Heroes Of 9/11 Pull Plug On Mother Sheehan

Sweetness & Light ^ | September 19, 2005 | N/A

[Sam Hill]

The latest news for parrots about Cindy from the sidewalk give-away Village Voice:

Al Zappala and Mother Sheehan, breaking the law in New York City

NYPD Unplugs Cindy Sheehan
City’s Finest pulls move even Bush wouldn’t have tried by Sarah Ferguson
September 19th, 2005 5:54 PM

Cindy Sheehan may be the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement. But that didn't stop members of the New York Police Department from marching into the crowd of about 150 people gathered in Union Square Monday to hear her speak and yanking away the microphone.

The NYPD pulled the plug just as Sheehan was calling on the audience not to lose heart in the fight to end the war in Iraq.

"We get up every morning, and every morning we see this enormous mountain in front of us," said Sheehan, speaking on behalf of the other parents and family members of fallen soldiers who have taken up the crusade to bring the troops home.

"We can't go through it, we can't go under it, so we have to go over it," she continued, just as the cops rushed the makeshift podium.

Police dragged away Paul Zulkowitz, a.k.a. Zool, an organizer with “Camp Casey New York,” the small encampment that he and other activists helped set up a month ago in Union Square in solidarity with Sheehan’s vigil outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. The New York branch existed much to the ire of the city’s Parks Department. Today, Zulkowitz was arrested for failing to obtain a sound permit—a charge that normally warrants no more than a summons.

Moments earlier, Zulkowitz had been chastising Parks officials for refusing to grant a permit to the encampment, and accusing the police of trying to harass the antiwar protest away. Contrasting the liberal Big Apple with the hostile environs Sheehan faced in Crawford, Zulkowitz told the crowd: "You would think that here in New York City, at Union Square—our Hyde Park—you would think that we would little difficulty having a 24-hour vigil to oppose the war. In fact, we've had two arrests and eight summonses and endless harassment from the police for doing what we do."

As the activists hustled away Sheehan and the other family members on the Bring Them Home Now Tour, an enraged crowd of about 50 people stormed after the police, chanting, "Shame! Shame!" Meanwhile Iraq war veteran and now peace activist [Cindy's constant escort and attack dog, gay Marine] Jeff Key played "God Bless America" on his trumpet.

"Since when can't you talk out here in Union Square?" demanded an Upper West Side social worker who identified herself as Quha, who said she'd taken her lunch break to hear Sheehan because she has a 19-year-old son who is considering enlisting. "I've seen everyone and their mother come out and speak nonsense out here in this park, and for them to shut down Cindy Sheehan is just not right."

"They came in like gangbusters. It was really ridiculous," said Margaret Rapp, a retired teacher from Inwood who added that she planned to file a complaint after an officer forcibly shoved her in the chest. A mother of a 19-year-old, she said she'd come to hear Sheehan because she lost her fiancee during the Vietnam War. "This is very close to home. There is a chord that Cindy hits among people that have lost people in this war and other wars, or who have draft age children like me. We're scared to death.”

Inspector Michael McEnroy, commander of the 13th Precinct, insisted the shutdown order had nothing to do with the content of Sheehan’s speech, but was instead about the "provocation" caused by Zulkowitz. “This has been going on for much longer than today,” McEnroy said, adding of Sheehan, “I don’t even know the woman.” That last part prompted one pissed-off onlooker to shoot back: “Haven’t you watched the news or read a paper in the last three months? ”

Sheehan has been touring the country for the last month with members of Gold Star Families for Peace, Military Families Speak out, and Iraq Veterans Against the War. They will be speaking tonight at 6:30 at St. John the Divine (Amsterdam Avenue at 112th Street), part of the lead up to Saturday’s big anti-war march in Washington, D.C.

As noted by the police in the article, this is not "Zool's" first run-in with New York's finest. From the police blotter of another sidewalk giveaway sheet, The Villager:

Camp Casey Bust

According to a police spokesperson, Paul Zulkowitz, 49, was arrested at Union Square’s south plaza on Aug. 30 at 6:30 p.m. after he was observed erecting a shack and refused to desist. Zulkowitz was charged with obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and one more charge the spokesperson did not identify.

Zulkowitz, who goes by the name zool and said he lives at the East New York Green Tea House, an artists and activists’ collective in Brooklyn, said he had had a discussion with the commanding officer of the 13th Precinct, who was at the scene with undercover officers; then, Zulkowitz said, he sat down on a small pup tent and was arrested. Zulkowitz said his group has a Parks Department permit to camp out for 19 hours a day, with the exception of from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m., when the park is closed.

They are camping out in solidarity with Cindy Sheehan, who is vigiling outside President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Tex., asking to meet with Bush and calling for an end to the Iraq war. Zulkowitz said angrily, “Cindy Sheehan is holding her vigil outside George Bush’s ranch in Texas, and here in supposedly the most liberal city in the United States, we cannot exercise our First Amendment rights.” Zulkowitz said he was also charged with erecting a shack. He said the permit allows them to have a table, and that they have a table, a gazebo, a display, a banner and two tents.

But as we all know by now, rules are for little people. Not for Mother Sheehan and her glory-seeking glorious comrades.

[skr]

No disrespect meant to either the author or the poster of this article, which was refreshing to read. Just a statement of fact.

[M0sby]

Hey you all!
I should DEFINATELY have included the Sarcasm thing!
I am sorry :-)
When I said, "Are you disrespecting...."...I was trying (and failing apparently)to be funny because I always think that "DISRESPECTING" should NOT be a verb!
When did it become a verb?

Sam...I LOVE the article and I know the funny verb was from the content included!

Sky..sorry to make it sound like I was accusing you of something!
:-)

Ok...whew..I hope I covered it all..

[Anita1]

It wasn't just the Blacks who had to sit at the back of the buses and drink out of seperate drinking fountains; Hispanics also could not do those things or eat in a white restaurant.

And it wasn't too long ago that Blacks and Hispanics had to pay a "poll" tax in order to vote. This effectively kept the minorities from voting in presidential and other important elections.

The Columbia Encyclopedia says:

...in 1964 the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution disallowed the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in federal elections. In 1966 this prohibition was extended to all elections by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that such a tax violated the “equal protection” clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

Even some churches were segregated so that minorities could not go worship in them.

[beckysueb]

LeiLani Dowell, FIST and Queers for Peace & Justice

They've got to be kidding! With a name like that, they actually expect credibility!

[DH]

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

Why is the claim extraordinary and why would it require extraordinary proof?  Why can't it simply be a claim and just require proof?

Huh?

[DH]

And it wasn't too long ago that Blacks and Hispanics had to pay a "poll" tax in order to vote.

Did you forget someone else?  You forgot to include the whites.  Was that just an oversight or was there some other reason for excluding them?

[Gondring]

In his dreams...

[wolfcreek]

The cops in my hometown would make sure she'd be wearing that microphone where the sun don't shine.

[Tennessee_Bob]

I am Vinz Clortho. Keymaster of Gozer, Volguus Zildrohar, Lord of the Sebouillia. Are you the Gatekeeper?

[AirForceBrat23]

Heh heh, I don't remember all that! I haven't seen that movie in ages. It was the first "scary" movie I ever watched! (I had nightmares about Slimer.)

[YourAdHere]

I can't wait to see her on Saturday here in DC. It's gonna be a good freep!

[alarm rider]

"This is very close to home. There is a chord that Cindy hits among people that have lost people in this war and other wars, or who have draft age children like me. We're scared to death.”

Ahh...there is no draft, there will be no draft unless the Chinese start marching on Los Angeles. Even then it would be too late, because the facilities, the instructor and support cadres no longet exist in the quanity it would take to train large numbers of conscripted people.

The "draft" is a red herring thrown out by people who want to scare the people who don't have enough sense to do their own research.

[showme_the_Glory]

Paul Zulkowitz, a.k.a. Zool

"There is no Dana, only Zool"

Where was Gozer the Gozarian?

[Verginius Rufus]

When there were poll taxes, everyone had to pay them, but they were more of a burden for poor people. They may have been instituted to deter voting by poor black people, but they also reduced the level of voting by poor whites.

I recall an article written by a black professor, a Catholic with a French-looking last name (so maybe a native of Louisiana), in which he remembered attending Mass in a church where blacks were restricted to the last pew.

I don't know that much about how Hispanics were treated in places where there was segregation, but many of them considered themselves and were regarded as white (at least those without obvious Indian or African ancestry).

[Anita1]

Yes - Hispanics considered themselves as white - but in some communities, they were considered "wet-backs" even though they may have been American citizens. And "wet-backs" were not allowed to drink from a white man's fountain or eat in white man's restaurants - they had to go to the back of the restaurant to order food to go because they would not be served or allowed in the restaurant.

I also knew of a family that told me that they had to sit in the back of the church in the last pew also. This is how I know all about this.

[Anita1]

Sorry - you're right!

[Sloth]

Cindy Sheehan may be the Rosa Parks of the anti-war movement.

LOL... she's more like the Bert Parks of the anti-war movement, i.e., she overstays her welcome until she becomes an obsolete embarassment... Though I will say that Bert was cuter.

[Grizzled Bear]

I'm guilty of using a figure of speech. I never heard of the Rosa Parks incident as being planned. Then again; I had never heard of Rosa Parks working for the NAACP prior to the incident.

I'm really sorry. I did not expect the Spanish Inquisition!

[skr]

No problem. I was either too sleepy or too dense to even notice your play on words via disrespecting (and I just heard it used a moment ago on TV! Arrrgh!). I prefer to think the former, but I suspect too much of the latter in the mix. (GGG)

[M0sby]

Well...I know what you mean..
I was just trying to figure out something clever to reply with...but alas, I don't think I am very good at "verberizing" words ;-)

Thanks for the reply..I was hoping you weren't ticked!