Posted on 03/25/2004 10:06:57 PM PST by kristinn
Honor Roll for tonight: Staytrue, BillF, Angelwood, tgslTakoma, GunsareOK, BufordP, Trueblackman, sauropod and kristinn.
An officer with the Federal Protective Service ordered the D.C. Chapter of Free Republic to stop addressing Democrats waiting across the street to enter the Democratic Party's Unity Dinner in Washington, D.C. tonight.
Members of the D.C. Chapter had been peaceably assembled for two hours exercising their First Amendment rights with protest signs and their unaided voices. Apparently the litany of Democrat 'sins' grew too much for this officer to bear so he walked across the street to give a cease and desist order to the FReepers.
I had arrived somewhat late, getting there around 6:15 p.m. Most of the others had been there for at least an hour. I took the Metro there and got out in back of the National Building Museum where the fundraiser was being held. Secret Service agents and officers were everywhere. The rear entrance was where their protectees would be brought. I was told that former President Jimmy Carter had already arrived. I stuck around there for a few minutes hoping Bill and Hillary Clinton, John Kerry or Al Gore might pull up. I spoke with a young Dean supporter for awhile as I waited. There were dozens of Deaniacs milling about holding Dean for President signs. No one showed up so I went around the front to join the rest of the chapter.
I paused at the edge of the crowd waiting to go through the security checkpoint to get in the building and checked how well our signs could be read from across the street in front of the GSA Building where we were set up.
They could be read very easily--especially the one that said, "IF OSAMA WAS A PIECE OF ASS, CLINTON WOULD HAVE NAILED HIM." The one that said, "I'M NOT FONDA HANOI JOHN KERRY," was also quite visible.
I joined the others who had been lightheartedly razzing the crowd with things like, "Dean supporters go to the west side of the building for a Howard Dean scream contest!"
Sauropod and tgslTakoma were working the crowd over, but I'll have to let them report what they were saying.
Angelwood had her Bill Clinton "Crime Wave" poster from YAF. Staytrue made a great John Kerry 'Waffles' sign. BillF was videotaping some of the action when not holding one of the several dozen signs we had brought. I'm not sure who held what other signs, but one of them said, "CLINTON-GORE PARDONED TERRORISTS, GEORGE BUSH KILLS THEM."
After I got settled in, I raised my voice to the Democrats across the street. I asked them many questions, starting with, "How can you nominate a man who took part in a debate about whether to assassinate U.S. senators? Thank God, he voted no, but he didn't tell anyone his group was talking about doing it. When asked about it later he lied and said he wasn't there. When confronted with evidence he was there he now says it wasn't a big deal, just a historical footnote."
I then asked them how they could nominate a man who went to Paris, met with the North Vietnamese and signed on to their peace plan against his brothers in arms still fighting.
I asked how they could nominate a man who went to Congress and lobbied in favor of the North Vietnamese.
"Where is your patriotism, Democrats?" I loudly asked, "Where the hell did it go?"
I then turned to the subject of the 9/11 commission hearings. I mentioned how they spoke about the "urgency" of the terrorist threat. I reminded them of Bill Clinton's record on national security. How the first time Monica Lewinsky did her thing on him, he was on the phone with a congressman who was concerned about the safety of our troops headed to Bosnia. I reminded them that Monica had sense enough to stop, but that Bill Clinton urged her to continue while he was on the phone with the congressman. "That was Bill Clinton's urgency," I told them.
I also brought up other remembrances of Bill Clinton's time in office. Such as Bill having phone sex with Monica on an unsecured phone line, knowing and not caring that he could be taped and subjected to blackmail by a foreign power.
Just to prove it wasn't all about sex, I brought up the Chinese money Bill took and the contributions from Loral and Hughes that greased his betrayal of our national security.
I then pointed out to the crowd of Democrats that in 1993 hardly anyone had heard of Al Qaeda, and that after eight years of Bill Clinton's presidency they were able to attack us here in the United States.
I noted Tom Daschle's concern for Richard Clarke and asked where his concern was for Clinton-era whistleblowers like Linda Tripp, Gary Aldrich and Notra Trulock.
I saw a woman in a bright blue outfit get out of a car across the street with a group of people and called out a friendly warning to her, "Be careful around Bill Clinton in that blue dress, he might have a flashback!"
One of our group brought up the Democrats' obstruction of President Bush's judicial nominees, so I spoke about how they had mistreated Miguel Estrada. I pointed out how the Democrats blocked a Hispanic man because they were afraid he would be the first Hispanic nominated to the Supreme Court. I told them they were "keeping the brown man down because he was the "wrong kind of brown man."
Senator Ted Kennedy came waddling out of the fundraiser accompanied by a staffer and went to his car which was waiting close to where we were standing. Everyone had something to say to Teddy. He waved us off and hustled into the passenger seat of the car. I asked him how Mary Jo Kopechne was doing.
As he was driven away, I called out to the crowd that Ted Kennedy had left Mary Jo to die underwater, left her there for ten hours while he tried to save his political career. "He did it, aren't you proud of him?" I asked, "He's your senator."
I then asked if their Klansman senator, Robert Byrd, was there. I reminded them that Byrd had been a Grand Kleagle in the Klan. I told them that even in the 21st century, Byrd was still using the 'n' word. I also reminded them that Byrd was the only senator to vote against both black Supreme Court nominees.
It was at this point that the police officer approached me. I looked hard at his uniform to see if he was actually a policeman or a just a security guard because he had on a sweater like the guards wear. I saw he had a badge that said Federal Protective Service--he was a cop, a federal cop.
His first words to me were, "There's a whole lot of love here tonight." I just looked at him and thought, "Oh geez, here it comes."
BillF stepped up to listen in and the cop tried to get him to back off, asking him, "Does this conversation concern you?" BillF said it did and stayed there.
The cop was right in my face and told me I had to stop speaking to the crowd across the street. I argued back saying I wasn't using a bull horn, just my voice and that we had done this for years at the White House and elsewhere without incident.
The cop wouldn't hear it and told me I had to shut up because I might provoke an incident. I told him no one from across the street had come over to argue with us for the two hours we had been here. I told him this was a First Amendment issue. He denied that.
He mentioned the woman in the blue dress I had warned about Bill Clinton, saying she talked about coming over to confront us. I told him she hadn't and no one else had. He said it didn't matter.
He told us if we said anything else, he would move us down the street and around the corner.
I told him, "Fine, you're the law and you own this street. We'll do what you say." I figured one cop with a bad attitude over what we were doing was not worth going to jail for.
So we kept quiet, but Angelwood made a new sign that said, "WE'RE NOT ALLOWED TO TALK TO YOU BECAUSE YOU MIGHT BECOME VIOLENT."
Trueblackman came to the rescue and lightened the mood with a sign of his own that mocked John Kerry's statement that he wanted to be 'America's second black President' after Bill Clinton.
Trueblackman's sign said "I WANT TO BE AMERICA'S 44TH WHITE PRESIDENT."
That was a controversial sign. Folks either laughed or scowled when they saw him holding it. A Washington Post photographer came over and took several pictures of Trueblackman with his sign.
A while later, an older white man, who looked like a politician but we can't place his face, came out to get in his chauffer driven sedan. He called out to us, "Vote Kerry."
Trueblackman told him, "I'm voting for Bush."
This set the white man off. He sneered at Trueblackman, "What has George Bush ever done for you?" The racist way that sounded stunned us all, I think. I don't remember what if anything, any of us said in response to that.
Baghdad Jim McDermott came out after that. Trueblackman asked him a question about Iraq that he didn't answer.
Sen. Tom Harkin came out to leave, also. As he walked with a staffer to his waiting car, I violated the cop's order and shouted out to him, "Hey Tom, are you proud that John Kerry voted against assassinating U.S. senators? Are you proud Kerry went to Paris and took the side of the North Vietnamese? Are you proud Kerry lobbied Congress in favor of the North Vietnamese?" Harkin turned around to listen for a few seconds before he got in his car, but I didn't hear a reply.
As he drove off I asked, "When is the Democrat Party going to nominate a patriotic American for President?"
The cop who had ordered me to be quiet came down the steps of the building across the street to the curb and stopped. I was prepared to tell him that no order of his would stop me from exercising my First Amendment right to criticize a U.S. senator.
But instead of crossing the street to us, he turned and walked down the street to his patrol car. He started it up and drove off into the night.
We wrapped it up at 8 p.m. and most of us went for dinner downtown. It should be noted that a few Ralph Nader supporters stood near us holding a banner that said, "DEBATE NADER."
Also, a bunch of LaRouchies were leafletting cars while other LaRouchies repeatedly drove around the block with 'Blues Brothers' speakers on the roof of their car blaring Lyndon LaRouche speeches.
Everyone in the D.C. Chapter did great tonight. I hope they add their experiences on this thread, as this write up ended up being mostly about my experience there.
At least we didn't get arrested.
Hey, who told on me?!
;-)
Thanks for the sound advice.
How about, "He kicked Saddam's a$$, that's what"
The officer refers to a lady. Apparently, this was a lady in a blue dress from earlier. From 30 plus feet away, Kristinn had yelled something like: "Be careful wearing that blue dress around Bill Clinton. He might have a flashback!"
It should be emphasized here that we've never had any DC Chapter members, or out-of-town FReepers demonstrating with us, arrested. We go out of our way to cooperate with police.
Seeing the officer walk up to Kristinn, I walked over to hear what the officer was saying. I missed the beginning of the conversation.
OFFICER(O) [seeing me walk up to where he was talking to Kristinn]: You in this conversation?
BILLF (B): Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm with him [pointing to Kristinn]. I just wanted to hear what the directions are.
O: You're going to have to stop shouting at the crowd 'cause if you get the crowd involved that will cause a disturbance. No shouting at them if you want to remain here. I can move you.
KRISTINN (K): It's a freedom of speech issue . . .
O [interupting]: No, no, no it's a . . .
K [continuing]: Has anyone from the crowd been aroused to come over? I've been doing this for an hour. . .
O [interupting]: I know but the lady who got out just this minute . . .
K [continuing]: I've done this at the White House for a few years . . .
O [interupting]: Why don't you shut up, sir, sir?
K [continuing]: I've done this everywhere around the city.
O: I don't care what you did. I'm telling you now that the lady got out and you were shouting at them, they were starting to come over here. OK?
K: That's alright. We're peaceful people.
O: No, by you shouting at them, caused them to be, form a disturbance. I'm telling you, if you want to stay here, you have to stop shouting at people. Or, I'll move you down the street or around the corner. It doesn't matter to me.
K: OK, I understand. I understand. You rule the streets.
O: No, I don't rule the streets. I'm telling you, the people gathered here, they get excited when they hear you shouting at them. I was standing right there.
K: Yeah, well.
O: Well, I tell you what.
K: I understand.
O: No debate. If you start . . .
K: I understand.
O: . . . you're out of here.
K: I understand.
The officer then left and Kristinn informed the rest of our group that we were prohibited from shouting at the Dems. I had looked for this guy's badge number and a name, but he was wearing a Federal Protective Service jacket that covered any id.
The officer was a diehard Dem, some member of Congress or similar VIP had complained to him, or both.
Before Kristinn had arrived two Dems had, on separate occasions, walked over to talk with us. Brief discussions followed, but it was more like Hannity-Colmes and never close to spinning out of control.
My biggest concern over any physical altercation was when a homeless guy ranted at Sauropod for at least ten minutes.
Some protestor on the Dems side of the street had a sign saying something like "Taxation with Representation means the Constitution requires Gay Marriage."
I had a nice chat with the Naderites holding the big "DEBATE NADER" banner about 15 feet from us. The police had ordered them to stop standing on the Jersey barriers protecting the GAO building from truck bombs, etc.
Later about 4 or 5 Dean supporters left the Dem side of the street and came to our side, apparently getting ready to leave. They were twenty year olds, but quite polite. Their leader indicated that they would be supporting Kerry, but were there to indicate their continued support for Dean.
I reminded the Dean supporters that a front-group of Kerry people ("Americans for Healthcare and Progressive Values" or something similar) was behind the Dem primary ad that showed Bin Laden and suggested that Americans would not trust national security to Howard Dean. We had a brief, pleasant conversation about the "scream" and the media and Dem establishment being out to get Dean.
When the LaRouche supporters walked by putting leaflets on cars, we looked at the leaflet. I said to them: "Oh, is LaRouche in there, too?" They had no reaction, just the look of people who were trapped in a cult.
"WE'RE NOT ALLOWED TO TALK TO YOU BECAUSE YOU MIGHT BECOME VIOLENT." Just hysterical! That's what I call quick on your feet anglewood.
My patience is infinite ;-).
Good going.
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