THE FEZ MAN
07-09-2007, 06:10 PM
onday, July 9, 2007 Posted on Sat, Jul 7, 2007 Zoom + (http://www.delcotimes.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/Daily;jsessionid=mXDBGSxctyh5GpXCP9L2GhvhpTTJBHd4S RP7v92NfZwcvlQNCc8F%21-1543941351?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.pgpath=%2FDCT%2FOpinion&r21.content=%2FDCT%2FOpinion%2FHeadlineList_Story_ 486063#) | Zoom - (http://www.delcotimes.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/Daily;jsessionid=mXDBGSxctyh5GpXCP9L2GhvhpTTJBHd4S RP7v92NfZwcvlQNCc8F%21-1543941351?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.pgpath=%2FDCT%2FOpinion&r21.content=%2FDCT%2FOpinion%2FHeadlineList_Story_ 486063#) Editorial: Women strike blow for First Amendment rights By /Story/2007/07/08/ In August 2005, four young women — including two from Delaware County — appeared at a Concord Mall bookstore in Wilmington, Del., to attend a book signing and discussion featuring Pennsylvania’s ex-U.S. senator, Rick Santorum, who was running for re-election.
They talked among themselves about what they wanted to ask the ultra-conservative Republican, including questions concerning disparaging remarks he had made regarding homosexuality.
Two public-relations women hired by Santorum’s campaign staff overheard the group and directed an off-duty Delaware state trooper working a security detail to remove the group from the store.
The two younger Delaware County women left when threatened with arrest by the trooper. When the two remaining women, both in their early 20s, questioned the reason for their ejection, the trooper marched them out of the store, took their identification credentials and then put them in the back of his patrol car.
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According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, the trooper did not release them until the father of one of the women, an attorney, intervened. Then, apparently unbeknownst to the bookstore and mall owners, the trooper proclaimed that the women were “banned for life” from the store and the mall.
One year later, in August 2006, an 18-year-old campaign volunteer for Democrat Joe Sestak of Edgmont, who unseated U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-7, of Thornbury last November, was standing outside Weldon’s re-election headquarters at a Springfield shopping center, waiting to hear an endorsement announcement.
One of Weldon’s staffers called Springfield police to report “protesters” outside the campaign office. Police arrived to find only the teenager standing there, peacefully.
“I just wanted to hear what they had to say,” said the honor student who was devoid of a megaphone or even a placard.
The Springfield police officer reminded the Weldon campaign staff that protesting was not against the law, then went on his way.
What a contrast in awareness of basic First Amendment rights!
The Delaware state trooper who hauled the women out of the Santorum event, and his colleagues, will be re-educated about the First Amendment thanks to an out-of-court settlement reached recently between the women and the Delaware State Police.
With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, the young women filed a lawsuit against the Delaware State Police on May 30, 2006, alleging their free-speech rights were violated.
In addition to implementing new policies and training regarding the First Amendment, the settlement also requires the Delaware State Police to pay the women $15,000 in legal fees.
Noted ACLU of Delaware staff attorney Julia Graff, “The settlement sends a strong message to elected officials everywhere that you can’t use the state’s police power to cleanse crowds of dissenting voices.”
The two women who ordered the group’s removal should be ashamed of themselves, considering they are in a profession that relies on free speech. They certainly must have reassessed their campaign tactics by now considering their client was soundly trounced in last November’s election.
It is hard to believe that even Santorum, who committed his fair share of egregious gaffes during his 12 years in office, would endorse the eviction of people from a public place simply because they might disagree with him. He is, after all, an attorney and he had a book to sell.
In what must be an embarrassment to many Delaware state troopers who understand the basic premise of free speech, their spokesman has actually defended the off-duty state trooper’s behavior at the bookstore.
Even more disturbing, the state police spokesman said he doesn’t feel the training resulting from the lawsuit would have altered the way the trooper handled the incident at the bookstore.
Nevertheless, the Delaware state trooper is required by the settlement to write an apology to the four women for his blatant abuse of power as are the two women who instructed him to eliminate the one group from the crowd.
In an added stroke of poetic justice, the settlement also requires the two women who ordered the removal of the foursome from the Santorum event to give the plaintiffs the $2,500 they earned that day. The plaintiffs have said that money will be donated to charity.
Apparently their aim was not to become millionaires over the ignorance and arrogance of others, but to strike a blow for First Amendment rights.
They have indeed done that with much more class and style than those who attempted to silence them.
http://www.delcotimes.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/Daily;jsessionid=mXDBGSxctyh5GpXCP9L2GhvhpTTJBHd4S RP7v92NfZwcvlQNCc8F!-1543941351?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.pgpath=%2FDCT%2FOpinion&r21.content=%2FDCT%2FOpinion%2FHeadlineList_Story_ 486063
fucking meddling no good mother fucking ACLU
They talked among themselves about what they wanted to ask the ultra-conservative Republican, including questions concerning disparaging remarks he had made regarding homosexuality.
Two public-relations women hired by Santorum’s campaign staff overheard the group and directed an off-duty Delaware state trooper working a security detail to remove the group from the store.
The two younger Delaware County women left when threatened with arrest by the trooper. When the two remaining women, both in their early 20s, questioned the reason for their ejection, the trooper marched them out of the store, took their identification credentials and then put them in the back of his patrol car.
Advertisement
According to the American Civil Liberties Union of Delaware, the trooper did not release them until the father of one of the women, an attorney, intervened. Then, apparently unbeknownst to the bookstore and mall owners, the trooper proclaimed that the women were “banned for life” from the store and the mall.
One year later, in August 2006, an 18-year-old campaign volunteer for Democrat Joe Sestak of Edgmont, who unseated U.S. Rep. Curt Weldon, R-7, of Thornbury last November, was standing outside Weldon’s re-election headquarters at a Springfield shopping center, waiting to hear an endorsement announcement.
One of Weldon’s staffers called Springfield police to report “protesters” outside the campaign office. Police arrived to find only the teenager standing there, peacefully.
“I just wanted to hear what they had to say,” said the honor student who was devoid of a megaphone or even a placard.
The Springfield police officer reminded the Weldon campaign staff that protesting was not against the law, then went on his way.
What a contrast in awareness of basic First Amendment rights!
The Delaware state trooper who hauled the women out of the Santorum event, and his colleagues, will be re-educated about the First Amendment thanks to an out-of-court settlement reached recently between the women and the Delaware State Police.
With the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, the young women filed a lawsuit against the Delaware State Police on May 30, 2006, alleging their free-speech rights were violated.
In addition to implementing new policies and training regarding the First Amendment, the settlement also requires the Delaware State Police to pay the women $15,000 in legal fees.
Noted ACLU of Delaware staff attorney Julia Graff, “The settlement sends a strong message to elected officials everywhere that you can’t use the state’s police power to cleanse crowds of dissenting voices.”
The two women who ordered the group’s removal should be ashamed of themselves, considering they are in a profession that relies on free speech. They certainly must have reassessed their campaign tactics by now considering their client was soundly trounced in last November’s election.
It is hard to believe that even Santorum, who committed his fair share of egregious gaffes during his 12 years in office, would endorse the eviction of people from a public place simply because they might disagree with him. He is, after all, an attorney and he had a book to sell.
In what must be an embarrassment to many Delaware state troopers who understand the basic premise of free speech, their spokesman has actually defended the off-duty state trooper’s behavior at the bookstore.
Even more disturbing, the state police spokesman said he doesn’t feel the training resulting from the lawsuit would have altered the way the trooper handled the incident at the bookstore.
Nevertheless, the Delaware state trooper is required by the settlement to write an apology to the four women for his blatant abuse of power as are the two women who instructed him to eliminate the one group from the crowd.
In an added stroke of poetic justice, the settlement also requires the two women who ordered the removal of the foursome from the Santorum event to give the plaintiffs the $2,500 they earned that day. The plaintiffs have said that money will be donated to charity.
Apparently their aim was not to become millionaires over the ignorance and arrogance of others, but to strike a blow for First Amendment rights.
They have indeed done that with much more class and style than those who attempted to silence them.
http://www.delcotimes.com/WebApp/appmanager/JRC/Daily;jsessionid=mXDBGSxctyh5GpXCP9L2GhvhpTTJBHd4S RP7v92NfZwcvlQNCc8F!-1543941351?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pg_article&r21.pgpath=%2FDCT%2FOpinion&r21.content=%2FDCT%2FOpinion%2FHeadlineList_Story_ 486063
fucking meddling no good mother fucking ACLU