Posted on 02/01/2006 4:50:29 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan says she intends to sue over her arrest last night just prior to President Bush's State of the Union address, as she displayed a shirt proclaiming the number of dead American soldiers from the ongoing conflict in Iraq.
"I am so upset and sore it is hard to think straight," Sheehan writes in her online diary. "I have some lawyers looking into filing a First Amendment lawsuit against the government for what happened tonight. I will file it. It is time to take our freedoms and our country back. I don't want to live in a country that prohibits any person, whether he/she has paid the ultimate price for that country, from wearing, saying, writing, or telephoning any negative statements about the government. That's why I am going to take my freedoms and liberties back. That's why I am not going to let Bushco take anything else away from me ... or you."
Sheehan was taken into custody shortly after unzipping her jacket, revealing her T-shirt, which had the message, "2245 Dead. How many more?"
She says a Capitol police officer spotted the message, 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 stairs. I said something like 'I'm going, do you have to be so rough?'"
She continued: "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.'"
Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq and has since called terrorists "freedom fighters," said while she was not looking to cause any disturbance, she did wear the shirt "to make a statement."
"The press knew I was going to be there and I thought every once in a while they would show me and I would have the shirt on. I did not wear it to be disruptive, or I would have unzipped my jacket during George's speech. If I had any idea what happens to people who wear shirts that make the neocons uncomfortable that I would be arrested ... maybe I would have, but I didn't."
Sheehan got some support from Fox News' legal analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano.
"Silently wearing a T-shirt is not against the law," he told host John Gibson. "She had every right to wear it."
Sheehan's threat of a lawsuit is already being blasted by some news watchers.
In a letter addressed to Sheehan from Regina Robertson of Lubbock, Texas, Robertson writes: "Voice your opinion in the manner which the First Amendment was intended, not by treating your home country as the enemy. ... I am offended daily by the likes of you Cindy Sheehan, and your publicity stunts that have embarrassed America for too long. I am exercising my First Amendment right here, by sending this out there, hoping you will be intelligent enough to read it. I am voicing my opinion, but I am not denying you Cindy Sheehan, yours. I simply want you and all your liberal friends to respect the freedom you have been given by the blood shed not only by the 2,245 in Iraq, but by thousands and thousands more in the past. And I simply want you to leave my country. (Is that so wrong?)"
In addition to Sheehan, Beverly Young, the wife of U.S. Rep. Bill Young, R- Fla., was also ejected from the House gallery during the State of the Union address for wearing a shirt that read, "Support the Troops – Defending Our Freedom."
Today on the House floor, Rep. Young blasted his wife's arrest.
"Because she had on a shirt that someone didn't like that said support our troops, she was kicked out of this gallery," he said, as he held up the shirt. "Shame, shame."
So what was her excuse BEFORE she was arrested...?
"I am so upset and sore it is hard to think straight,"
She said as she tried to remove her head from her back door.
Let her know what threats like hers are worth.
Actually, I like the recent flurry of attention this whackjob is getting. She is not identified with the GOP, and you know what I am talking about. ;^)
How about in a courtroom, Cindy? Can you interrupt the judge? How about being on stage during the inauguration? Do you have the right to do that?
Fifteen minutes has never lasted so long.
I don't think the arrest had anything to do with Crazy Cindy not being "able to think straight."
Crazy Cindy is almost as dumb as she is ugly.
I like it.
I think they have a blanket rule against clothing with words on it and signs. Simple rule. Uniformly enforced. No First Amendment violation. I'll bet the rules ARE posted, too.
Not a bad idea. Maybe some of the freepers here are familiar enough with the law to get something going.
But ... but ...
NOOO OOOONNNNEEEE TOOOOOOOLD HEEEEERRRRRR! /big whine voice
Cindy Sheehan is the gift that keeps on not giving.
Do you know where "the government" gets its money?
YOU GUESSED IT!
Calling this a silly cow alert is defamatory to cows everywhere who actually perform useful services to society. Ms. Sheehan is just a nuisance, like a fly or a mosquito.
"you know what I am talking about"
Yep, she's identified with the party of Scarlett O'Hillary and that infamous PlantaSheehan...
Too bad Cindy's mommy didn't have a "choice."
Cindy Sheehan,not just another pretty face. hehehe
I suspect Congress can set it's own rules and they can't be sued over them.
Any lawyers who can cite the appropriate law/regulation/rule?
Rules are for the little people. --- Sandy Berger*
*attribution fake but accurate
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.