Matthew Rothschild: Anti-Bush Protesters Prosecuted for “Unlawful Display of Sign”

[marmar]

from The Progressive:



Anti-Bush Protesters Prosecuted for “Unlawful Display of Sign”
December 6, 2007 By Matthew Rothschild


Jeff Zurawski and Sarah Hartfield had never even gone to a political demonstration before this year. But because they were outraged by Bush’s war, they went to Washington a couple of times and to Camp Casey once.

When they returned to their homes in DuPage County, Illinois, this spring, they decided to try to wake up their fellow citizens.

And so on May 6th, they went out onto the bridge over the North-South Highway and held a banner that said, “IMPEACH Bush and Cheney—LIARS.” They also displayed a flag upside down.

“If I had the money to buy a billboard, I would but I don’t,” says Zurawski, a home inspector. “So that’s what I came up with.”

They were there for about an hour and a half when a state trooper pulled up.

“He said he understood our message, but he was concerned about traffic safety and asked us to take the sign and flag down,” says Hartfield, a medical assistant. “We respectfully did so.”

They started to leave when three deputy sheriffs showed up.

One was irate, they said.

“He was clenching his teeth, and his veins were bulging out, and he was red-faced,” recalls Zurawski. The deputy accused them of throwing things off the bridge. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.progressive.org/mag_mc120607

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. DuPage County=very repuglican

I hope that there are a lot of folks protesting and that these guys get off. This is a case of free speech and an intentional attempt to stamp out dissent.

[nykym]

2. I think the whole ting should be dismissed

especially since. it looks like they were mistreated and ridiculed. this from the article.

“I waited after Memorial Day weekend to turn myself in,” she says. “I went and borrowed the money and drove to the Naperville police station. I told them I wanted to know what was wrong and why there was a warrant for my arrest. They were kind of evasive at the desk. They called in an officer. He handcuffed me and walked me out of the building and put me in a cruiser and drove me around to the back of the building and booked me. I asked, ‘For what?’ And he said, ‘It shows something about a May 6th war protest.’ ”

Hartfield says she was upset.

“I felt like a dog,” she says. “I was told to sit there on the bridge, and we did, and then just for the hell of it, they smacked us on the nose.”