Free Speech Under Fire: The ACLU Challenge to "Protest Zones" (9/23/2003)
Statement of Bill Neel WASHINGTON - I am here today because my First Amendment rights and those of many others in this country have been denied. Last year my sister and I were arrested and detained at a rally in western Pennsylvania simply because I carried a sign critical of President Bush. Thanks to folks at the Pittsburgh office of the American Civil Liberties Union, the charges against us were dismissed. But our legal vindication does not free the authorities who developed this unconstitutional ploy. I've lived in the Pittsburgh area all my life and I recently retired after 35 years on the job at Armco Steel. I enlisted in the Army in 1958 and was honorably discharged from the reserves in 1964. I know what it is to be a patriot and I know I have a right to criticize my government. But if the Bush Administration has its way, anyone who criticizes them will be out of sight and out of mind. I think anyone who calls himself a patriot ought to be as concerned about this as I am. I've run into these so-called free speech zones several times in the last few years. The first time was in July of 2001, when Vice President Cheney delivered a major energy policy speech at the Community College of Allegheny County. I arrived with my sign only to discover that protesters were being herded into a remote ""free speech zone"" located some distance from where Cheney and his press entourage would enter. I could see pro-Bush and pro-Cheney signs visible beyond the line of police. At that time, I backed off, fearing arrest since it was private property and the Bush people had successfully used the private property trespass ploy during the election campaign to avoid exposure to demonstrators of dissent. However, I was angry at both the authorities and myself and hoped I would never let fear of arrest limit my First Amendment rights again. After that, Bush came to western Pennsylvania several times, but always hiding in small private venues with no public access to allow protest. Then, the week before Labor Day 2002, the local paper announced that ""Dubyah"" would be speaking at the carpenter's union apprentice training center on Neville Island. Neville Island is a narrow isle in the middle of the Ohio River a few miles downriver from Pittsburgh. It was once a heavy industrial site. There is very limited access to the island, all of it along a major public highway that is also the main city thoroughfare. I figured this could be my chance to have my message heard. So on Labor Day morning, I picked up my sister Joyce, who is also politically active, and we drove 40 miles to Neville Island. Before we even got to the training center we met a roadblock of police. They told us that if we didn't have an invitation to the event we could go no further and we would have to join the other protesters about a quarter of a mile down the road. I parked and began walking back toward the fire hall, which was the headquarters for all the various law enforcement organizations. As I walked in that direction, I passed a community park and baseball field enclosed by a six-foot high chain link fence. Inside the fenced area was a group of people with signs protesting various aspects of Bush policies. At the gates to the park were armed police officers. The protesters were standing against the fence with their hands grasping the fencing. On the outside, people carrying pro-Bush signs stood on the sidewalk or proceeded unchallenged toward the rally site. The captive protesters, noting my sign, told me I would have to join them inside the cage. Remembering my experience at the Allegheny County College, I decided to stay outside the fence and display my sign. My sister, however, did go into the cage. Within a short time, two uniformed Allegheny police officers approached me and demanded that I enter the ""designated free speech zone."" I quietly refused, stating that a designated free-speech zone is a contradiction in terms and that the whole country is a free speech zone. The officer asked my age and when I replied 65, he moaned. He asked me about eight times to go behind the fence and said if I didn't, he would have to arrest me. Finally he handcuffed me and led me away toward the fire hall. Halfway to the fire hall my sister Joyce came running out of the protest area, fearing what would happen to me and not knowing how she might get home. She became loud and demonstrative and was arrested also. We were taken into the fire hall meeting room until they decided what to do with us. After two hours of conversation and debate with the arresting officers, we were charged with disorderly conduct and released. The police, however, confiscated my sign. Joyce and I then returned to the protest area where we were received with cheers and relief - just in time to see the Bush convoy speed by on the way back to the airport. I was without my sign. By the way, do you know what my sign said? It said, ""The Bush family must surely love the poor - they made so many of us."" If the Secret Service thinks statements like that are a threat, then we're all in trouble.
|
