (aren't they government employees???
are increasingly claiming that because the ground the protesters are standing in is or has been --
temporarily -- declared private property, they must immediately remove their shirts or be arrested. Hey,
wouldn't the FCC object to that???)
- Incident: Mon Jul 24, 2006: Given away by an England football shirt
- Here's one that Big Brother will most certainly allow
- Monday, July 24, 2006: Group Designs Clothing To Show Support for Troops
- Friday, July 21, 2006: Lobbying to restrict commercial use of soldiers' names and images
- Arrest: June 30, 2006: Busted for wearing a peace T-shirt
- Incident: June 10, 2006: Man Refused Flight for Anti-Bush T-Shirt Now Selling Them on the Net
- June 2, 2006: Woman Refuses To Change Anti-Bush Shirt For Sentencing
- Arrest: Fri, March 3, 2006: Fisherman arrested for giving away an anti-FEMA t-shirt in Louisiana
- Arrest: Jan. 31, 2006
Charges dropped: Feb 1, 2006: Antiwar mom, representative’s wife removed from State of the Union
- Incident: October 6, 2005 Southwest boots woman for shirt
- Arrest: September 2005: Girl arrested over Bollocks to Blair shirt
- November 1, 2004: T shirts and ABC News "balance"
- Nov. 1, 2004: ABC News Investigation: Campaigns Rally Against Wrong T-Shirts
- Detainment date: Sept. 17, 2004: Grieving Mom Heckles Laura Bush
- Arrest: September 2004: Blair Criminalizes His Critics
- Exclusion date: July 22, 2004: County Supervisor Booted from Bush Event for Wearing Hidden Kerry Shirt
- Arrest made: July 4, 2004 Charges dropped: Thursday, July 15, 2004: Homemade T-shirts that had President Bush’s name with a slash through it and the words "Love America, Hate Bush" on the back.
- Incident date: Monday, March 3, 2003: 100 people marched through Crossgates Mall at noon today to protest the arrest Monday of a man who wore a peace T-shirt while he shopped.
- Arrested: Monday, March 3, 2003 Charges dropped: Thursday, March 6, 2003 Lawsuit filed: May 27, 2004: US mall backs down on T-shirt arrest
- Incident: December 9th, 2002: Secret Service Questions Student over Anti-Bush T-Shirt
Busted for wearing a peace T-shirt; has this country gone completely insane?
T-shirt news
Mike Ferner, a Navy corpsman during Vietnam War and, obviously, a member of Veterans For Peace:
Friday 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, "Okay, 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.
Immediate result
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.
Resolution
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.
Source
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/printer_956.shtml
Given away by an England football shirt
T-shirt news
Suspicions were aroused when the man appeared at a checkpoint
between Turkish Cypress and Greek Cypress wearing the England soccer shirt
and presenting a French passport. ...
"Being a football fan, the officer found it highly unlikely
that a Frenchman would want to wear an England football jersey,"
a police source said.
"That was his first suspicion prior to the proper check on the passport,
which turned out to be a fake," said the source.
Immediate result
The 22-year-old man, who has not been charged, was remanded in custody for six days pending further inquiries.
Source
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2006-07-24T144305Z_01_L24922287_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-UK-CYPRUS-SHIRT.XML
Every T-Shirt Tells a War Story
Group Designs Clothing To Show Support for Troops
T-shirt news
There is a shirt that depicts a medical cross emblazoned with an image of Iraq and the words "to fight" and "to heal," emphasizing the duality of a medic's mission. There is a portrait on another shirt of a stoic Marine with the phrase "living history" below his face. And on a shirt called "Me and My 16" is a soldier with his trusty rifle and a verse from Proverbs: "The lamp of the wicked shall be put out."
Founders Patrick Gray and John Betz started the venture this summer because they sensed that people were losing sight of the troops fighting the war. They were concerned that other symbols were too fraught with politics and that there was nothing for younger people who wanted to show support.
Why would there be consequences for supporting our troops?
Source
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/23/AR2006072300630.html
"An Oklahoma woman whose son was killed in Iraq is urging Congress to enact a law to restrict commercial use of soldiers' names and images.
Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla., introduced a bill in the House earlier this month at the request of Judy Vincent of Bokoshe."
"Vincent's 21-year-old son, Marine Cpl. Scott Michael Vincent, was killed by a suicide bomber two years ago.
The Soldiers Targeted by Offensive Profiteering Act targets vendors who sell merchandise that includes the names or likenesses of U.S. troops, often over the objection of the soldiers or their families."
Vincent specifically is angered by a Flagstaff, Ariz., man's anti-war merchandise. He sells T-shirts listing the names of 1,700 soldiers killed in Iraq along with the phrase: "Bush lied. They died."
Oklahoma and Louisiana have enacted laws similar to the measure now in Congress.
Resolution
Dan Frazier, whose Web site www.carryabigsticker.com drew Judy Vincent's ire, said he would fight any federal legislation in court if necessary.
Source
http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2006/07/23/news/32soldiersmom.txt
Man Refused Flight for Anti-Bush T-Shirt Now Selling Them on the Net
T-shirt news
Jim Peterson considers himself a pacifist and hopes more people will get involved in politics. "A lot of people in the U.S. still think Bush is a shrub; they really need to wake up."
Honolulu Airport security officials were not
amused, when on June 10th, 2006, Peterson wore a
t-shirt saying "George Bush, War Criminal".
They refused him entry to the flight until he
turned the shirt inside out.
Resolution
He is now selling his t-shirts at:
http://www.cooltease.com
Source
http://www.pressbot.org/article_l,2,i,30083,c,25.html
Woman Refuses To Change Anti-Bush Shirt For Sentencing
T-shirt news
A judge refused to announce the sentence of a woman accused of assaulting police officers who
were arresting her for illegally posting anti-war posters because she was wearing an anti-Bush
t-shirt.
Resolution
"When Fisher showed back up wearing the same shirt, however, [the judge] did not turn it into a legal issue, and instead sentenced her for the original assault charges.
... He also gave Fisher a chance to express remorse for her actions during the altercation with police, before he sentenced her to 60 days in jail."
Source
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/9312729/detail.html
Woman Refuses To Change Anti-Bush Shirt For Sentencing
T-shirt news
A judge refused to announce the sentence of a woman accused of assaulting police officers who
were arresting her for illegally posting anti-war posters because she was wearing an anti-Bush
t-shirt.
Resolution
"When Fisher showed back up wearing the same shirt, however, [the judge] did not turn it into a legal issue, and instead sentenced her for the original assault charges.
... He also gave Fisher a chance to express remorse for her actions during the altercation with police, before he sentenced her to 60 days in jail."
Source
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/9312729/detail.html
Fisherman arrested for giving away an anti-FEMA t-shirt in Louisiana
T-shirt news
In New Orleans after Katrina, a fisherman's business goes under.
The fisherman then displays adaptability and goes into the t-shirt business, and gives away
an anti-FEMA t-shirt. (I guess there's a big market for that message down in NOLA.) And the
MBFs at FEMA arrest him. Only in Bush's America!"
Immediate result
George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fisherman's Association, has
been selling anti-FEMA T-shirts since last fall, a reflection of his frustration
with the federal government's response to the storm that left him homeless and unemployed.
But on Feb. 1, when he handed a shirt to a fellow Katrina victim as he was picking up
canned goods at a charity's relief tent, Barisich found himself in trouble with the
government.
He was cited by a group of Homeland Security officials for selling a t-shirt on federal
property - in this case, near a FEMA center in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in
Chalmette, La.
Barisich, 49, says he didn't sell the shirt, which said: "Flooded by Katrina! Forgotten by FEMA! What's Next, Mr. Bush?"
He says he gave it away.
Resolution
The government is sticking to its guns. “If we ignored this violation, you could have potentially 20 to 30 people standing out in front of the (FEMA) center, obstructing things,” says Dean Boyd, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman. “We’ve got a duty and a job under the law.”
Barisich says he'll fight the ticket because "if you do something wrong, you pay for it. If you didn't, you don't ever say you did."
Source
http://www.correntewire.com/arrested_for_selling_an_anti_fema_t_shirt
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=7400
Antiwar mom, representative’s wife removed from State of the Union
T-shirt news
Police removed Sheehan and Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. “Bill” Young, R-Fla., from the visitors gallery Tuesday night. Sheehan was taken away in handcuffs before Bush’s arrival at the Capitol and charged with a misdemeanor, while Young left the gallery and therefore was not arrested, Gainer said.
Sheehan’s T-shirt alluded to the number of soldiers killed in Iraq: “2245 Dead. How many more?” Capitol Police charged her with a misdemeanor for violating the District of Columbia’s code against unlawful or disruptive conduct on any part of the Capitol grounds, a law enforcement official said. She was released from custody and flew home Wednesday to Los Angeles.
Young’s shirt had a message with a different tone: “Support the Troops — Defending Our Freedom.”
“They said I was protesting,” Young told the St. Petersburg Times. “I said, ‘Read my shirt, it is not a protest.’ They said, ‘We consider that a protest.’ I said, ‘Then you are an idiot.”’
A foreign-born American citizen who was the guest of Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Fla., also was taken by police from the gallery just above the House floor, Hastings said Wednesday.
Immediate result
Neither Sheehan and Young was allowed to hear the State of the Union.
Sheehan was taken away in handcuffs before Bush’s arrival at the Capitol and charged with a misdemeanor, while Young left the gallery and therefore was not arrested, Gainer said.
Resolution
Capitol Police dropped a charge of unlawful conduct against antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan on Wednesday and apologized for ejecting her and a congressman’s wife from President Bush’s State of the Union address for wearing T-shirts with war messages.
"The officers made a good faith, but mistaken effort to enforce an old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions about demonstrating in the Capitol," Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said in a statement late Wednesday.
Source
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11120353
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/thebeat?pid=55212
http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/31/sheehan.arrest/
Girl arrested over Bollocks to Blair shirt
T-shirt news
Police arrested Charlotte Denis, 20, a gamekeeper from Gloucestershire, for wearing a "Bollocks to Blair" t-shirt at
the Midlands Game Fair.
Shocked and dismayed to be made a public spectacle, Denis tried to reason with the officers: "What do you want me to do? Take my top off and wear my bra?"
At this point, two officers marched Denis towards a police car. "They grabbed me as if I was a football hooligan," she says.
A tearful Denis was driven to a mobile police unit. "I asked the officers how they could arrest someone for wearing a T-shirt and they told me it was because it would offend a 70-80-year-old woman," she said.
Immediate result
After agreeing to wear a friend's coat, Denis was released without charge. But
the incident ruined her day: "You don't expect to be treated like that at a country fair,"
she said.
Resolution
"It's complete nonsense," said the Countryside Alliance. "The police surely have better things to do with their time than protect the Prime Minister's modesty."
Source
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/competitionnews/392/68779.html
Southwest boots woman for shirt
T-shirt news
Southwest Airlines kicked a woman off one of its flights over a political message on her T-shirt,
the airline confirmed Thursday, and published reports say the passenger will sue.
Lorrie Heasley of Woodland, Wash., was asked to leave her flight from Los Angeles
to Portland, Ore., Tuesday for wearing a T-shirt with pictures of President Bush,
Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a phrase similar to
the popular film title "Meet the Fockers."
A spokesman for Southwest Airlines told CNN that the airline used the "common sense" approach
when they decided to escort Heasley from the plane in Reno, Nevada, during a stopover between
Los Angeles and Portland, Ore. The airline felt that the T-shirt was offensive and that other
passengers would be outraged by it, the spokeswoman said, adding that the incident is about "decency."
"I have cousins in Iraq and other relatives going to war," Heasley told the Reno Gazette-Journal.
"Here we are trying to free another country and I have to get off an airplane in midflight over a t-shirt.
That's not freedom."
According to the airline spokeswoman, Heasley was asked to leave after she refused to cover up her T-shirt,
an account that conflicts with Heasley's version in the Gazette-Journal. Heasley told the newspaper that
she agreed to cover her shirt with a sweatshirt, but it slipped as she slept. After she was ordered to
wear her T-shirt inside-out or leave, she and her husband chose to leave, the paper said.
...
Southwest Airlines (down $0.03 to $15.18, Research) spokeswoman Marilee McInnis told the
Gazette-Journal that the airline's contract with the Federal Aviation Administration contains rules that
say the airline will deny boarding to any customer whose conduct is offensive, abusive, disorderly or
violent or for clothing that is "lewd, obscene, or patently offensive."
FAA spokesman Donn Walker told the newspaper that no federal rules exist on the subject. "It's
up to the airlines who they want to take and by what rules," he was quoted as saying. "The government just doesn't get into the business of what people wear on an aircraft."
Immediate result
Heasley wants Southwest to reimburse her and her husband for the last leg of their trip and pay for her gasoline, a $68 rental car from Avis and a $70 hotel bill, according to reports.
Source
http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/06/news/fortune500/southwest_shirt/?cnn=yes
T shirts and ABC News "balance"
T-shirt news
In a story on the whole "T shirts at the opponent's rallies" issue, ABC News leads with the misleading
Behind the scenes of one of the most contentious presidential races in recent memory, both Democrats and Republicans have organized what can only be called the T-shirt defense squads.
It is an all-out effort to spot T-shirts supporting the other candidate and block them from view, or in some cases to actually have the T-shirt-wearing offenders ejected or arrested.
The misleading part? Only one campaign tried to eject or arrest anyone, and it wasn't Kerry's.
Immediate result
I have a simple question for Bush: how can you claim to be the only one who will stand up to terrorists, when you can't even stand up to opposing views on T shirts?
Source
http://blogs.ckdhr.com/dag/archives/000144.html
ABC News Investigation: Campaigns Rally Against Wrong T-Shirts
T-shirt news
Behind the scenes of one of the most contentious presidential races in recent memory, both Democrats and Republicans have organized what can only be called the T-shirt defense squads.
It is an all-out effort to spot T-shirts supporting the other candidate and block them from view, or in some cases to actually have the T-shirt-wearing offenders ejected or arrested.
Immediate result
ABC News conducted a bipartisan experiment in which producers and volunteers went to rallies for each candidate wearing the other party's T-shirt, and found that each campaign had its own methods of preventing the shirts from being seen.
Resolution
At an Oct. 21 Kerry rally in Minneapolis, ABC news producers were surrounded and followed by a team of dancing Kerry campaign workers with large signs, effectively obstructing the Bush-Cheney T-shirts from the view of the national press.
The Bush campaign was even more aggressive in its response to the opposing party's T-shirts.
When ABC News volunteers Matt Walter and Sherrie Varpula tried to attend an Oct. 23 Bush rally at Space Coast Stadium in Melbourne, Fla., they were told by event volunteers the Kerry-Edwards T-shirts they were wearing would cause them not to be admitted.
Source
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Vote2004/story?id=214695&page=1
Grieving Mom Heckles Laura Bush
HAMILTON, N.J., A woman wearing a T-shirt with the words "President Bush You Killed My Son" and a picture of a
soldier killed in Iraq was detained Thursday
after she interrupted a campaign speech by first lady Laura Bush.
T-shirt news
Police escorted Sue Niederer of Hopewell, N.J., from a rally at a firehouse after she demanded to know why her son, Army 1st Lt. Seth Dvorin, 24, was killed in Iraq. Dvorin died in February while trying to disarm a bomb.
As shouts of "Four More Years" subsided, Niederer, standing in the middle of a crowd of some 700, continued to shout about the killing of her son.
Local police escorted Niederer out of the event, handcuffed her and placed her in the back of a police van.
Outside the hall, she said she had a ticket and asked why she was being arrested. She was told by police she had entered a private event and had refused to leave, the Trenton Times reported.
Niederer was later charged with defiant trespass and released. The charge could lead to a fine and a jail term of up to 60 days but jail time rarely results from such offenses, said a police spokesman.
The first lady continued speaking, touting her husband's record on the economy, health care and the war on terror to those attending the rally in this suburban community of 90,000 people near Trenton.
Immediate result
Event planners were ready for such a disruption, stationing volunteers like Karolina Zabawa, 20, in the crowd.
Resolution
"I was denied my freedom of speech," Niederer said at a makeshift news conference in the police station lobby.
Source
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/17/politics/printable644005.shtml
Blair Criminalizes His Critics
T-shirt news
In April, 2005, the Blair government banned any expression of opposition within a
kilometer of Parliament.
Eighty-year-old John Catt served with the RAF in the Second World War. Last September, he was stopped by police in Brighton for wearing an "offensive" T-shirt, which suggested that Bush and Blair be tried for war crimes. He was arrested under the Terrorism Act and handcuffed, with his arms held behind his back. The official record of the arrest says the "purpose" of searching him was "terrorism" and the "grounds for intervention" were "carrying placard and T-shirt with anti-Blair info" (sic).
(He was wearing a t-shirt that said "Bush Blair Sharon to be tried for war crimes torture human rights abuse" and, lower down, "the leaders of rogue states".)
Immediate result
Catt is awaiting trial.
Source
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Pilger_John/Blair_Criminalizes_Critics.html
County Supervisor Booted from Bush Event for Wearing Hidden Kerry Shirt
T-shirt news
"President Bush came to Wisconsin on July 14 and gave a speech in a town called Ashwaubenon, and Jayson Nelson wanted to hear him.
Nelson is an elected official. As an Outagamie County supervisor, he says he was notified that there were extra tickets for the event if he wanted one.
He did, and after giving his ID and Social Security number, he received a VIP pass a few days before Bush came to town, he tells The Progressive."
Immediate result
Nelson never got to hear Bush speak.
On the morning of Bush's visit, Nelson, a Democrat, attended a Kerry rally and was wearing a "Kerry for President" T-shirt.
Then when he went to the Bush rally, he says he buttoned up a blue denim shirt over the Kerry one.
As he approached the final screening point, Nelson says a Republican event staffer demanded that he step out of the line and take off his top shirt.
"At first, I thought she wasn't even talking to me," he recalls, "because who tells you that stuff? So I ignored her and kept going forward and then she told me again, 'You, you, you, step out of line. You've got to take off your shirt.' "
When he did so, the screener pounced.
"She must have though I was bin Laden or something because her eyes got big and she lunged at me and grabbed the ticket and tore it up," he says. "Then she called the Ashwaubenon police department on me, and they came over and said, 'What's the problem here? Do you have a ticket?' And I said, 'I had one but they just took it!' "
Resolution
She told the police to look at his T-shirt, and the police told him he couldn't be there and to get going, Nelson remembers.
"It was apparent to me that if I was going to debate it, I was going to get arrested," he says.
On his way out, the Secret Service also stopped him. "They took my driver's license and wrote down my Social Security number and telephone number," he says. "I started to ask, 'What's going on here? Is a T-shirt illegal?' And they said, 'No, we do this for all of the events, even Kerry's.' "
The Bush-Cheney campaign did not return a phone call for comment. But Merrill Smith, the Midwestern regional spokeswoman for the Bush-Cheney campaign, did talk to the Associated Press, which broke this story.
"These events are for people who are going to get out and support the President and who are going to work on his behalf between now and November 2," Smith told AP, though she said she wasn't familiar with the particular incident.
The Ashwaubenon police minimize their involvement. "There was no report on that and no arrest made," says Margene Roshak of the police department. "The Secret Service asked him to leave and escorted him out."
For his part, Nelson is still angry about this. "I was almost treated like a criminal," he says.
He thinks his working class background had something to do with the treatment he received. "One reason I feel that I was really selected out is because I was dressed as a working man," he says. "We were subject to extra scrutiny. Others were mostly business types."
Nelson finds it ironic that he was excluded from the Resch Center, where Bush was speaking. "I was a foreman and superintendent in building that building, and to get kicked out of it just because I had a T-shirt on-I don't see it. No one asked who I was voting for when I built it."
But there is a larger issue involved here, as well, he says.
"We got people over in Iraq getting killed for the Iraqis' rights," says Nelson, "and I think we're going to have to start fighting for our own."
Source
http://progressive.org/mag_mcshirt
FEMA employee arrested for wearing t-shirt
T-shirt news
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Nicole and Jeff Rank of Corpus Christi, Texas, were removed from the president’s July 4 rally at the West Virginia Capitol
in restraints after taking off an outer layer of clothes to reveal homemade T-shirts that had President Bush’s name with a slash through it and the words "Love America, Hate Bush" on the back.
The Ranks were given summonses to appear in Charleston Municipal Court and released.
Jeff Rank said the couple did not go the Capitol with the intention of being arrested. They are supporters of presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry, but wanted to take advantage of an opportunity to see Bush and "give him a fair hearing."
"We certainly did not expect to be arrested for expressing our freedom of expression," Jeff Rank said.
He said they were not protesting in any other way than simply wearing the shirts and did not said anything.
Law enforcement officers told the couple to take the shirts off, cover them or get out. When they refused and sat down, they were arrested. They then stood and accompanied the police, said Charleston Mayor Danny Jones.
Jones said the city officers who filed the trespassing charges were acting under the direction of the Secret Service.
Jones said, "I don’t think this was just about a T-shirt issue. There were other things going on there. The officers, quite frankly, feared for the safety of the Ranks."
Immediate result
Nicole Rank, 30, who was doing environmental work for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the wake of Memorial Day flooding in the state, was
released from her position after her arrest without getting another assignment.
She remains employed with FEMA.
She said Thursday it is not uncommon to leave one FEMA job before being assigned another, although she had expected to work in West Virginia longer.
Resolution
The trespass charges were dropped because a city ordinance did not cover trespassing on Statehouse grounds.
The City Council and Mayor Danny Jones have publicly apologized.
Andrew Schneider, executive director of the ACLU’s West Virginia chapter, said the organization has been monitoring a pattern of similar cases in other states. The ACLU in September filed a federal lawsuit against the Secret Service, seeking an injunction against the Bush administration for segregating protesters at his public appearances.
The Secret Service agreed to stop the practice, ACLU attorney Witold Walczak told The Charleston Gazette.
The couple has filed a federal lawsuit on Tuesday alleging their First Amendment rights were violated. Their lawsuit was filed in federal court by American Civil Liberties Union attorneys.
The lawsuit names Gregory Jenkins, deputy assistant to the president and director of
the White House Office of Presidential Advance, and W. Ralph Basham, director of the
U.S. Secret Service, as defendants.
The couple wants a judge to declare unconstitutional any policy that led to their arrest. They also are seeking unspecified monetary damages.
Source
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0715-07.htm
http://www.propagandamatrix.com/articles/september2004/150904suefeds.htm
http://www.refuseandresist.org/police_state/art.php?aid=1495
Three Teachers Evicted from Bush Event for Wearing "Protect Our Civil Liberties" T-Shirts
T-shirt news
On October 14, they decided to attend a Bush rally at the Jackson County Fairgrounds near Medford, where they teach. They wanted to see their President, and they also wanted to stand up for First Amendment rights, since they had heard on NPR that the Bush campaign was curtailing such rights all along the trail.
So they came up with an ingenious idea. They obtained tickets for the event, and they made and wore T-shirts that said, "Protect Our Civil Liberties." Alas, they were not allowed to hear the President. In fact, they were threatened with arrest.
They picked up their tickets the day before the event, but even there they had a hard time. The woman handing tickets out raised a question about Julian being from Ashland, a liberal town. "She asked me if I was going to protest or whether I was going to vote for Bush," says Julian. "And she said, 'I'll give you the ticket if you don't protest.' "
Julian agreed that she would not disrupt the event.
On October 14, they proceeded to the fairgrounds. They showed their driver's licenses and tickets at the first checkpoint. Campaign officials "were scrutinizing our T-shirts," Julian says, but they let the three in.
At the second checkpoint, which consisted of a metal detector staffed by the Secret Service, more questions arose.
"People came up and said, 'Do you know this is a Bush rally? We're concerned about your T-shirts,' " recalls Tong.
"We asked them why.
"They said, 'We don't want anything that's going to cause a disruption.'
"Then they asked, 'Are you going to vote for Bush?'
"And I said that I was undecided and my sister Candice said she was choosing not to answer because it's a personal decision."
The campaign officials said they could go in if they could guarantee they would not make a scene, Tong says. "We assured them that we did not come with any intention of being disorderly, so they said fine and said they respected our differing opinions," she recalls.
At that point, the three teachers assumed they were in, and that they could take their seats and listen to the President.
"As we were walking over to sit down, a woman grabbed me by the arm from the back and grabbed my shirt," Tong says. "She said she would have to look under my shirt for offensive language. I told her she wouldn't find any there. She still looked. Then we walked about two more steps and a man came up and asked to see our IDs again and then made a comment abut my sister living in Ashland. But he gave us our IDs back, and we proceeded to sit down."
Campaign officials ... followed them to their seats, and when Janet Voorhies got up to go to the bathroom, she was tailed, Tong and Julian say.
When Voorhies did not return promptly, they became concerned and got up to see what was going on.
"A guy had Janet by the elbow and was leading her away," says Julian.
"And he said to us, 'Give us your tickets.' "
"We said, 'Why?' And I put the ticket behind my back, and one of the guys who had been following us ripped it out of my hands."
Seeing what happened to her sister's ticket, Tong put hers down her pants, she says.
Campaign officials then told all three women to leave.
"They said it was a private event, for invited guests," said Tong.
"We said we were invited because we were given tickets.
"One said, 'You don't have tickets anymore.'
"We said, 'We did until you ripped them out of our hands.'
"And we asked him, 'Are you offended by our shirts?'
"He said our shirts were 'obscene.' "
Tong and Julian say that about ten men, including Secret Service officers and sheriff's deputies, proceeded to surround them.
"They weren't letting us move anywhere," Tong says. Campaign officials told law enforcement, "These people need to leave."
"We asked what would happen if we didn't, and the police said we'd be arrested for disorderly conduct," Tong says.
So the three teachers headed away.
Immediate result
"They walked us out past the parking lot and said if you come back, we're going to arrest you," Julian says. She told one of the men, "I just wanted to see my President." And he said, "You're just going to have to watch him on TV."
"The more and more I think about it the more and more I'm really ticked off," Julian says. "I should have the right to exercise my First Amendment rights. We were of no risk. The Secret Service had already screened us, and they had let us through. It had nothing to do with security. It had everything to do with us having differing views."
Tong is equally angry. "I'm just shocked that the statement on our shirts is even controversial," she says. "I thought that was one of our founding principles and that we have certain rights and freedoms that should be protected."
The Bush campaign and the Oregon Republican Party did not return calls and e-mails for comment.
Deputy Michael Hermant of the Jackson County Sheriff's Department says he doesn't know who was involved in this incident. "There were so many agencies there you couldn't believe it," he says. "Agencies from out of state, out of county, every available agency within the county, plus Secret Service. I have no way of knowing" who escorted the women out of the event or why.
"I can't imagine why the campaign would have asked them to leave," says Dave Fidanque, executive director of the Oregon ACLU, who stresses that the event was on public property at the county fairgrounds. "For a Presidential campaign to eject people who are not being disruptive seems out of character with the America I know."
Source
http://progressive.org/node/2362
http://www.bend.com/news/ar_view%5E3Far_id%5E3D18712.htm
Arrested: Sept. 3, 2004 Suit filed: Friday, April 29, 2005
Kerry supporters arrested at Bush rally sue law enforcement
T-shirt news
IOWA CITY (AP) --- Two women who were arrested at campaign rally for President Bush last fall and strip-searched at a county jail say law enforcement officers conspired to violate their constitutional rights.
Alice McCabe and Christine Nelson are suing the U.S. Secret Service and three of its agents, the Iowa State Patrol and two patrolmen, and Linn County.
The two women, both school teachers in their 50s, were among scores of people who were arrested, removed or barred from Bush rallies last year for wearing shirt or buttons favoring his Democratic rival, Sen. John Kerry.
Soon after arriving at Noelridge Park, a sprawling urban playground dotted with softball diamonds and a public pool, McCabe and Nelson were approached by Secret Service agents in polo shirts and Bermuda shorts. They were told that the Republicans had rented the park and they would have to move because the sidewalk was now considered private property.
After asking why, McCabe was arrested by a state trooper. Nelson was arrested later by another trooper, according to the lawsuit.
Immediate result
The women -- among five protesters arrested during the rally -- were handcuffed, taken to the county jail, strip-searched and charged with criminal trespass.
The charges were dropped months later.
Resolution
Their experience in the world of political protest was hardly unique during the 2004 election cycle, said Chris Hansen, senior staff counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Dozens of people were arrested for protesting outside events, removed after getting inside ticket-only areas or asked to sign forms endorsing Bush to get inside.
Their lawsuit claims their rights to free speech, free assembly, equal protection and due process were violated. It claims federal agents conspired with local and state law enforcement to deprive them of those rights.
The lawsuit claims the decision by police to conduct a strip search violated constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure. Typically suspects are searched only if authorities have cause to believe they possess a weapon or illegal drugs, O'Brien said.
"We don't think they had a reasonable belief that these two, 50-year-old school teachers had a weapon or contraband in their possession that day," O'Brien said, whose clients requested a jury trial and unspecified damages.
The U.S. Department of Justice recently asked a judge to toss out a case filed by the ACLU and two West Virginia residents who were arrested for wearing anti-Bush shirts at a campaign rally.
"We're still seeing it happen," said Hansen, citing recent cases of protesters being escorted from appearances Bush has made in recent months to tout his Social Security plan.
"During the election, and now after it ... these kinds of problems are popping up almost every time the president travels," Hansen said.
Source
http://www.wcfcourier.com/articles/2005/04/29/news/breaking_news/169fdd336569f31486256ff200377038.prt
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060722/ap_on_re_us/bush_protesters%26printer=1;_ylt=AjGQEp0zlM6OCth21gKKN7RH2ocA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Mar 19, 2004
Protests, Even Buttons, Verboten in Crawford (well, no, it doesn't mention t-shirts,
but -- can you imagine what would have happened if they'd been wearing t-shirts rather than buttons!)
T-shirt news
"If you're ever thinking about going down to Crawford, Texas, to protest against Bush, beware.
The police do not take kindly to demonstrators there--or legal observers, for that matter.
And even if you're just wearing an anti-Bush button, you could get arrested."
The Crawford Five were part of a larger group that was trying to go down to Bush's ranch outside of town to protest the Iraq War last May 3.
One irony is that they weren't intending to protest in Crawford itself, the protesters say. Nor did they do so, they insist.
Immediate result
"That's the message a local jury sent last month. On February 16, it convicted five peace activists of violating the parade and procession ordinance of Crawford, Texas. That ordinance required 15 days' notice and a $25 registration fee."
Resolution
"... it took a Crawford jury only ninety minutes to convict all five defendants, who were fined between $200 and $500 each.
The Crawford Five are appealing.
Chief Tidmore says he cannot comment either on the activists' claims that they were not protesting or on his own testimony that wearing a political button could be verboten in Crawford.
A separate legal action against Crawford is also under way. Other protesters from that day are pressing a civil suit in federal court against the town for violating their rights.
Source
http://www.altpr.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=39&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Thursday June 26, 2003
Illegally protesting out of sight of a court room
T-shirt news
Tim Hourigan, Owen Rice, and others were holding a banner a distance from the courthouse.
Immediate result
They were brought into court by order of Judge Mangan who claimed that they
were interfering with the court, although they could be neither seen or heard
from the court house.
Judge Joseph Mangan had a banner and placards confiscated at a courthouse in Tulla then
ordered Tim Hourigan out of court for wearing an "inappropriate" t-shirt.
The judge later ordered a female supporter of the defendent out of court for wearing a Pitstop Ploughshares t-shirt.
Resolution
All cases were adjourned.
- Eamonn's case was adjourned because the state had forgotten to bring a report.
- Mary Kelly's case was adjourned because her solicitor had not been given a copy
of all reports by the prosecution.
- Jenny and Martin's case was adjourned because the judge was too busy having
people ejected and arrested to get through all the witnesses.
- I was sitting in court wearing my "Wanted -George Bush T-shirt".
According to Tim Hourigan, "I was sitting in the back quietly.
I've worn this t-shirt in court several times with no complaint from Judge Mangan.
Judge Mangan: "Did you not study civics in school?
You are dressed inappropriately for court. ...
You'll have to remove that T-shirt or leave."
Hourigan: "I tried to reply to this abuse but he wouldn't allow me a word.
Civics? yes, I knew about the right to peaceful expression.
And anyway this was not a "free mary kelly" t-shirt being worn before a jury.
George Bush has never been before Mangan.
The judge asked me if I was a defendant or a witness.
... The judge said I had to leave and could return when needed WITHOUT the T-shirt.
I asked that, in due course he would give me a written reason for this ejection.
He snapped that he was not a "short hand typist".
So I left and started ringing the media.
At this stage we've lost a banner a placard and I've been chucked out. We got
onto a barrister who was amazed and told us there was no legal grounds for any of
this farce. He sounded appalled."
Source
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/52923?include_comments=true&print_page=true
GUILDERLAND -- About 100 people marched through Crossgates Mall at noon today to protest the arrest Monday of a man who wore a peace T-shirt while he shopped.
T-shirt news
"We just want to know what the policy is and why it's being randomly enforced," said Erin O'Brien, an organizer of the rally.
Immediate result
No arrests were reported, and protest leaders were scheduled to meet with the mall's manager after the rally.
Source
http://www.savethepinebush.org/NewsArt/XGates/Marchers.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-03-05-man-arrested-peace-t-shirt_x.htm
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/mar2003/down-m08_prn.shtml
US mall backs down on T-shirt arrest
T-shirt news
New York - Stephen Downs, 61, was detained after security guards at the Crossgates Mall near Albany, New York, ordered him to take off his shirt that read
Give Peace A Chance and
Peace on Earth or leave the mall.
When he refused, security guards called local police, who handcuffed Downs, arrested him and held him for two hours.
Downs and his 31-year-old son Roger both bought the T-shirts at the mall for $23 apiece.
The younger man took his shirt off at the guards' request.
The owner of the shopping mall opted to drop trespassing charges against him.
This was at least the second time in recent months that mall security asked people wearing T-shirts with peace slogans to leave.
Immediate result
Guilderland Town Justice Kenneth Riddett released Downs on his own recognizance and set a return date of March 17. Trespass, a violation, carries a maximum of 15 days in jail. A fine or conditional discharge with community service is more commonly given.
Downs, director of the Albany office of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct that investigates complaints of misconduct against judges, said his arrest attracted worldwide attention and he fielded calls from Canada and Europe.
The furore also drew the attention of late-night television host Jay Leno.
Resolution
On Wednesday about 100 demonstrators marched through the mall to protest Downs' arrest and told a mall manager they would not stop until charges were dropped.
Downs said he would also like an apology from the mall owners.
Chief Murley defended the police, saying the mall was private property and there was a mall policy of asking people who displayed anti-war messages on their clothes to leave.
On May 27, 2004, the New York Civil Liberties Union filed suit in State Supreme Court
alleging the Crossgates Mall for violating the free speech rights of
Stephen R. Downs at Crossgates Mall on March 3, 2003. Also named in the suit is the
Crossgates Mall owner, the Pyramid Company, as well as the Town of Guilderland
and its Police Department.
The NYCLU charges that Crossgates Mall, as a large retail establishment whose
existence is subsidized by tax incentives from the Town of Guilderland, is a public
area in which the right of free speech is guaranteed. The lawsuit also charges that
Guilderland's Police Department unlawfully arrested Downs.
Downs is seeking declaratory judgment that Crossgates Mall is a public forum for
the purposes of the free speech protections of the US and NYS constitutions.
He is also seeking compensatory damages and restitution for his unlawful arrest
and subsequent loss of liberty.
Melanie Trimble, executive director of the Capital Region Chapter of the NYCLU said,
“As a matter of public policy and common sense, individuals should be allowed to wear
clothing that expresses their personal opinions, even their own ideological views.
The mall has no right to pick and choose which messages they find offensive.”
Source
http://www.albany.edu/~mg2300/doc/news/TU_Marchers-protest-arrest-of-man-for-wearing-peace-Tshirt-at-Crossgates_03-05-2003.html
http://www.nyclu-crc.org/NYCLU-CRC%20Press%20Releases/D27EEDDC-E324-4090-9C4C-256CE8EE65BB.html
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/03/04/iraq.usa.shirt.reut/
http://www.iol.co.za/general/news/newsprint.php?art_id=qw1047006361276B262&sf=2813
Secret Service Questions Student over Anti-Bush T-Shirt
T-shirt news
Secret Service Agents question a Bellbrook High School student for wearing a controversial t-shirt.
The shirt has a picture of President Bush on it and the words, "not my president."
Immediate result
According to the Assistant Principal, the student had worn it before and it didn't cause any problems until the target appeared on the President's forehead. He confiscated the shirt, called the FBI and agents then called the secret service.
From that point, the Secret Service took over the investigation and met with the student and essentially treated the situation as a potential threat on the president.
Source
http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:vEF4jUzeMe8J:www.newsfrombabylon.com/index.php%3Fq%3Dnode/view/2604+%22secret+Service+Questions+Student+over+Anti-Bush+T-Shirt%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a
Arrest: Monday, April 7, 2003
Arkansas Student Arrested for Anti-war Shirt
T-shirt news
A Fayetteville man was arrested for criminal trespass Saturday at the Northwest Arkansas Mall when he and other members of a University of Arkansas student group attempted to enter the facility wearing T-shirts emblazoned with antiwar slogans.
"Some of us had been demonstrating down on College and Dickson," Vaught said. "We just went to the mall for some lunch, but security wouldn’t let us in."
Immediate result
Vaught said mall security officers quickly called the Fayetteville Police Department at about 2 p.m.
A spokesperson for mall security said Sunday his office could not comment on the matter.
When officers arrived, Vaught stepped forward as the group's spokesperson, said PSA member Nik Robbins, 24. "They wanted to arrest someone and they picked out Vaught because they perceived him as the ringleader," Robbins said.
He was charged with Criminal Trespassing (sp) which is a class c misdemeanor. Since it is '
a class C it carries a fine and up to 30 days in jail.
Resolution
Outrage within the academic community, independent media, and other leftists. I really haven't had the ability to gauge others but I have been bashed by right-wing radio, which isn't the first time.
Source
http://www.smother.net/features/danielvaught.php3
Arrest: April 4, 2003
MAN ARRESTED FOR WEARING GOD T-SHIRT
T-shirt news
Ridgewood, NJ - A man was charged with trespassing in a mall after he refused to take off a T-shirt that said "CURB YOUR GOD".
Immediate result
Mall security approached Paul Minotto, 42, on Monday night after he was spotted wearing the T-shirt at Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey.
Minotto said he was asked to remove the shirt or leave the mall. He refused.
The guards returned with a police officer who repeated the ultimatum. Minotto refused.
'I said, `All right then, arrest me if you have to,'” Minotto said. “So that's what they did. They put the handcuffs on and took me away. The shirt is nothing more than advertising for the primeTime sublime Community Orchestra.''
Minotto pleaded innocent to the charges Monday night. The New Jersey Civil Liberties Union said it would help with his case if asked.
Resolution
Police Chief James Murley said his officers were just responding to a complaint by mall security.
"We don't care what people have on their shirts, but he was asked to leave the property, and it's private property,'' Murley said.
Source
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2003/4/prweb61915.htm
Wednesday February 19, 2003
Anti-Bush T-Shirt Banned at Mich. School
T-shirt news
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) - School officials ordered a 16-year-old student to either take off a T-shirt emblazoned with the words ``International Terrorist'' and a picture of President Bush or go home, saying they worried it would inflame passions at the school where a majority of students are Arab-American.
Immediate result
The student, Bretton Barber, chose to go home. He said he wore the shirt Monday to express his anti-war position and for a class assignment in which he wrote a compare-contrast essay on Bush and Iraq President Saddam Hussein.
Resolution
Schools spokesman Dave Mustonen said students have the right to freedom of expression, but educators are sensitive to tensions caused by the conflict with Iraq.
Kary Moss, Executive Director of the ACLU of Michigan, in a press release: "It's obvious that Bretton feels very strongly about this issue, and we want to make sure that his ability to express his political opinion isn't hindered in any way. I'm hoping that we can resolve this issue without going to court. However, if the school is unwilling to allow students the right to political expression, we'll have no choice."
Source
http://www.gopusa.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1575
www.cnn.com/2003/US/Midwest/02/19/antibush.tshirt.ap/index.html
The Wikipedia's got a short but interesting list of illegal t-shirts too.
