Once again, the first Amendment…
Posted By JC Carter on October 8, 2007
Once again, our first Amendment rights are under attack. Citizens who publicly protest the war and the government’s hostility with Iran have been met with various responses to suppress their dissent.
About a month ago, a group of protesters were publicly arrested by the D.C. mounted police and SWAT team for, get this, putting up anti-war posters. They were fined $20,000 by D.C. for “defacement of public property,” a ruling they were challenging in court. Of course, before the challenge could be settled, they were arrested. Read about it.
Now these stalwart Americans are facing 6 months of jail time for defacement of public property and assembling without a permit. Sieg Heil!
It amazes me… we hear about this sort of thing happening in other countries, like Cuba, China, Uganda, or Burma. How easily it has happened here. You would think in a country where our rights to speak dissent against our government and its policies and lawfully assemble with the same intent, can be so easily overridden. You would think the government would have a harder time suppressing dissent in a “free” country.
Oh, and in case you were thinking it wouldn’t happen with a Democrat in the White House…
Essentially, a war protester brought her anti-war sign to a Clinton campaign rally in Portsmouth, and was told first that she couldn’t bring the sign into the rally, as Mrs. Clinton had a “No sign” policy. Then, when she refused to back down, a police officer told her she would have to leave. Naturally what did she see when she watched the rally later on the news? Yep, lots and lots of pro-Hillary signs. I thought this part of her story was particularly poignant:
I listened from outside the barricades and heard Hillary Clinton
speak, more than once, to restoring the Constitution, and later, to not making anyone invisible. She spoke to the private-club,
ownership society of the Bush Administration. I think, from her
campaign’s actions, that she might belong to the same club.
[...] Once again, the first Amendment… ! It amazes me we hear about this sort of thing happening in other countries, like Cuba, China, Uganda [...]
Wow… I thought we were at least 2 years away from this.