Fascistic Richmond, VA Police violate impeachment protesters

[babylonsister]

http://impeachforpeace.org/impeach_bush_blog/?p=2657

July 18, 2007
Fascistic Richmond, VA Police violate impeachment protesters
Filed under: Impeachment Related News, Virginia — Mikael @ 2:01 am

richmond-va-police.jpgRichmond Times-Dispatch
Removal of banner, activist protested
ACLU decries action taken on July Fourth at Byrd Park event
By JOE MACENKA, TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Richmond police and parks officials are in trouble with the ACLU of Virginia for removing a woman from a Fourth of July event in Byrd Park for carrying a political banner.

Rain Burroughs, who said she was driven to a different area of the sprawling park and held in a police cruiser with her 7-yearold daughter until the fireworks display ended, was not charged with any crime.

Police said they removed her from the Dogwood Dell area at the request of city parks employees. A parks official said the banner, which made an indirect reference to the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney, disrupted the patriotic theme of the concert at Dogwood Dell and the fireworks.

[Sapere aude]

1. It is no longer patriotic to petition your government I guess.

[L. Coyote]

2. A large lawsuit should teach them some constitutional law fine points.

Removal of banner, activist protested
ACLU decries action taken on July Fourth at Byrd Park event
Wednesday, Jul 18, 2007
http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news/community/richmond.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-07-18-0165.html

....

"This has problems throughout," said Kent Willis, the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia's executive director. "It's as if the police did everything wrong from the moment they heard about this."

.....

In addition to the free-speech and detainment issues raised by the ACLU, a Richmond woman complained to the police department about the manner in which officers responded to the area near the Dogwood Dell stage to take away Burroughs and her daughter, Summer.

Christine Dorsey said several officers in cruisers, with lights flashing and sirens tweaking, and officers on horseback were traveling at speeds that seemed dangerously high given the large crowds in the park.

"And especially when it turned out that it was no big deal," Dorsey said. .........

Burroughs ... said she believes the anti-Cheney nature of her banner made her a target.

"If I had been waving an American flag or selling toy pistols," she said, "no harm would have come to me or my daughter."

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. What if she had been wearing a t-shirt,

would they have forced her to strip?

[Richard Steele]

4. Got fascism?™ k&r

[Norquist Nemesis]

5. Seems like Impeaching Cheney is a very patriotic thing to do!

In fact, it ranks right up there with Impeaching Bush!

[northernsoul]

6. The question is if the park allows any banners at all

My understanding of constitutional law is that it's okay for the city to say "no banners whatsoever in city parks," but it violates the constitution when they allow some banners but not others based on the banners' content. Because it's hard to imagine a flat-out "banner ban" in a city park, this probably was content-based discrimination and the city of Richmond may very well have bought themselves a lawsuit.