Texas Couple Arrested for Wearing Anti-Bush Shirts at July 4 Campaign Stop

Seriously read what I said... putting "hate" onto a t-shirt is step one, in an action of venting your hatred. Step two through infinity is what the secret service was preventing here.

Obviously, as we've established, after detaining the couple, they saw no need to further press charges, and they were dropped.

Wearing a t-shirt is not the threat, the language on it was percieved as such.


Also, it did not say, "Love America, Don't like Bush."

It said, "Hate Bush." Keep the facts straight and they're easy to see.

I find it dangerous to claim that the "party in office" is responsible for a system in place for several decades that has also defended several democrat presidents.

Take the blinders off. I open to the facts of this ONE incident.

I am niether misguided or freaked out. The liberal side of this forum is who "freaked out" over something well within the secret services capabilities and jurisdiction.

I helped guide it to that discussion... this is a bi-partisan issue. This is the secret service....

Does the name "secret service" worry you in any way? That is the most "Orwellian" thing about this country in 50+ years. A law enforcement division with "secret" right in the title??

This is not a republican run sect...

Read the history of the S.S. here

Ironically, they started protecting the President under...

The First Democrat elected after the Civil War, Grover Cleveland... After McKinley (a republican) was assassinated in 1901, they began full-time protection of the President.

 

So, why are people "freaking out" about this? Ok....I'll tell you....

The SS was using their power to squelch anti-Bush rabble rousers. Plain and simple. What you are talking about is just legalese that is used to hide behind the guise of "threats." Any SS agent knows this. They aren't dumb. "Uhhhh...they looked like terrorist to me. I had to check them out!" The SS just didn't want them there. So, they were removed; to preserve the "pro-Bush" atmosphere. Release them later; mission accomplished.

And there's no "Orwellian" conspiracy theory. There's a thing we call "checks and balances." And the people can have power to to make change. Thus, speaking out against this type of thing is part of that. And that's what we are doing.

We do this to *prevent* such a thing from getting out of hand. To make sure the "Orwellian" thing never happens.

 

The "check" is the arrest.

The "balance" is charges dropped.

The truth is that this established a precedent in this post 9/11 age.

 

I shouldn't have extended the meaing without being more precise.

The checks and balances is more properly applies to the Executive, Judicial and Legislative branches of the government. I was just using it as an example of the peoples' voice. My fault.

Thus, the Secret Service does NOT "check and balance" itself.

All you are talking about is a security procedure that can varry from administration to administration. So, what ever you do, don't place the "checks and balances" under the jurisdiction of the SS (Executive Branch). They do NOT "check/balance" themselves!

That job goes to the Senate and Judicial (legal cases of the people against the government). That's our checks and balances. This is why the lawyers swooped in!

 

I do realize this, DavidS. I'm just trying to lighten the load of the debate and keep it trivial since that what this stems from.


They initially had cause for the arrest, or so they claimed -TRESPASSING - they dropped all charges...

Nowhere did the charges say "t-shirt wearing."

And I still challenge anyone else from now on to repeat this action.

Wear an anti-Kerry, "Hate Kerry" shirt, and trespass the event by going into a restricted area and I'm sure you'll get the same treatment.

 

isn't anyone concerned about how easily distracted the SS are? while they were arresting this couple, there might have been a real threat to the President and there would have been less eyes/ears to spot it because they were too busy with this nonsense. I guess the terrorists know how to create an easy diversion now.

 

did i miss something? was this couple in a restricted area?

 

IROC it:

This thing that you keep saying has always happened has NEVER happened. If you could give an example of this ever happening before - just one - you'd have some leg to stand on here. But you couldn't give such an example because it's never happened. This isn't about the "SS" (a chilling abbreviation, given the circumstances) and it's not something that would ever happen under Kerry's SS detail or Clinton's or Bush 41's or Reagan's or Carter's or Nixon's or ever before in the history of this country. EVER. This country was founded to avoid this kind of crap. This is Saddam stuff. This is brand new in America. This is the Secret Service as KGB. That, by itself, is chilling. The idea someone outside the administration setting this anti-American precedent would defend it is way worse. It is horrifying. And I repeat, your words in this thread are far scarier than any bomb, far more anti-American, far more destructive to this country than anything Al Qaeda could imagine. The best thing I can hope for this country is that you are utterly alone in this. Thoughts like the ones you've posted have lowered the bar on what I wish for with regard to this country. I used to wish we would move forward as a beacon of freedom. No hope of that now. You're proof. From now on, when people ask, I will tell the horror story I've read on this site and say I can't control what goes on in peoples minds, nor would I want to, but I desperately hope there are very few people thinking anti-American, destructive thoughts like the ones I've read in this thread. Difference between me and you is I don't think you should go to jail for your anti-American thoughts, while you oppose the very nature of what makes this country different than Saddam's Iraq. Meanwhile, you think it's perfectly reasonable that others SHOULD go to jail for expressing the same kinds of dissent that founded this country. Al Qaeda has nothing on you.

 

Agreed. If he’s serious, IROC is one of the many patriots (regardless of country) who must necessarily stand by, complicit, for fascism to gain a national foothold.

It’s not exactly novel. This stuff runs in cycles: Adams, Lincoln, Wilson, McCarthy. Actually, Bush reminds me a lot of Woodrow Wilson. Thankfully, our press isn’t 100% cowed into complicity (although you wouldn’t know it given the pre-war flag waving), otherwise we would never have even heard of these arrests.

What worries me is that this is cyclical, and, after 9/11, we are susceptible to a government potentially making the very real threat of terrorism into a bogeyman that would frighten us into submission.

 

who the uck cares, bush does suck, everyone loves a brazilian!!!!

 

You're right.

 

no, it was a public event and that is why the charges had to be droped and why the REPUBLICAN mayor of the city said that they shouldnt have been detained in the first place.

 

Hate means strong dislike. The facts are straight. I can paraphrase and not be changing the facts. There are things called synonyms that can be used. Yes it said 'Hate Bush'. That still isn't threatening. Wearing a t-shirt that expresses feelings, and then showing those feelings is very American, and in no way threatening, unless ideas are scary.

No it isn't an SS issue. What the SS did has not been done before, and the SS does not have the jurisdiction to superceded our constitution.

 

More info on this case... seems Charleston, West Virginia thinks the couple were mistreated.


July 20, 2004, 12:22AM

City of Charleston apologizes to anti-Bush protesters
Associated Press

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Charleston City Council apologized Monday to two protesters who were arrested for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts to the president's July 4 rally at the West Virginia Capitol.

Nicole and Jeff Rank, of Corpus Christi, Texas, were removed from the event in restraints after revealing T-shirts with President Bush's name crossed out on the front and the words "Love America, Hate Bush" on the back.

Trespassing charges were dismissed last week. On Monday, the city council adopted a resolution to apologize.

"If Nicole and Jeff Rank did nothing other than peaceably exercise their right of free speech and expression as guaranteed by our Constitutions, they should not have been arrested or charged with a crime," the resolution states.

"The City does hereby apologize to Nicole and Jeff Rank."

There was no official count for the vote, but it appeared to have bipartisan support.

Mayor Danny Jones, a Republican, backed the resolution written by Councilman Harry Deitzler, a Democrat.

"We support our police department," Jones said. "But we regret this happened, and quite frankly we want to put this behind us."

Trespassing charges were dropped Thursday after a judge determined that city ordinances do not apply to Statehouse grounds.

Jones had earlier said the city officers who filed the trespassing charges were acting under the direction of the Secret Service, but a spokesman for the Secret Service denied the agency was involved in the arrests.

Efforts to reach the Ranks were not immediately successful Monday night.

 

That's what I like to see!

 

Had the charges stood, there'd be reason to get giddy over this.

Seeing how they were dropped, it was expected.

This is America ya' know. Politeness counts.























It would have been impolite to leave the charges on their records.




I love to use reverse-circular reasoning on a liberal crowd.

 

Reverse-Cirular reasoning? Heh... At least you admit you are.

It's kinda like saying, "Why did you hire a lawyer and tell the press? We would have let you out of jail if you would have just asked nicely."

Yeah, riiiiighhhtt!

Anyways, one step at a time. And that's the way it goes in today's society. There's your reason.