Tuesday, January 31, 2006

what?!?!?!

This is pretty much the most disturbing thing I've ever read. I wrote in my liveblogging of the S.o.t.U. that Cindy Sheehan had been arrested. I assumed it was for some kind of civil disobedience, or at least a slightly valid legal claim.

Instead, it was because she wore an anti-war T-shirt to the S.o.t.U.

First, she was charged with "demonstrating in the Capitol."
Which leads me to question: How is that a crime??? Is free speech not protected on Capitol Hill? Isn't that one place where it should be most vigorously protected?
Eventually, the charge was changed to "unlawful conduct."

Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond.

She was released on her own recognizance.


The BradBlog got this story first, pretty much as it happened.

According to Swanson [of AfterDowningStreet.org, who is in DC], Sheehan was "arrested for wearing the shirt she was wearing all day, which had the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq...She was lifted out of her seat [in the Capitol Chamber gallery] by the Capitol Police and taken away."







I'm still confused.
How is this not a violation of the First Amendment???

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