Pennsylvania County Settles ACLU Lawsuit Brought on Behalf of Political ..

[struggle4progress]

.. Protesters

<snip> Known as the "Smoketown Six," the activists stripped down to thong underwear to recreate an infamous image from the Abu Ghraib torture scandal in Iraq. However, within two minutes of assembling the dramatic piece of street theater, township and state police forcibly dismantled the human pyramid the men had created and arrested them for "disorderly conduct." The charges were later dropped in October. <snip>

The men said that they wanted to express their disapproval of U.S. military policies in Iraq while using an image that would be difficult for the president to ignore, and at no point did they treat this protest as a joke. In order to ensure they were acting within the law, the men positioned themselves along the Old Philadelphia Pike, where a few other protesters and many Bush supporters were instructed to go, and wore thongs no different in design from those worn on beaches.

After the charges against the men were dropped, five of the six protesters filed a lawsuit against both East Lampeter Township and the Pennsylvania State Police in December. While the township and the activists have now settled, the lawsuit against the state police will continue to go forward. <snip>

http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeech.cfm?ID=18601&c=86

[VegasWolf]

1. Good. nt