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News :: Miscellaneous |
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MAN ARRESTED FOR HANDING OUT ANTI-BUSH TOILET PAPER |
Current rating: 0 |
by Terje Langeland
Email: terje_l (nospam) yahoo.com (unverified!) |
15 Aug 2001
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This article should be read in the context of continuing Secret Service efforts to prevent the appearance of protesters in front of the cameras across the country whenever W is around. I do not believe that it is a proper function of either the Secret Service or local police to insure that the media is presented with only adoring crowds welcoming Bush, with protesters cordoned off where they can be ignored. Security of the President is one thing; running a PR spin operation to the political benefit of the prez is clearly something which they should not be involved with. ML |
By TERJE LANGELAND Colorado Daily Staff Writer
ESTES PARK - A Longmont man was arrested Tuesday by Estes Park police and interrogated by the Secret Service for handing out toilet paper depicting George W. Bush and members of his cabinet.
Meanwhile, at least two others participating in a protest against Bush, who came through Estes Park as part of a one-day visit to Colorado, were threatened with arrest for protesting outside a designated \"free-speech zone.\"
John Fischer, 35, was handing out free bumper stickers and rolls of toilet paper to a crowd of environmental activists when he was arrested. The activists had lined up along Bush\'s motorcade route to express concern about the administration\'s environmental policies.
Fischer sells paraphernalia poking fun at Bush through a Web site, www.whatpresident.com, which he operates from his home. The toilet paper features images of Bush, labeled \"Bush wipe;\" Vice President Dick Cheney, labeled \"Dick wipe;\" Attorney General John Ashcroft, labeled \"Ash wipe;\" and Colin Powell, labeled \"Colin wipe.\"
Eric Rose, a police spokesman, said Fischer was arrested because the rolls of toilet paper could be used by activists as \"projectiles\" to be thrown at Bush.
\"He handed out toilet paper (rolls) and encouraged them to throw them at the presidential motorcade,\" Rose said.
Fischer was detained for more than three hours and released with orders to appear in municipal court on charges of disturbing the peace, for which he could receive a $150 fine.
Fischer said the police appeared to be acting on orders from the Secret Service. Two agents of the service questioned Fischer while he was detained, he said.
\"They called them missiles,\" Fischer said of the toilet-paper rolls. \"They said that they presented a national security threat and that they needed to hold me until the president was out of the valley. . . . They asked me if I had ever been institutionalized.\"
Fischer said he was \"absolutely not\" encouraging anyone to throw the toilet paper; in fact, he said, he discouraged a group of teenagers who briefly entertained the idea.
\"I\'m going to fight it, of course,\" Fischer said of the charge against him.
The approximately 150 protesters who greeted Bush in Estes Park were instructed by police and Secret Service agents to stay inside a designated \"protest area,\" which was cordoned off with police tape.
Most of the protesters obliged, but a few lined up on a public sidewalk on the opposite side of the street, alongside non-protesters who were waiting to see Bush. Police officers ordered people with signs to cross back over to the protest area, while non-protesters were allowed to remain in place.
One of the protesters ordered to move was Ramon Ajero of Fort Collins. Ajero said he was threatened with arrest when he asked officers to justify the order. He said he eventually returned to the \"free-speech zone\" because he didn\'t want to be arrested.
\"I thought this whole country was a \"free-speech zone,\'\" Ajero complained. \"Apparently, I\'m mistaken.\"
Jack Jackson, a tourist from St. Louis, said he was also threatened with arrest for holding a sign outside the protest area.
Sgt. Wes Kufeld of Estes Park police confirmed that he had threatened to arrest Ajero. He refused to answer questions about whether Ajero\'s First Amendment right to free speech might have been violated.
\"I\'m not going to go into that,\" Kufeld said. \"I\'m just working on orders.\"
Rose, the police spokesman, said officers were following instructions from the Secret Service.
\"The understanding we had from the Secret Service detail that came into town was they had designated an area for lawful assembly for protest,\" Rose said. \"Everybody was directed to be in that designated area, and if they weren\'t, it wasn\'t following the instructions of the Secret Service.\"
Asked whether officers might have violated the protesters\' right to free speech, Rose replied, \"I can\'t answer that question. I\'d have to direct you to the White House on that one.\"
A spokesman for the Denver office of the Secret Service, Rick Flores, indicated he wasn\'t familiar with any orders to arrest protesters who strayed from the designated area.
\"That\'s news to us, because we go out of our way not to interfere with people\'s First Amendment rights,\" Flores said.
Flores added, however, that he wasn\'t directly involved in the security efforts in Estes Park.
\"I\'ll have to get ahold of the people who were in charge of that event and quiz them on this,\" he said.
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See also:
http://www.coloradodaily.com
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