Anti-Bush Vets forced to leave parade in Tallahassee, Fl.

[donsu]

Watching Fl. Crumble

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/111203/met_14020003.shtml

A group of 30 military veterans critical of the war in Iraq hoped to use Tuesday's Veterans Day parade to call attention to the increasingly deadly conflict but instead found themselves fighting for something much more fundamental.

Members of Veterans For Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War were yanked off a downtown Tallahassee street, directly in front of the Old Capitol, while marching in the holiday parade they had legitimately registered in.

-snip-

Parade chairman Ken Conroy, a Korean War veteran, said he ejected the anti-war veterans because they were offensive and because Tallahassee police also wanted them removed. He offered to refund their $10 registration fee and said he was not suppressing the group's free speech rights.

-snip-

Tallahassee police Sgt. David Folsom denied police played any role in the situation and said Tuesday was the first time he could recall anyone being excluded from the parade.

"We don't police the participants," Folsom said. "We don't have an opinion on who's in it, as long as they're not walking around naked or drinking in public. It's just not a police decision."
-snip-
----------------------------

Charles LeCroy is glad they were forced from the parade because he just "can't stomach" free speech -

"We don't care where they are, as long as they're somewhere else," said Charles LeCroy, an Air Force personnel superintendent in Vietnam and second vice commander of American Legion Post 13 in Tallahassee. "It's disrespectful, that's what it is, and I just can't stomach or tolerate or conceive of it."

[bif]

1. Didn't George just say he welcomed free speech?

In reference to his trip to England. What a fuckin' hypocrate.

[tom_paine]

7. He meant that, in visiting England he was heartened to be in a nation that

respected Free Speech. Unlike Imperial Amerika, where Free Speech is in the process of being muzzled.

[grannylib]

2. This is disgusting...have you passed it along to any national news

organizations/TV networks?

[donsu]

4. no, I just passed it along here

nt

[David__77]

3. VVAW is great.

I appreciate the work of VVAW and other anti-war veteran groups. I suspect that the longer this goes on, the more *new* anti-war veterans we'll be seeing--especially if the draft is somehow restored.

[mmonk]

5. Constitutional rights violation?

Love what Tallahassee police Sgt Folsum had to say.

[flpoljunkie]

6. In Bushco World, dissent is treason! Shame on them! Vets, of all people,

deserve to march in a Veteran's Day parade and to express a basic freedom--that of free speech. They have fought and died for this freedom!

How dare veterans be treated this way!

Have passed this along via email to Joe Conason and Josh Marshall. Let's hope they respond.

[el_gato]

8. obviously Parade chairman Ken Conroy hates America

[mrgorth]

9. Disgraceful. Happy veteran's day

as long as you agree with us.

[karlschneider]

10. WTF is a "private parade"? It's on city streets, patrolled by city cops..

sounds awfully goddamn PUBLIC to me. Those fascist bastards!
:grr:
:puke:
:grr: :grr:

[karlschneider]

11. Email link to that fascist bunch of bastards:

[e-mail]

[Wednesdays]

12. Don't those ingrates know...

they were fighting for our freedoms?

[blm]

13. Big Bump...this is important.

This is our future.

Join Max Cleland and Veterans for Kerry
www.johnkerry.com