protesters = terrorists ?

[low_delta]

article by James Boward at SFGate.com

Can anyone provide any sort of rationale at all for removing protesters from the general vicinity of the president?


Here are some quotes from the article that I thought were especially interesting:

Local police, acting under Secret Service orders, established a "free-speech zone" half a mile from where Bush would speak.

On May 30, 2002, Ashcroft effectively abolished restrictions on FBI surveillance of Americans' everyday lives first imposed in 1976. One FBI internal newsletter encouraged FBI agents to conduct more interviews with antiwar activists "for plenty of reasons, chief of which it will enhance the paranoia endemic in such circles and will further service to get the point across that there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox."

The FBI took a shotgun approach toward protesters partly because of the FBI's "belief that dissident speech and association should be prevented because they were incipient steps toward the possible ultimate commission of act which might be criminal," according to a Senate report.

On Nov. 23 news broke that the FBI is actively conducting surveillance of antiwar demonstrators, supposedly to "blunt potential violence by extremist elements," according to a Reuters interview with a federal law enforcement official.

Given the FBI's expansive definition of "potential violence" in the past, this is a net that could catch almost any group or individual who falls into official disfavor.

And finally...

But the Justice Department -- in the person of U.S. Attorney Strom Thurmond Jr. -- quickly jumped in, charging Bursey with violating a rarely enforced federal law regarding "entering a restricted area around the president of the United States."

I would guess that that charge is a felony offense, removing the offending liberal from the voter rolls.

Comments

[gr8cpa.livejournal.com]

*shudder* Reminds me of the 1960's. Here we go again. I can think of no reason why the president should be shielded from Americans holding signs within his range of view. I attended a Clinton rally in 1996, even shook his hand. He drove right by protesters. Secret Service agents were everywhere, but that was fine. His limo was bullet-proof. He could read the signs. Big deal.

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

Remember that the Usurper has bragged about how he deliberately does not read newspapers. He actively dislikes seeing alternative and/or opposing points of view. The mendacious use of the Secret Service and the FBI to keep him ignorant of public opposition is entirely consistent.

He spoke down the street from where I live on Monday night. Although the St. Louis Labor Council had a protest about overtime "reform", it was confirmed that he never saw them.

Hell, he even abuses those who throw money at him. He didn't eat at the $2,000 per plate banquet, just speaking platitudinal nonsense for 22 minutes, then gladhanding an elite for another ten or so. His campaign coffers gained $78,000 per minute he spent ignoring those who paid to see him, much less those who didn't.

[dwivian]

You need to know that Bursey was in a restricted area without credentials. We have to assume he was the only one in that area without the permits, as he has not attempted to prove anyone else in the area was missing their ticket. He was asked to leave, and he refused. That's trespassing, but the authority for restricted space (TFR, TGR, TTR) is the federal government, and that is where the only case could be made.

I disagree with the "free speech zone" concept, but Bursey isn't the advocate we need.

[angst-is-fun.livejournal.com]

Once again proving fascism is alive and well in America!!
I just wish the "mainstream" would wake up, but they've been scared into submission.....

[roadskoller.livejournal.com]

I've started to refer to Ashcroft as 'J. Edgar Ashcroft'