Man questioned by Secret Service, fined for throwing flag
WRIGHTSTOWN - Among the 50 or 60 demonstrators lining Broadway Street during the short visit Friday by Vice President Dick Cheney was a small group of young, highly vocal, anti-war protesters.
"I feel Cheney has trampled every right this country has," he said. "So I figured he might as well trample the flag. It was symbolic."
Before he knew it, he’d been grabbed by two men in plainclothes, his arms pinned behind him. He was marched across the street and taken inside the manufacturing plant where Cheney had just finished speaking.
Two men who identified themselves as Secret Service agents came in. They questioned him extensively. They asked about his travels. They asked why he was protesting. They asked about his political beliefs, which he was happy to share with them. He told them Bush and Cheney should be impeached and then imprisoned for war crimes.
They took four Polaroid photographs of him. There was some discussion of a federal charge, because he threw something at the vice president. But because he cooperated and because he did not resist, they let it go. It's on record, though. If something similar were to happen again, he was told, he could be prosecuted in federal court.
In the end, he was given two municipal citations, one for disorderly conduct, the other for "throwing or shooting a missile or projectile." He intends to pay the fines, which will total about $400. He's embarrassed by the second charge.
I guess he should have been in the "free speech zone".
(thanks sheebur)