Andrew Wimmer was handcuffed and taken to jail on January 22, 2003 because he refused to protest in a ""designated protest zone"" that was out of sight of the President as well as local and national TV news cameras.
"To be put in jail for showing up peacefully to display a sign and express an opinion is contrary to what free speech is all about." - Denise Lieberman, Legal Director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri
About 150 protesters - Andrew Wimmer being one of them - tried to express their opposition to a war with Iraq during President Bush's Jan. 22 visit to St. Louis, MO. They were originally stationed at Delor and Gustine in south St. Louis so that President Bush would pass by them.
However, they did not see the President, nor did the President see them. Before the president arrived the local police, instructed by the President's Secret Service, forced them to move to a ""designated protest zone"" that was three blocks away and down an embankment.
Wimmer and other protesters believed that being pushed into a park several blocks away was no different than being moved to the north of the city or 100 miles away, as in either case the effect of burying the demonstrators' message was the same. They refused to be silenced and pushed aside. For Wimmer's failure to move to the protest zone, he was arrested and is now facing a future court date.
A woman, armed with a ""We Love You Bush"" sign showed up at the same corner shortly after Wimmer's arrest. Wimmer asked the police if they were going to arrest her if she didn't move and they said, ""no."" The police also allegedly blocked the national press camera crews and an AP reporter from approaching the protest zone to do reporting.
"We're litigating the whole concept of 'designated protest zones.' This has become a widespread practice and an abuse all over the nation, not just in St. Louis," said Denise Lieberman, legal director at the ACLU of Eastern Missouri.
"This practice is occurring with the presidential travel and that of other members of the Bush administration. It's a practice that clearly violates the First Amendment," Lieberman said. "To be put in jail for showing up peacefully to display a sign and express an opinion is contrary to what free speech is all about."
Return to the Stories on Restriction on Free Speech
Sources:
- ACLU, "Freedom Under Fire: Dissent in Post-9/11 America," ACLU report, May 2003.
- Don Corrigan, ""Behind the Bush - Secret Service forces protesters and journalists away from presidential motorcade. Lawsuits coming,"" The St. Louis Journalism Review, February 2003.
Related Stories:
- ""Congressmen ask Ashcroft to drop Bursey prosecution,"" Associated Press¸ May 27, 2003.
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