There’s been a huge amount of phony posturing by some people – Tim Robbins, Susan Sarandon, the Dixie Chicks, et al. – about how their free speech has been trampled by robust criticism and even boycotts. That’s hooey. The government hasn’t touched them; and, of course, shouldn’t. But it’s perfectly legit for other citizens to speak out, boycott, blog, and so on. But in yesterday’s New York Times, there really was something that troubled me. Last October, an aging peacenik hippy protested president Bush’s visit to South Carolina, and was arrested for trespassing by holding his sign too close to the president. The charges were then dropped. Here’s the gist of what happened next:
[L]ast month, the local United States attorney, J. Strom Thurmond Jr., brought federal charges against Mr. Bursey under a seldom-used statute that allows the Secret Service to restrict access to areas the president is visiting. He faces six months in jail and a $5,000 fine… A spokeswoman for the airport said officials there had established a protest area on the verge of a highway, a good half mile from the hangar where the president would be speaking… The police in Charleston and Greenville had been accommodating, [Mr. Bursey] said, when he had asked to avoid the protest zones, which he described as being “out there behind the coliseum by the Dumpsters.” It did not work this time. “We attempted to dialogue for a while, them telling me to go to the free-speech zone, me saying I was in it: the United States of America,” Mr. Bursey said. Finally, he said, an airport policeman told him he had to put down his sign (“No War for Oil”) or leave. “‘You mean, it’s the content of my sign?’ I asked him,” Mr. Bursey said. “He said, ‘Yes, sir, it’s the content of your sign.'” Mr. Bursey kept the sign and was arrested.
Now I can’t vouch for every detail of this case, but there’s clearly a trend going on that strikes me as truly chilling of free speech. These distant “protest zones” are phony attempts to insulate politicians from the rowdiness of their fellow citizens. Half a mile away? Who does W think he is? A monarch? I heard complaints of this kind throughout the campaigns in 2000 and 2002. This one looks legit. Those of us who rightly debunk phony charges of First Amendment violations need to be all the more vigilant when real ones emerge.
The Dish 