John Conyers Paid Fine For CodePink Agitator

Sweetness & Light ^ | March 25, 2007 | N/A

[Sam Hill]

From the domestic terrorists at AfterDowningStreet.org:

[Reuters caption:] Anti war protesters during U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing discussing the firing of U.S. Attorneys and the interviewing of White House staff members on that subject on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 22, 2007.

WHY A CONGRESSMAN PAID THE FINE FOR MY ARREST IN CONGRESS

Sat, 2007-03-24 01:02

By Ann Wright, Retired US Army Reserve Colonel

What irony! I was arrested last week in a Capitol police abuse of power upon leaving a Congressional hearing on FBI abuses of our civil liberties.

I was arrested on March 20, 2007 in hallway outside the Judiciary Committee of the US House of Representatives. As I stood to walk out of the Judiciary hearing on the FBI’s abuse of National Security letters, I vocally agreed with a committee member that the public does not trust the FBI because of those abuses and thanked the committee for holding oversight hearings on the abuses. The Justice Department Inspector General had reported to the Congress that FBI officials have illegally obtained access to bank records, telephone bills and social security numbers without tying the need for access to specific investigations

When I stood and publicly agreed with the Committee’s actions, House Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers said that I could either stop speaking and sit down, or I could leave the hearing room. Since I was walking out of the committee hearing to drive to the airport to fly to a speaking engagement at Brown University later that day, I acknowledged the chairman’s admonition and continued out the door. I was escorted the last couple of steps by the police officer assigned to the hearing room.

Outside the hearing room, the police officer was joined by a Capitol Police Captain who ordered his fellow officer to arrest me. I protested saying that Congressman Conyers had not “gaveled” my arrest but had merely told me to either sit down or leave the room. The normal Congressional protocol is that if a committee chair gavels once the visitor is removed from the hearing room. If the committee chair gavels twice the visitor is arrested.

I know the protocol well as in the past 18 months I have stood and respectfully and quickly aired my views in many committee hearings and then have sat down following my comments. In other committee hearings I have been removed after my comments but not arrested. Prior to March 22, I had been arrested only once at a committee hearing. In July, 2006, wearing a “Gitmo orange” jumpsuit during the Senate Judiciary confirmation hearing on the nomination of William Haynes, Department of Defense General Counsel who was one of the architects of the Department of Defense torture policies, I loudly and strongly told the committee that Haynes should not be confirmed to the lifelong appointment as a US Circuit Court of Appeals judge as his actions in formulating the torture policy of the Bush administration had compromised the integrity and professionalism of the US military. As I spoke, Committee chair Arlen Specter gaveled about twenty times and I was arrested.

But this time, after I was detained in the hallway, Congressman Conyers’ chief of staff joined us and told the police Captain that the Congressman did not want me arrested. The Captain ignored the pleas of the chief of staff and told the officer to handcuff me and take me to the station. The Committee chair’s chief of staff protested my arrest, I protested and others in the hallway protested, but to no avail.

Handcuffed, I was driven to the Capitol Police station. As the two hours of processing at that station ended, a member of Congressman Conyers’ staff came to the station and paid the $35 fine for my “disorderly conduct.” The police officer who received the money from the Congressman’s staff member said that was the first time in her memory that a member of Congress had paid the fine of an activist...

[IllumiNaughtyByNature]

He's pinker than a baboon's a$$.

[sageb1]

"Matter of fact, they should officially be declared terrorists organizations."

We'd have to get video of them undressing first. ;)



(I do agree with your point about the threats and blackmail).

[jws3sticks]

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1794584/posts?page=91#91

(snip)

A fixture at anti-draft and anti-war demonstrations for sixty years, Hay [see post 5: Harry Hay/Stonewall Rebellion/NAMBLA] worked in Women’s Strike for Peace during the Vietnam War as a conscious strategy to build a coalition between gay and feminist progressives. He also worked closely with Native American activists, especially the Committee for Traditional Indian Land and Life. Hay was a local founder of the Lavender Caucus of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition during the early 1980s, and was determined to convince the gay community that its political success was inextricably tied to a broader progressive agenda.

(snip)

[Doctor Raoul]

Ann Wright has been arrested so many items that the she's now known as Col Clink...

[SandRat]

Conyers is a FREAKING COMMIE; pure and simple. When will the people of Michigan wake up and vote that scumbag out of office??????

[Doctor Raoul]

The two guys who were arrested with Gael Murhphy in a diffeent protest were AIDS activists.

[Sam Hill]

 Update!

Of course one wonders what Ann Wright was doing on Capitol Hill in the first place, since by her own admission she was banned from Congress just last September.

Via the domestic terrorists at CommonDreams.org:

Banned in Washington - Where’s the Free Speech?

Sunday, September 10, 2006

by Ann Wright

So much for free speech in the nation’s capital and capitol. On July, 11, 2006 I was arrested for offering a citizen’s voice in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing against the nomination of one of the Bush administration’s architects of torture, William Haynes, former Department of Defense General Counsel (chief civilian lawyer) for a life-time appointment to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Yesterday, September 7, I appeared in the Criminal Division of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on charges of “Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct on the United States Capitol Grounds on July 11, 2006.” During that appearance, I was ordered by the court to “Stay Away” from the US Capitol, all Senate and House Office Buildings and committee hearing rooms and the streets surrounding the Capitol area.

The court papers state that I must abide by this order until my case is disposed of and that “any violation of this condition (order) could result in your prosecution for Contempt of Court, the revocation of your release and/or your detention pending final disposition of this case.” I was released on my personal recognizance but instructed in writing that “a warrant for your arrest will be issued immediately upon any violation of a condition of this release. And shall subject you to revocation of the release; an order of detention and prosecution for contempt of court (a fine of not more than $1000 or imprisonment not more than 6 months or both.)

Another paragraph said that “if you are convicted of an offense committed while released, you shall be subject to the following penalties: imprisonment of not less than one year and not more than 5 years if convicted of committing a felony while released; and imprisonment of not less than 90 days and not more than one year if convicted of committing a misdemeanor while released; such to be consecutive to any other sentence of imprisonment.”

All of these prohibitions are because I stated in the US Congress that I am opposed to torture and that the Congress should not confirm a person associated with the Bush administration’s torture policy. These court orders definitely curtail my ability to voice to the US Congress my concerns and the concerns of much of the American people about important issues they are considering, like the following the Congress will consider next week…

But I like to go into the committee rooms and look our elected officials in the eyes and tell them what I think. It doesn’t take long to tell them because the Capitol police officer in the hearing room usually arrives at your side quickly when you speak out. When you speak out in a committee room, our elected officials, those who serve us, are left with a succinct statement of concerns about the issue. Hearings would probably be a lot better if the Congresspersons had the same police at their elbows demanding shorter statements!

I do understand that committees not take the time generally to hear from the public in their committee rooms; lobbying for an issue is done in the halls and offices. But, I think there is a role for a lightning comment—but it comes with the risk of being arrested for “disrupting” the hearing or at a minimum being escorted out of the hearing and later released.

Now that I am banned from the Capitol area, I hope others will come to the Congress and express their views. We the people must tell the Congress to be brave and courageous in these perilous times—now of all times, we need strong character and moral courage from our Congress. We the people must give them courage…

I am now banned from the Capitol area and from two military bases in the DC area as well as also banned for life (along with Codepink Women for Peace Medea Benjamin) from the National Press Club. In April, 2006 we dared to question to a Press Club speaker and were banned for life for our questions. The speaker was Senator Hillary Clinton and we asked why in her 50 minute energy policy speech she never mentioned the war on Iraq and Iraqi oil.

It surely seems that freedom of speech and the right to question our elected officials in our nation’s capital is a dangerously endangered right.

But that’s what its all about. If we don’t stand up for our freedoms, they will be taken away.

So in the spirit of they can’t take our country away from us, I will see you in Congress, the National Press Club and on the military bases—or in jail or detention camps!

You can’t ban speech and thought.

It is our country and they are our freedoms. Let’s take them back!

But as we know all too well. Laws and court orders are for the little people.

Not for America-hating professional professional protesters.

(Thanks to Doctor Raoul for the heads up.)

[Verginius Rufus]

One of the leftwing cable stations the other day was lovingly dwelling on one of the Code Pink demonstrators who was in the background during the Plame hearing, wearing an "Impeach Bush" shirt. It was a "transsexual" (born male but surgically altered to appear female).

[Sam Hill]

Yes that was "Midge" Potts. (Born Mitchell Eugene Potts.)

Midge Potts - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midge_Potts

He/she claims to be a Gulf War veteran.

He/she has run and is again running for Congress.

Ecce homo:

[Doctor Raoul]

During one of Code Pinko's street theater events in Lafayette Park, Mitchell played the Mean American Officer in their little radical passion play.

[Verginius Rufus]

Ecce homo

Clever. Is that all Latin, or half Latin and half English?

[Sam Hill]

It's all Latin.

I can't afford rehab.

[freekitty]

Is this a man?

[Sam Hill]

He's not only a man, but he claims to be a conservative Republican.

(And he ran as such for Congress in 2007.)

But it's all about getting attention. And nothing else.

Like most of the other "peace" demonstrators.

[popdonnelly]

I would have thought Conyers would pay them to show up.

[popdonnelly]

Code Pink is a Marxist gang that supports the insurgents in Iraq. They should be under indictment.

[kcvl]

WHO AM I? I am a 37 year old transgender social justice activist... actually, I am a "Folktivist", as in the fact that I am a "Folk Music Activist". I am running for congress in SW MISSOURI's August 8th Republican Primary.

This political system is such a huge joke that I thought I ought to put the exclamation point on it! I am tired of hearing everybody say "there's nothing we can do".

If your interests are not really being represented, then you have the choice of representing yourSelf.

I feel I am qualified to represent the people of Southwest Missouri becaue I represented myself in DC Supreior Court, along with my codefendents Pete Perry and Dave Barrows, after being arrested for the charge of "illegal demonstration" while protesting against the White House's involvement of torture in its so called "War on Terror".

The public has always had access to government archives; however, the internet has now made it much easier to represent yourSelf in that it allows us access to much information about law... from federal legislation to current state statutes, from municipal codes to election laws... You can be your own lawyer if you choose to educate yourSelf... and perhaps, individual citizens should be allowed to be our own representatives in the federal government... or at least at the state level and community levels. This is why it is very important that we in America have a great public discussion on the benefits of striving toward the ideal of "direct democracy".

I am especially worried about America's youth... my message to you is "Don't give up hope"

Don't let people tell you that you can't live your dreams, because you can do anything you put your heart mind and soul into!

So, now you have a choice besides voting for some rich white man that doesn't remember how it feels to be young.

If you feel like it, and you live in Southwest Missouri's 7th Congressional district, you can register to vote, ask for a Republican primary ballot on August 8th, and vote for the shemale peace activist that REALLY wants to make changes in the way our government works.

How will I make changes? With ideas from people like you! I want to listen to your ideas of how America can be a better place to live. So, please leave me comments and tell me what is on your mind.

[Sam Hill]

"This political system is such a huge joke that I thought I ought to put the exclamation point on it!"

And he has.

[freekitty]

OMG