Activist Cindy Sheehan Arrested at Capitol

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Heath

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I don't like Cindy Sheehan ... I can understand she lost her son but to lie and defame the character of President Bush is not right. Here goes...

WASHINGTON - Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq who reinvigorated the anti-war movement, was arrested and removed from the House gallery Tuesday night just before President Bush's State of the Union address, a police spokeswoman said.

Sheehan, who was invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. The charge was later changed to unlawful conduct, Schneider said. Both charges are misdemeanors.

Sheehan was taken in handcuffs from the Capitol to police headquarters a few blocks away. Her case was processed as Bush spoke.

Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.

Police handcuffed Sheehan and removed her from the gallery before Bush arrived. Sheehan was to be released on her own recognizance, Schneider said.

"I'm proud that Cindy's my guest tonight," Woolsey said in an interview before the speech. "She has made a difference in the debate to bring our troops home from Iraq."

Woolsey offered Sheehan a ticket to the speech — Gallery 5, seat 7, row A — earlier Tuesday while Sheehan was attending an "alternative state of the union" press conference by CODEPINK, a group pushing for an end to the Iraq war.

Sheehan, wrapped in a bright pink scarf against the cold, protested outside the White House with a handful of others before heading to the Capitol Tuesday evening. There were no cameras around, but the small band faced the executive mansion and repeatedly shouted, "You're evicted! Get out of our house!"

Sheehan was arrested in September with about 300 other anti-war activists in front of the White House after a weekend of protests against the war in Iraq. In August, she spent 26 days camped near Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he was spending a working vacation.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060201/ap_on_go_pr_wh/state_of_the_union_sheehan
 
Why? I can understand Cindy Sheehan because I am myself mother... :)

Why war for? Bush should worry about his people, not war.
 
To be quite frank, Heath, each and every person in the United States and its territories has the privilege of the First Amendment under the Constitution, so you are entitled to your opinion. With that said, it is unfortunate that she wasn't able to be there, as it is good for the president to see that he does have people that don't support him and those protesters need to be up close and personal, so that his supporters see them, too. I see it as censorship and wish her well with the pending lawsuit, which is what I would be filing if I were her. If you are a parent, you would understand. I'm not a parent, but have had loved ones in the military. Funny, I heard Bush call the Iraq situation a "war." I don't recall Congress declaring it as such and following protocol...if this is a war, then either he is wrong in the assertion, or he needs to be impeached for going around Congress for either declaring war or calling it as such.
 
You are jumping to conclusions ... Please read again.

Heath said:
Police spokeswoman Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.

Police handcuffed Sheehan and removed her from the gallery before Bush arrived. Sheehan was to be released on her own recognizance, Schneider said.
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Up until now, I have remained silent on the Cindy Sheehan issue, but I must say I agree with Heath.

Cindy Sheehan has the right to feel whatever she wants to about the war, but what she fails to realize is, HER SON VOLUNTEERED for military service. Her son knew the risks of war when he signed up. Therefore, we can assume that Cindy Sheehan also knew the risk of war, and doesn't have a pot to piss in now.

I'm sorry her son died, but she needs to get a life, and learn to deal with the choices he made.
 
Heath said:
You are jumping to conclusions ... Please read again.
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Hmmm...then she should have had it covered until the president started his speech. I presume she was sitting nearby Laura, which would get her on television.
 
pek1 said:
Hmmm...then she should have had it covered until the president started his speech. I presume she was sitting nearby Laura, which would get her on television.
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I think she was seated in the upper row and well away from Mrs. Bush
 
Oceanbreeze said:
Up until now, I have remained silent on the Cindy Sheehan issue, but I must say I agree with Heath.

Cindy Sheehan has the right to feel whatever she wants to about the war, but what she fails to realize is, HER SON VOLUNTEERED for military service. Her son knew the risks of war when he signed up. Therefore, we can assume that Cindy Sheehan also knew the risk of war, and doesn't have a pot to piss in now.

I'm sorry her son died, but she needs to get a life, and learn to deal with the choices he made.
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*nodding agreement* You has a good point.
 
Charges against Cindy were dropped.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060201/ap_on_go_co/state_of_union_sheehan


Police Apologize, Drop Charge Vs. Sheehan

WASHINGTON - Capitol Police dropped a charge of unlawful conduct against anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on Wednesday and apologized for ejecting her and a congressman's wife from President Bush's State of the Union address for wearing T-shirts with war messages.

"The officers made a good faith, but mistaken effort to enforce an old unwritten interpretation of the prohibitions about demonstrating in the Capitol," Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer said in a statement late Wednesday.

"The policy and procedures were too vague," he added. "The failure to adequately prepare the officers is mine."

The extraordinary statement came a day after police removed Sheehan and Beverly Young, wife of Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young, R-Fla., from the visitors gallery Tuesday night. Sheehan was taken away in handcuffs before Bush's arrival at the Capitol and charged with a misdemeanor, while Young left the gallery and therefore was not arrested, Gainer said.

"Neither guest should have been confronted about the expressive T-shirts," Gainer's statement said.

Gainer added that he was asking the U.S. attorney's office to drop the charge against Sheehan. The statement also said he apologized to the Youngs and "share the department's plans for avoiding this in the future."

"A similar message has been left with Mrs. Sheehan," Gainer said.

For his part, Bill Young said he was not necessarily satisfied.

"My wife was humiliated," he told reporters. He suggested that "sensitivity training" may be in order for Capitol Police.

A foreign-born American citizen who was the guest of Rep. Alcee Hastings (news, bio, voting record), D-Fla., also was taken by police from the gallery just above the House floor, Hastings said Wednesday.

The congressman met with Gainer and said he also requested a meeting with House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., about the incident.

"I'd like to find out more information," Hastings said in an interview, identifying the man only as being from Broward County in Florida. "He is a constituent of mine. I invited him proudly."

Sheehan's T-shirt alluded to the number of soldiers killed in Iraq: "2245 Dead. How many more?" Capitol Police charged her with a misdemeanor for violating the District of Columbia's code against unlawful or disruptive conduct on any part of the Capitol grounds, a law enforcement official said. She was released from custody and flew home Wednesday to Los Angeles.

Young's shirt had just the opposite message: "Support the Troops — Defending Our Freedom."

The two women appeared to have offended tradition if not the law, according to several law enforcement and congressional officials. By custom, the annual address is to be a dignified affair in which the president reports on the state of the nation. Guests in the gallery who wear shirts deemed political in nature have, in past years, been asked to change or cover them up.

Rules dealing mainly with what people can bring and telling them to refrain from reading, writing, smoking, eating, drinking, applauding or taking photographs are outlined on the back of gallery passes given to tourists every day.

However, State of the Union guests don't receive any guidelines, Hanley said. "You would assume that if you were coming to an event like the State of the Union address you would be dressed in appropriate attire," she said.
 
Too bad for the wife of Republican Congressman....

Guess what... Capitol Police Chief requested U.S. Attonery Office to drop the charges against her and Cindy Sheehan....

The Capitol's Tempest in a T-Shirt
Chief Apologizes for Ejections at State of Union

By Petula Dvorak
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 2, 2006; A01
Two T-shirts -- one black, the other heather gray -- spotted in the House gallery the night of the president's State of the Union speech caused a major ruckus on Capitol Hill.

It spilled into yesterday and came complete with impassioned political speeches, strident questions about rights being trampled, threats of lawsuits and a hat-in-hand apology from the U.S. Capitol Police chief.

The black shirt with white letters was worn by celebrated war protester Cindy Sheehan; the white letters read: "2,245 Dead. How Many More?" Beverly Young, the wife of a Republican congressman, sported a heather gray top with red, white and blue letters saying, "Support the Troops."

The wearers were hustled out of the House gallery by Capitol police who said the shirts amounted to protesting.

Late yesterday, after C.W. Bill Young (R-Fla.) had taken to the floor with an impassioned speech and his wife's T-shirt held aloft, Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer showed up at his office to apologize.

Gainer said he also would ask that charges against Sheehan -- she was arrested; Beverly Young left before it came to that -- be dropped. "It was," he said, "a good-faith mistake by officers operating under poor direction."

After a night of fingerprinting and booking and lockup, Sheehan departed the city. But Young had not, and her response as she enjoyed hugs from supporters yesterday after the apology was to call Gainer "an idiot." Witnesses said her words for him were much saltier the night before.

The drama in cotton unfolded when Sheehan, who received a spectator ticket from Rep. Lynn C. Woolsey (D-Calif.), took her seat and unzipped her jacket, revealing her antiwar message. Sheehan's son, Casey, was a soldier who was killed in Iraq in 2004.

A Capitol Police officer spotted the words, pointed to her and yelled, "Protester!" Sheehan said. "He then ran over to me, hauled me out of my seat, and roughly . . . shoved me up the stairs," she said, adding that she was handcuffed, taken away, fingerprinted and booked.

That was before the speech.

About 45 minutes into the speech, an officer asked Beverly Young to step outside, where he told her: "We consider you a protester" because of her shirt, she said.

She said she angrily challenged officers to explain what law she had violated, and they threatened arrest.

She said an officer mentioned that Sheehan was removed earlier and therefore "it was kind of only fair" that she be asked to leave, too.

"They publicly humiliated me," Young told reporters. "They insulted our troops."

When the congressman heard what had happened to his wife, he summoned Gainer to his office and called Karl Rove, the president's deputy chief of staff.

"When your wife is insulted and embarrassed, you do tend to get a little offended," Young said yesterday, explaining his upbraiding of Gainer that night and his fervent speech on the House floor yesterday morning, when he waved the shirt and bellowed about his wife's ejection: "Shame! Shame!"

Young said he wouldn't be so mad if it were just Sheehan. "I totally disagree with everything she stands for," he said. But by removing his wife, Gainer's officers clearly "acted precipitously," Young said.

Attorneys on Sheehan's side and attorneys for Young pored over case law yesterday, trying to find precedent for the ejection.

Gainer's office didn't respond to inquiries until after 5 p.m., when he walked into Young's office and apologized.

"We've asked the U.S. attorney's office to drop the charge against Sheehan," Gainer said later. "Our interactions both with her and Beverly Young were inappropriate."

He said he will clarify rules about disruption to remind officers that "simply having a T-shirt on" does not constitute lawbreaking.

After the mea culpa, Beverly Young, in her T-shirt again, was not forgiving, calling Gainer "an idiot" who should be replaced.

Her husband said he doesn't want Gainer fired, but when asked if he might take legal action, he said, "I'm taking it one step at a time."

Staff writer Charles Babington contributed to this report
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I stopped paying attention to Cindy after the Katrina disater. When katrina hit, cindy was getting upset because the news was more focused on the hurricane than on her.
 
Reiko said:
I stopped paying attention to Cindy after the Katrina disater. When katrina hit, cindy was getting upset because the news was more focused on the hurricane than on her.
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I really never paid attention to her for the simple fact that as I stated above. She knew the risks when her son signed up for duty. Since he volunteered for the job, she really has no reason to complain about the war. He was an adult responsible for his own choices, and she has to live with that.
 
"No reason to complain about the war."
Dang, is this The Twilight Zone???
Monkeyboy Bush LIED to drag us into the war, don't forget.
If Cindy's son was sent under deliberate deception, that makes Monkeyboy a murderer.
Impeach that scum.
 
Beowulf said:
"No reason to complain about the war."
Dang, is this The Twilight Zone???
Monkeyboy Bush LIED to drag us into the war, don't forget.
If Cindy's son was sent under deliberate deception, that makes Monkeyboy a murderer.
Impeach that scum.
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No, she doesn't have the right, Beowulf. As I stated before, her son was of age, and knew what he was doing when he signed up for the military. If he was such a peace advocate, he shouldn't have gone into the military knowing there was a chance he would be called to go to war. If she was such a peace advocate, she would have also discouraged her son from signing up. Basically, he signed up for the duty, so she has to live with the decisions he made.

Personally, I think she is whining and bitching at this point. I heard something awhile back that she was annoyed that Hurricane Katrina and it's aftermath was getting more press than she was. :sure:

Gimme a break. Her fifteen minutes of fame is way past over. Time for her to move on.
 
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