SPFNB

Anti-war protester arrested in Clearwater for carrying sign that looks a lot like

THIS ONE

What? No citizen's arrest?

On Saturday, October 22, a peaceful demonstration at the corner of Curlew Road and U.S. 19 in Clearwater attracted no less than five squad cars due to the presence of a sign deemed "obscene" by some anonymous motorist that phoned in a complaint. In yet another display of spectacularly heavy-handed police tactics, the protester was arrested instead of merely being asked to put down his sign.

About midway through the 2 hour peace cornering, two Pinellas County sheriffs approached a 16 year old protester, asked for his ID and told him to put down his sign. While he put down his sign when asked, he questioned why he was being asked to produce ID. He was then informed that it was because he was being arrested and he was removed to a waiting squad car.

Immediately, the rest of the peace cornering group converged several feet from the squad car with both conventional and video cameras. Police were asked to explain what the protester was being charged with, a subject upon which the arresting officers were curiously mute. Shortly afterwards, several other squad cars arrived and at one point, no less than six cops were seen clustered around a pamphlet of some sort in an apparent attempt to locate a crime that would be sufficiently heinous to warrant an arrest. (The final consensus, it seems, was "public obscenity" and blocking a public road, although the protester in question was standing on the public easement next to the roadway with many other protesters who were not arrested.)

At one point, the cops were inexplicably joined by a member of the Department of Transportation (perhaps they needed an outside consultant?) who remained at the site of the arrest until the protest disbanded almost an hour later.

Although the protester's mother was present and had requested both that a supervisor be summoned and that she be informed as to the charges, her questions were never answered. A supervisor eventually arrived, but several of the other cops prevented her from speaking to him. At one point, another protester who was leaning on a sign turned around to speak with someone behind her and the sign brushed against the cop who informed her that if she "hit him with that sign again" she would be arrested.

It is interesting, also, to note the rationale given by the anonymous motorist for removal of the sign (as communicated to the group by the Sheriff's Department)...something about having to explain it to his or her eight-year old daughter.

One wonders how this motorist explains children with limbs blown off by U.S. cluster bombs. One wonders how he might explain the concept of pre-emptive war and of the torture and indefinite detentions of people who may or may not be terrorists. One wonders how he might explain how U.S. sanctions punish the leader of a country by slowly starving the innocent civilians who have the audacity to live in a place we have decided that we don't like.

Oh yeah...that's right...he probably doesn't.

War is obscene. Torture is obscene. Stealing people's resources is obscene. Poisoning the earth for millions of years with depleted uranium weapons is obscene. Spending billions of dollars to promote death, while there is poverty, homelessness, disease and despair aplenty in your own hometown is obscene. These are far greater obscenities than a simple four-letter word, and yet the perpetrators of those crimes are not only allowed their freedom, they are supported in their profiteering by law enforcement officials all over the country who must scour pamphlets and call for reinforcements in order to find something, anything, that will trump the Constitution and stifle dissent.

Several hours after his arrest, the protester was released after being booked at the local juvenile facility. There were no additional arrests, and the struggle for justice will continue...

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