Man arrested for peace t-shirt

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- A lawyer was arrested late Monday and charged with trespassing at a public mall in the state of New York after refusing to take off a T-shirt advocating peace that he had just purchased at the mall.

According to the criminal complaint filed Monday, Stephen Downs was wearing a T-shirt bearing the words "Give Peace A Chance" that he had just purchased from a vendor inside the Crossgates Mall in Guilderland, New York, near Albany.

"I was in the food court with my son when I was confronted by two security guards and ordered to either take off the T-shirt or leave the mall," said Downs.

When Downs refused the security officers' orders, police from the town of Guilderland were called and he was arrested and taken away in handcuffs, charged with trespassing "in that he knowingly enter(ed) or remain(ed) unlawfully upon premises," the complaint read.

Downs said police tried to convince him he was wrong in his actions by refusing to remove the T-shirt because the mall "was like a private house and that I was acting poorly.

"I told them the analogy was not good and I was then hauled off to night court where I was arraigned after pleading not guilty and released on my own recognizance," Downs told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Downs is the director of the Albany Office of the state Commission on Judicial Conduct, which investigates complaints of misconduct against judges and can admonish, censure or remove judges found to have engaged in misconduct.

Calls to the Guilderland police and district attorney, Anthony Cardona and to officials at the mall were not returned for comment.

Downs is due back in court for a hearing on March 17.

He could face up to a year in prison if convicted.



Cival liberties went down the toilet a long long time ago so I'm not suprised and I think that is the disturbing part

There are other storys on this site that are similar, If you speak against the tyrants, you will pay. How big the price becomes is anyones guess.

America, what it was , looks as if it now is a part of history, it was never to become a state of government control upon the citizens, though, through recent legislation, we are now plainly under state control.

Step to far out of lines with administration, well, we probably have just seen the tip of the iceberg, of our future.

It is a shame..

yeah it's sad to see that there freedoms are slowly being taken away. i too have a feeling that it will only get worse. free speech is sure starting to go thats for sure. i thought i also heard some political cartoonist got in some trouble for something he drew. i don't have the link though.

lets just hope that it doesn't get too out of hand.

Its' the begining of the New World Order plans to take over the world. Stripping our first admendments rights to express our feelings. Now things are really going to go sour .

Land of the free, I think not, in this day in age something like this would not happen on British land or Europe as a whole.

lots of these storys popping up all over the news.

So that leads to the question, How free are the good people of America?

A fine example of simply not paying attention.

Please, conspiracy child, show us these links of which you speak.


In reality, this is something that happens all the time, but in this case, the fool was wearing a peace t-shirt. For whatever reason, when you are asked to leave private property, and do not, your are in violation of the law. The property owner then has every right to call the police and haul your sorry but into jail.

We don't know what else was on the shirt, what else this fool did to make his little statement, or how the situation may have escalated because he was uncooperative.

Your conclusion jumping is indicative of a lack of willingness to examine the entire situation from more than one vantage point.

But the Constitution does *not* give the Right to the security guards to *disregard* the Bill of Rights...He person wearing the Peace-shirt was not annoying anyone with rabid statements against the government...He wasn't trying to incite riots or endanger anyone's safety. Anyone who saw him wearing the shirt & refused to acknowledge his presence certainly would have the right to ignore him...But in the *act of surpressing* his First Amendment Right, the security guards viloated that man's Rights.

Today, security gaurds get away with it, tomorrow, the government itself will get away with it. This is just merely the *indications* of what's really happening in this country...The trampling of our foundations as a civilized nation.

you another member of the facist new movement ?

just asking

What fascist movement?

If it is not ultra-liberal or communistic in manner is it fascist?

Is it fascist to demand all the facts before popping off?

Where is this grand fascist conspiracy to which you refer?

I'll try and find the article where I read this part that most of the news agencies are leaving out. In one article I read though it said that he was stopping people in the mall and trying to convince them to "Give Peace a Chance" Some people complained to the security guards and that's why he was told to leave. I'm not sure I believe he was just hauled off for wearing a T-shirt but if he was then the security guards were wrong and I hope something happens to them. Like I said, I know I read this somewhere and I'll try to find it everybody.

If he actually *was* talking to various people about "giving peace a chance" & someone complained to the security guards, then at worst he may have been "disturbing the peace" & *should* leave the premesis. One little previously-unknown fact like that can change the whole situation...