Dissed and Dismissed
In July, as President Bush's campaign bus pulled toward a local elementary school for a visit, six young men took position on a grassy berm by the side of the road and stripped down to thongs, then piled atop one another in what they later said was an imitation of an Abu Ghraib photo.
You might not have guessed that at the time. The township where this happened has 35 police officers, who spend most of their shift handing out speeding tickets and writing up reports of shoplifters at Wal-Mart. The group on duty that day, many of them young women in their 20s, were out on security detail on what was probably the biggest assignment of their lives. There were pro-Bush signs along the road and anti-Bush signs (some of the latter carried by my co-workers), and a lot of Amish families out to just see what all the hubub was about.
Then suddenly this group of young men begins to strip and pile up, in what might be a melee or a mass orgy or who knows what. The local cops decided it was a "Disturbance," and cuffed them and sent them off to the district justice to be arraigned. They all were released on bail later that day.
Today, the county DA correctly decided there was no basis to the charges, and he dropped them.
“While this office appreciates the position of those who were disturbed by the manner in which these individuals chose to protest, the District Attorney must follow and uphold the laws of Pennsylvania and of this nation," he said. "Any attempt to pursue a criminal prosecution under the current legal standards imposed by our courts would no further the ends of justice, but would only serve to advance the agenda of six protesters through a very public forum."
And in fact they garnered far more attention than they would have if they had simply been left alone by the police. They've been in newspapers around the nation, and just today they were on CNN again. The group's ringleader is represented by an ACLU attorney. They've been out on bail the whole time, basking in their status as counterculture heroes and doing things like organizing an anti-Columbus Day protest at which a speaker said a bust of the explorer outside the county courthouse ought to be smashed.
“This is what America’s all about," one of their lawyers said after the charges were withdrawn. “I’m glad that even in this conservative county, the Constitution is greater than public opinion. That’s what the Constitution is for — to protect the minority opinion from being silenced by the majority."
I'm glad, too. Who isn't glad? Well, his clients, for one. The ringleader told our reporter today he is disappointed that he and his fellow protestors won't have their day in court.
"This underscores everything we've been contending since it happened," he said Friday. "We've reached a point in this country where if your views aren't appreciated, the police can just haul you off for bogus reasons and later drop the charges. That's not my idea of America."
OK, so they didn't want the charges to be dropped. They have a right to be tried for a crime. And the DA deprived them of that right.
And they're pissed.
The ringleader said the group plans to file a civil complaint against the police who arrested the group.
"We want to set a standard by which they can't do this to other people," Egolf said. "It's looking like Europe in 1938."
Yes, Europe in 1938 was where a gang of young Jews dropped trou while Hitler's motorcade rolled past, and for that they faced a $300 fine and got out on bail and then the charges were dropped. History calls that event "the Holocaust."
Really the suit they ought to file is for restraint of trade. By denying them a courthouse soapbox, the DA probably trimmed 5 minutes off their national 15 minutes and deprived them of who knows how many thousands of dollars in legal defense funds and anti-Bush lecture circuit fees.
You might not have guessed that at the time. The township where this happened has 35 police officers, who spend most of their shift handing out speeding tickets and writing up reports of shoplifters at Wal-Mart. The group on duty that day, many of them young women in their 20s, were out on security detail on what was probably the biggest assignment of their lives. There were pro-Bush signs along the road and anti-Bush signs (some of the latter carried by my co-workers), and a lot of Amish families out to just see what all the hubub was about.
Then suddenly this group of young men begins to strip and pile up, in what might be a melee or a mass orgy or who knows what. The local cops decided it was a "Disturbance," and cuffed them and sent them off to the district justice to be arraigned. They all were released on bail later that day.
Today, the county DA correctly decided there was no basis to the charges, and he dropped them.
“While this office appreciates the position of those who were disturbed by the manner in which these individuals chose to protest, the District Attorney must follow and uphold the laws of Pennsylvania and of this nation," he said. "Any attempt to pursue a criminal prosecution under the current legal standards imposed by our courts would no further the ends of justice, but would only serve to advance the agenda of six protesters through a very public forum."
And in fact they garnered far more attention than they would have if they had simply been left alone by the police. They've been in newspapers around the nation, and just today they were on CNN again. The group's ringleader is represented by an ACLU attorney. They've been out on bail the whole time, basking in their status as counterculture heroes and doing things like organizing an anti-Columbus Day protest at which a speaker said a bust of the explorer outside the county courthouse ought to be smashed.
“This is what America’s all about," one of their lawyers said after the charges were withdrawn. “I’m glad that even in this conservative county, the Constitution is greater than public opinion. That’s what the Constitution is for — to protect the minority opinion from being silenced by the majority."
I'm glad, too. Who isn't glad? Well, his clients, for one. The ringleader told our reporter today he is disappointed that he and his fellow protestors won't have their day in court.
"This underscores everything we've been contending since it happened," he said Friday. "We've reached a point in this country where if your views aren't appreciated, the police can just haul you off for bogus reasons and later drop the charges. That's not my idea of America."
OK, so they didn't want the charges to be dropped. They have a right to be tried for a crime. And the DA deprived them of that right.
And they're pissed.
The ringleader said the group plans to file a civil complaint against the police who arrested the group.
"We want to set a standard by which they can't do this to other people," Egolf said. "It's looking like Europe in 1938."
Yes, Europe in 1938 was where a gang of young Jews dropped trou while Hitler's motorcade rolled past, and for that they faced a $300 fine and got out on bail and then the charges were dropped. History calls that event "the Holocaust."
Really the suit they ought to file is for restraint of trade. By denying them a courthouse soapbox, the DA probably trimmed 5 minutes off their national 15 minutes and deprived them of who knows how many thousands of dollars in legal defense funds and anti-Bush lecture circuit fees.
