At a Romney Event Yesterday, I Was Removed and Arrested. I Still Don't Know Why (Daily Kos Diary)

[kpete]

TUE JAN 10, 2012 AT 09:35 AM PST
At a Romney Event Yesterday, I Was Removed and Arrested. I Still Don't Know Why.
byTheWheatAndChaffFollow

I’d been in New Hampshire for the past several days to follow the campaign and see some of the candidates in-person. Yesterday morning, I was chatting up a Romney campaign staffer before an event at the Gilchrist Manufacturing Company in Hudson, NH, when a police officer approached. Sir, we have to ask you to leave the premises.

..........................

I gathered my things and walked past a group of citizens and press, humiliated and confused.

Outside, the officer said, “Sir, the campaign has identified you as someone who was at a protest at Romney’s office in Manchester.”

....................

At the police station, I was put in a cage and asked to remove my shoes, belt, and sweatshirt. An officer named Manni and another officer processed my paperwork. As they did so, they told me not to go back to “that area” when I was released. I indicated that I understood I wasn’t permitted to be on the company’s land or facilities, but surely I could go back to the street if I so chose – it’s public property, after all. Don’t go back to that area, they said. If you go back, you might cause a disturbance or a riot, and you could be arrested for disorderly conduct.

.............................


the rest:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/10/1053383/-At-a-Romney-Event-Yesterday,-I-Was-Removed-and-Arrested-I-Still-Dont-Know-Why?via=siderec

[leveymg]

1. The First Amendment doesn't apply anymore outside the designated Free Speech Zone

The police and Secret Service have pretty much invented this exception to the Constitution and grounds to arrest anyone who might protest within sight or earshot of presidential candidates. This is an invention and legal fiction that has been created just in the last decade or two.

[JDPriestly]

10. The right to free speech is supposed to be "unabridged." What is it about the word "unabridged"

that the police and courts do not understand? Is that word too long? too rarely used?

"Unabridged."

I think I will make a banner featuring that word just in case I might need to unfurl it one day. I'm not one to demonstrate as a general rule, but I think that the authorities might need some nerd who can read to remind them of the limits on their power.

[leveymg]

16. Many Judges and officials today would think "unabridged" refers to Federal construction contracts.

Constitutional issues are the least of their concerns (and understanding), and that is the very reason they were appointed to the federal bench or to head agencies.

[hootinholler]

19. Doesn't that just mean very very thick?

Live Free or Die indeed.

[leveymg]

20. Here's a question for you:

Have you noticed there's more and more talk about dieting, sex and nonpolitical time-filler stuff here lately, or is it just me? Has Obama succeeded at killing politics as a topic of any real interest? Or is that many of us have given up the fantasy that we can do anything to change things in America?

Any way I answer that, I don't like it.

[hootinholler]

23. Deep question

I've noticed a decline in politics discussion since the election. I think it's exacerbated here with the new format because some have not made the crossing and there seems to be a more authoritarian tone set in the community. Also the only real communities that were not shaken by the move seem to be the lounge, LGBT and the Obama group. Without GDP GD has drastically changed, and with the authoritarianism any criticism of the Prez is labeled anti-Obama and piled upon.

I was hopeful that a community could spring up amongst supporters of OWS, but even that seems to have dwindled.

I have to agree with not liking the answers, and I've been thinking about starting an OP about some of these issues, but I'm not sure enough people check H&M to get good input.

[leveymg]

24. The secret to all successful resistance movements is commitment and persistence

I kinda feel like the Democratic Party is under occupation by the Radical Center and DU has been placed under a mild form of martial law. I'm not sure how much hold the DNC has over the site's owners, but I can tell that they're under pressure to allow certain posters who act as self-appointed policemen for party orthodoxy. That and frustration with the transition to DU3 has caused a number of our community to go away. Some of them are greatly missed, and this place is less interesting without them.

As for the Thought Police who've popped up, some are extremely disruptive and generally bad for community morale, yet they seem to be "bulletproof." I never used the "Ignore" feature before, but I'm tempted to give up trying to reason with these types and just simply start ignoring them. If it gets much worse, there's always revolutionary justice.

This song comes to mind:

Cheers.

[hootinholler]

37. I don't think it's a DNC thing

I think it's more an attempt to allow us to be more consensus driven rather than rules driven.

In hindsight I think that the pendulum would swing was obvious, what wasn't to me is that our center appears to be so far right and the volume of the thought police and the swarming.

Great song! Entirely apropos.

[leveymg]

38. I've found that consensus is fine in principle, but in direct action settings leads to

people getting their heads clubbed in because the group couldn't decide to move out of harm's way fast enough.

This is like trying to get an affinity group to cross the road outside the Seabrook nuclear power plant during the occupations in the late '70s. It only took one or two obstructive idiots (or plants) to tie us all up in the middle of the road long enough for a State Police flying squad to arrive. Sigh. (Back then, I could scale a ten foot fence and sprint into the woods in about as many seconds, so at the last second I managed to sidestep getting a well-deserved cranial fracture)



But, there, we won because people remained self-disciplined, took a lickin' from the cops, and didn't become violent in turn. OWS will win for the same reason. I do wish the power of rational nonviolence was embraced within this community, as well, in the way we treat each other.

[hootinholler]

39. I've never been much of an activist

Back in those days I was in high school and then later in the Navy riding around in a portable Nuke plant.

These days here at least I am striving to be the change I want to see, if that makes any sense.

Hopefully once I solve my employment issues, or more correctly lack of employment issue, I can have a more active voice in the occupy movement. Lately I've begun to question having stuff, lol.

[leveymg]

43. We're kinda like dopplegangers - arrived at the same spot from inverted universes

I too am trying to be the change I want to see, but am so busy with work-work recently -- after a decade of underemployment -- that I can't do as much politically as I want to. Lately, I've begun to start being able to maintain the stuff I have, rather than seeing it crumble to dust and debt before my eyes.

Things will work out as they're supposed to.

[hootinholler]

44. It's hard to have that confidence at times

I hope to meet you someday and that's an interesting notion about dopplegangers, lol.

[leveymg]

47. There are a few of us running around, and we always end up meeting.

That's probably when the Mayan Calendar ends.

[limpyhobbler]

2. yeah you can buy the services of private duty cops.

They then kind of act like a super security guard and follow the instructions of whoever is paying, but during this time they stillcan arrest people and they drive a police car, can call for backup, etc.

So basically it's being able to buy the police if you got the cash, and it's legal.

The charges in these cases will almost always include trespassing as that's the thing a property owner can have a person arrested for just because they feel like it, if the person isn't actually causing trouble.

[Angry Dragon]

5. If it is a public event

you are basically inviting people on your property
so I would think it would be hard to claim trespassing

[starroute]

36. A couple of the "Walkupy" marchers were arrested for standing on the Bank of America's sidewalk

These are the people who set off walking from Zuccotti Park in November and are on their way to Atlanta. As they entered Charlotte, NC over the weekend, they passed a Bank of America that has some interesting murals in its front windows and went over to look at them. At that point they were "swarmed" by cops and private security, who informed them that they were trespassing on private property and arrested two of them who refused to step back.

It seems that while the sidewalk in general is public, the four-foot width of paving right in front of the bank is private bank property, and you can be arrested for standing there without permission. But while it's true that the section is a different color and marked off by stanchions, the visible purpose seems to be giving passers-by a place to stand out of the crowd to admire the artwork. Trying to apply trespassing laws to an area like that strikes me as beyond bizarre.

As far as I can tell from the information available, the marchers weren't even trying to protest -- just taking in the local sights at the end of a hard day's march -- but the bank knew in advance that they were coming through and was prepared to sic the cops on them. I really hope they take the advice the Wikileaks Truck guy was tweeting to them and get an NLG lawyer to challenge the charges when they go to court next month.

[leveymg]

7. Those services also include spying on and identifying potential protesters. Hence, the OP was

ejected and detained for no other reason that he had been spotted earlier at an anti-Romney protest.

If you think your rights are being trampled just within Free-Speech Zones, you're kidding yourself. This has turned into a Total Surveillance State that categorizes and records all protest activity for purposes of political profiling and potential arrest.

[JDPriestly]

11. But do they retain their authority to order people off public property

an authority which they have when acting on behalf of the government? They can ask you to leave private property and then you need to leave and go to public property.

Seems to me that if not before, the police officer acted as a government agent as soon as he took the guy into the police station. Thus, the officer was acting under color of law and was denying the guy access to a public area. Was the event open to the public?

Very strange story.

[limpyhobbler]

12. it seems like they were trying to just run him out town.

You know, basically just harass him so he would leave the town..

[a simple pattern]

31. So they're copstitutes.

And they get to use police vehicles to moonlight as mercenaries? That doesn't seem right.

[elleng]

3. DAMN!

[Angry Dragon]

4. I would sue the romney campaign for false arrest

because these police were working for the campaign
sue for violation of civil rights and about $250 million

[ddeclue]

6. sue the crap out of them for violating your civil rights. sue the cops personally as well as the

department.

[progressoid]

8. “If I express my First Amendment freedoms... “You’ll probably be arrested"

And then the following exchange took place. I began to ask, “If I express my First Amendment freedoms –

And Officer Manni interjected, “You’ll probably be arrested.”

[Canuckistanian]

9. “We’re working for the Romney campaign,” he said

Funny, I thought police worked for the citizens - not private entities like campaigns.

So, could a white supremacist group hire those same police and eject all black people?

[Erose999]

33. I read something somewhere where you can hire on-duty cops for security. You pay the PD and you get

badged, uniformed, and armed cops for your event.

[Mopar151]

48. Yup - same as road construction n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

13. It's one of those 'freedoms' Romney is defending for us. You know one of those

that President Obama took away.

[Spazito]

14. How the hell is this legal?

"I asked about his authority to remove me. “We’re working for the Romney campaign,” he said. I asked if he was on-duty; he said he was. My confusion deepened. So was he working for the town of Hudson today, or for the campaign? “Both.” (Later, I think I got it straight: the campaign hired the police for the day, sort of like a private security detail.)"

ON DUTY police hired by a private campaign, paid by BOTH the taxpayers of the town AND the campaign, who can arrest any citizen the campaign doesn't want around.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

26. Corruption. Legalized corruption.

[CanonRay]

15. Use the libertarian solution; sue the Romney campaign and the police.

[rug]

17. Here's more about the author.

My name is Matt Bieber. I study politics, religion, and public discourse at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Divinity School.

I’ve drafted speeches for Vice President Biden and crafted communications strategies for NGOs in East Africa. I also spent two-and-a-half years in the corporate sector.

I’m currently thinking about how to raise the quality, rigor, honesty, and inclusiveness of public conversations in America.

This blog is where I share my questions and tentative answers in that area, along with some personal thoughts on obsessive-compulsive disorder.

http://www.thewheatandchaff.com/about

Clearly a rabblerouser.

[gratuitous]

18. Dang if that definition doesn't keep expanding

I was initially assured that only "terrorists" would be subject to summary deprivation of their rights, including the right to life, liberty and property. After all, those motherfuckers at Guantanamo Bay were the worst of the worst, they weren't even citizens, and didn't "deserve" any rights. Then, the definition kept creeping outward. Soon it encompassed even citizens if they were deemed terroristic enough. Some folks were arrested in the U.S. Others were spirited away to other countries through "extraordinary" rendition, which soon enough became rather ordinary.

Then it was sudden missile attacks, death raining down from the sky without warning. But the targets were always - and that's "always" to you, you goddam trouble-makers - very, very bad people. Sometimes the victims were citizens, sometimes not. Sometimes the victims were just by-standers, but they were related to previous victims, so it was all right and their tough luck for not being sufficiently careful about the possibility of being blown to smithereens. As long as the boom of the bomb was far enough away, nobody in the U.S. should be troubled in the least.

We're escalating again, ever so slightly. After all, if certain people go to certain areas, there might be trouble. And nobody wants trouble, do they? It's for your own good and protection, after all.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

28. First they came for the "terrorists." Then the freedom-loving trouble makers. Then the by-standers.

[sabrina 1]

21. 'They hate us for our freedoms'.

I dunno, maybe they won and they won't hate us anymore?

It's almost comical to read this and still claim to be the 'land of the free'. Sort of like a SNL skit.

How long before they call him a 'terrorist' and disappear him and others who dare to go to political campaigns and talk to staffers?

[dembotoz]

22. should he get the nomination i should think this should go on steroids

obvious crowd prunning to show only adoring crowds

kind of like the funeral and corination of those dudes in north korea

great for tv

the snowing of america continues

[AnotherMcIntosh]

25. Police can be corrupted by hiring them for work (in uniform) during their off hours.

Were these police on the public's payroll during the arrest?

Or Rmoney's?

[kpete]

27. WED JAN 11, 2012 AT 07:05 AM PST What I Just Wrote to the Romney Campaign About My Arrest on Monday

Dear Romney staff,

My name is Matt Bieber, and I’m a divinity school student with a keen interest in politics. On Monday, I was removed from Gov. Romney’s event at the Gilchrist Metal Fabricating Company and then arrested. According to the arresting officer, someone on the campaign had ‘identified’ me as a protester at the governor’s offices in Manchester. This was news to me – I hadn’t even been aware that there’d been protests at his offices!

I hadn’t come to New Hampshire to protest, but to listen and learn (and to share some of my experiences on my blog). In fact, I’d come to your offices on Friday to pick up some literature (where I had a pleasant conversation with a young volunteer). I’d also attended Saturday’s debate watch party and had a great time talking with your supporters and staff. I was hoping Monday’s event might be a nice opportunity to see and hear Governor Romney in person.

I’ve written about Monday’s events, but I wanted to offer you the opportunity to respond. Can you please explain why I was removed from the event, and why no one from the campaign was willing to speak to me? If I try to attend another Romney event in the future, can I expect the same treatment?

Yours sincerely,

Matt Bieber

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/11/1053693/-What-I-Just-Wrote-to-the-Romney-Campaign-About-My-Arrest-on-Monday?via=siderec

[DeathToTheOil]

29. If the person is as annoying as the typical Kossack,

then s/he's lucky that s/he wasn't shot!

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. Solidarity, eh? Just what the left needs

So good of you to make this about your dislike of a left wing website.

[DeathToTheOil]

40. You're doing Violence to me now!

[a simple pattern]

34. The hell is wrong with you?

[DeathToTheOil]

41. Stop doing Violence to me!

[Generic Other]

35. And the right will condemn you for posting on DU

if you ever have the AUDACITY to express your first amendment right of dissent. The only thing I see between you and a Kossack is your dumb post.

[DeathToTheOil]

42. Didn't you actually POST one of the mocking "violence" threads yesterday?

And are you suggesting there are posts on DKos that aren't dumb???

[Generic Other]

46. No, you have me confused with someone else

I am the one who thinks that the OP posted a very interesting story about a person whose civil rights were violated. I didn't see anything funny about it at all. Nor do I see anything the least bit funny about advocating shooting him.

Having been on the receiving end of posts by others threatening to shoot me for something I posted online, I am even more conscious of not thinking it is funny.

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. And he's had to pay for the privilege of being free for the night

as well as having to turn up at a court later, to answer a charge of 'criminal trespass'.

[Motown_Johnny]

45. call a lawyer, this sounds like false arrest to me