Police seize properties from war protesters and arrest them at a peaceful press conference

Posting signs in a park:

1) Is a threat to national security
2) Is defacing property

...

This is disturbing beyond words. The title is how it was sent to me in an email from a friend.

It look to me as though the police are arresting them for illegal fly posting because they are sticking posters to what looks like an electrical junction box or something. In this country (England) they love to get you for criminal damage on protests, and this would fit the bill a treat.

Actually, i think that box is the controller unit for the traffic lights system. I see signs posted on them all the time. As long as you don't cover up the "DANGER- High Voltage" warnings, whats the problem?


It's pretty clear that these people are being arrested for the content of their signs, and not because any real law has been broken.

Ayn Rand once stated that the hallmark of an authoritarian system is indecipherable, innumerable laws. Under such a system, everybody is merely an un-indicted felon. This allows for the government to exercise arbitrary power through the use of selective prosecution.

reply to post by Angry Danish


How close are we to civil war when stuff like this becomes the norm?
You can not take away a persons right to communicate and not expect a person to raise the fist. I really wish they had not made that mistake. I don't want the bad times that are comeing but the authorites seem to be insisting on it.

This video truly makes my blood boil. I guess we can list this with those "Freedoms" that "they" hate us for. This is a sad day when this is becoming common place in America. I think these tactics by the cops would have even made the Nazi proud!! Something has to change fast, I can't stand to see the constitution destroyed any longer. Wasn't it the "Decider" who said that the constitution is just a god damn piece of paper. We should have impeached him right then and there.

I hate being negative but I'm starting to think that you guys have lost it, freedom that is. You dont have enough activism and outrage in these kinds of incidents to change anything. This is just more and more common and the only thing changes is that the laws get tighter and tighter, truly sad.

This is getting out of control. Those people were doing absolutly nothing wrong, and up come the police, whom I do respect, and force them to disperse and then arrest them!

I understand that those police officers were just doing what they were told, but common sense should take over at some point, and they should realize that what they themselves were doing was wrong and unwaranted!

reply to post by Angry Danish


You know. They could have just gotten a permit before hand, but apparently to ignorant to remember you actually need a permit to use a public street or park for this activity....

When the police say "do you have a permit" and you reply "no" then your actions are illegal and need to stop. you have the right to free speech, but there are regulations.

Slopping glue all over an electrical box to plaster your personal opinions all over it without permit or permission is in fact defacing property, and is illegal, and when asked to stop you should.

In the end they help their own cause because most hyper liberals love to scream fascism when police uphold our laws.

reply to post by Rockpuck


She wasn't defacing property, though. She used wheat paste, a water soluble solution, to paste the flyers. When the first rain comes, they will all wash off.
I'm not sure that posting fliers on public property is illegal anyway. I doubt that it's a federal offense.
And no, you don't need a permit to have a protest, that isn't a law. The police will try to tell you that you must, but it isn't a law and it isn't even constitutional. We have a right to peaceful free speech anywhere, as long as no one gets hurt or is endangered.
These people were peacefully assembled.

Originally posted by Rockpuck
You know. They could have just gotten a permit before hand, but apparently to ignorant to remember you actually need a permit to use a public street or park for this activity....

I don't recall press conferences require permits.

Originally posted by Rockpuck
Slopping glue all over an electrical box to plaster your personal opinions all over it without permit or permission is in fact defacing property, and is illegal, and when asked to stop you should.

I'd be interested to see the precise regulations.

EDIT: Well, here is more material on the subject.

www.pephost.org...

[edit on 8-9-2007 by loam]

I wouldn't pay one cent for free speech rights either. And since when is a group of people a crime. Who has the authority to criminalize group congregation. I sure as hell didn't give my government that authority.

Requiring permits is just an excuse to deny free speech to anybody that they don't agree with.

It's unconstitutional, but they try it anyway to see if they can get away with it. And these ignorant, poorly educated police minions are stupid enough to follow these unconstitutional orders because, "9-11 changed everything".

Agreed.

We have the right to peaceful assembly, and what I saw was exactly that. There were no inclinations toward violence, or any indication that someone was going to get hurt during this press confernece.

What was done by the police was wrong, plain and simple.

Yeah, I think they were posting on some sort of electrical box, which is probably illegal in most places (it is here). They should have found somewhere legal to post.

However, the cops were obviously being jerks about it, and were nailing them for the content of the message and not the posting. In my opinion, if the cop had been unbiased, he would have still made them take the poster down, but he would have been a lot nicer about it, and tried to suggest somewhere they could have done it legally. If the protesters had then begun to get rude or out of hand, arresting might have been in order. In this case, though, it was the cops who were getting rude and out of hand first, and the protesters were getting angry at that.

In this case, I'd put the majority of the blame on the cops, but the protesters should have found a better place to put their posters. If they'd taken the time to look into it, I'm sure they would have found legal places for them, or businesses willing to put them up on their property or something.

reply to post by DragonsDemesne


The problem is that the bush administration has outlawed the posting of anti-war posters in DC. They are trying to quell the brewing rebellion that will come on the 15th when the administration uses the failing iraq report to justify the draft. So, it is illegally illegal to post these posters anywhere, which is clearly unconstitutional and not a law that i would obey.

It is illegal to post anti-war posters in DC??? That has got to be unconstitutional. I had thought that video was supposed to be from England, but wherever that is from, the behaviour is still appalling. After seeing the video on this thread, however, I am not at all surprised that DC is one of the first places to enact this kind of legislation.

I am dreading the day when everything is illegal except only those things which serve the NWO and the crap they are trying to force on people. Submit or go to jail...

It was too late years ago. Things are going straight down the tube. Not for long, though. I suspect shortly after things hit a negative climax there won't be much to worry about.

In the end, I find everything to have a very sad conclusion.

Hey guys,

Assembling how they did is not illegal. Posting on an electrical box is. When asked not to do so by police, don't do it.

cops need promotions....so they arrest people believe me my name has flown out of so many peoples mouths that were getting arrested for stuff i got arrested for jay-walking loitering stuff they ussually just warn you on but because of who i am the cops harass and give me ish about every little thingthe point im trying to make is the cops can get you on anything theres over 1,000 things they can bring you in for and they will if they feel like it

like all conspericy photos and film. the picture is to blurry to tell much. when people can we get a good shot.


after reviewing the site given by loam. these people are idiots and if you ask me being an idiot should be illegal. not paying there fines, real smart move and way to help your cause. as for the rye paste thing. if it washes off at the first rain how many of those idiots do you think are going to pick those posters up. i hope the cops nail them for litering as well..


the cops tried to stop them without aresting them but the idiots kept doing it. score police-1 idiots-0..