veteran arrested at v.a. for wearing veterans for peace shirt

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_956.shtml

Busted for wearing a peace T-shirt; has this country gone completely insane?
By Mike Ferner
Online Journal Contributing Writer

Jul 5, 2006, 01:49

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.

You know the rest. 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 t***," or any number of truly obscene things and no one would care. Just so it's not "that shirt" again.

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.

I was at the Jesse Brown V.A. Medical Center because I'm participating in the Voices for Creative Nonviolence's 30-day, 320-mile "Walk for Justice," from Springfield to North Chicago, Illinois, to reclaim funding for the common good and away from war.
Mike Ferner served as a Navy corpsman during Vietnam War and is obviously a member of Veterans For Peace. He can be reached at: mike.ferner@sbcglobal.net.

 

i hope there is another side to this story. this guy makes it sound like he was arrested for simply wearing a tee-shirt and nothing else. its not like there is a precedent for this...wait, yes there is.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/03/04/iraq.usa.shirt.reut/

A lawyer was arrested late Monday and charged with trespassing at a public mall in the state of New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating peace that he had just purchased at the mall.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/31/sheehan.arrest/

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested Tuesday in the House gallery after refusing to cover up a T-shirt bearing an anti-war slogan before President Bush's State of the Union address.

http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/news.aspx?id=14041

Nicole and Jeff Rank were removed from the event in handcuffs after revealing T-shirts with President Bush's name crossed out on the front. Nicole Rank's shirt had the words "Love America, Hate Bush" on the back and Jeff Rank's had "Regime change starts at home" on the back.

http://www.refuseandresist.org/police_state/art.php?aid=687

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.

Daniel Vaught, 22, a member of the university’s Progressive Student Association, said he tried to enter the mall’s north entrance after he and his fellow PSA members had been demonstrating around Fayetteville. "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."

The group members ’ shirts bore the slogans "Support the troops, not war or Bu $ h." "They met us at the curb and said we weren’t welcome," he said. "They told us our shirts were the reason."

 

from what he claims, he wasnt protesting. just wearing a tee-shirt that says veterans for peace. maybe if he was wearing one that said veterans for war that would be o.k. yeah for war!!!

maybe he had a conversation w/ someone else there and was overheard by someone who didnt like what he had to say, but i highly doubt he was in there picketing the war or just publicly speaking out.